South Sister St. Marys, Tasmania

South Sister Legal

sos appeals minister's decision

THREATENED SPECIES ACT 1995
NOTICE OF APPEAL
GROUNDS OF APPEAL

1. The Decision by the Minister is based on the statements that 'The Committee has not, however, provided an assessment of the level of risk to these species', and 'from the information available to me, I have not been able to determine whether these species are at risk, as required under Section 15 of the Act and the Guidelines'.
These statements are in error and actually contradict the guidelines specifying the CRITERIA for 'RARE'. Criteria B refers to 'species subject to stochastic risk of endangerment because of naturally small population sizes'. This criteria does establish the risk, and was specified in the Recommendation to the Minister by the Scientific Advisory Committee. The Recommendation further took into account expert knowledge, as referred to in the CAVEAT FOR SPECIFIC TAXONOMIC GROUPS within the GUIDELINES in respect of non-vascular flora.

2. Section 21 (2) of the Act requires the Minister to have regard only to matters of 'nature conservation'. There is concern that the Minister has received advice regarding matters other than nature conservation in making his determination, although he has provided no evidence in his decision indicating any such advice. Accordingly the only information, recommendation and advice that he could have relied upon in making his determination was that provided by the Scientific Advisory Committee within the nomination process specified under the Act, which recommendation does establish the degree of risk for a non-vascular flora nominated as RARE under the Guidelines and Criteria.