The NSW Government's Crown Lands Legislation White Paper, which resulted from the Crown Lands Management Review in 2012, makes recommendations for improvements to the management of Crown land forming the Crown Estate in NSW. This includes the repeal of eight or more existing Acts and the development of new and consolidated Crown lands legislation.

The Crown Estate makes up approximately 42% of the State and Crown land, which NSW Trade & Investment (NSWT&I) manages. The Crown Estate includes Crown land held under lease, licence or permit, Crown reserves, land within Crown public roads network and unallocated Crown land. It does not include national parks or state forests.

How this will affect you

Mine projects usually interact with some element of the Crown Estate during their lifetime. While the reform is focused on increasing the benefits to the community, it may also potentially benefit businesses that seek access to, or purchase of, Crown land as a regular part of their business. This includes explorers and miners and water and power utilities.

Under the reforms, management of the Crown Estate may be streamlined. Time savings are likely to result from the removal of duplicated processes, the reduced number of government agencies that are required to be dealt with and greater consistency in the implementation policy.

It is not known whether the reforms will change the government agency that manages Crown land within mining lease footprints.

White Paper recommendations

White Paper recommendations include:

  • transferring management of Crown land, with primarily local uses and values, to local councils using the same procedures that apply to land already owned by councils. The new legislation will be consistent with, but will not duplicate, the proposed new local government and planning frameworks or the existing environmental legislation. Management of other Crown land may be transferred to other NSW Government agencies if they are best placed to manage the land
  • land assessments before Crown land can be sold, leased, dedicated or reserved, are to be abolished. The new planning framework will cover pre-sale land assessment, but with the Minister taking into account site specific relevant considerations before approving a proposed change in use
  • the introduction of streamlined processes to enable Crown landowners' consent to be given more quickly for low-impact activities consistent with the existing land use, or where the proposal is consistent with a consent process. They will also enable a development application to be made under the planning legislation, and
  • the management structure for Crown reserves will move from a reserve trust and trust manager to a reserve manager, along with the facilitation of greater involvement of local communities in consultation and advisory roles.

Other recommendations for submission include proposals for:

  • new legislation that will include the objects of preserving cultural heritage, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, on Crown land and encourage Aboriginal use and co-management of Crown land
  • broad provisions to facilitate Crown land being used for carbon sequestration activities, in addition to forestry rights
  • existing permissive occupancies to become Crown licences
  • separate commons legislation to be abolished
  • a review of the future of all travelling stock routes
  • administration of any roads in use by the general public to rest with roads authorities under the Roads Act 1993, and
  • the NSWT&I Crown Lands Division to be established as a public trading enterprise.

Next steps

Submissions to the White Paper may be made until 20 June 2014.

Reform implementation will involve a pilot with certain councils and an extensive period of engagement before new legislation is introduced.

The new legislation will not amend the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 or any native title legislation.

We would like to acknowledge the contribution of Helen Murray to this article.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.