Water Resources Act 2007

After preparing draft guidelines under section 13, the director‑general must prepare a notice (a consultation notice)—

containing a brief description of the draft guidelines; and

stating that copies of the draft guidelines are available for public inspection for a period (the consultation period) and at the place stated in the notice; and

inviting people to give written comments about the draft guidelines to the director-general in the consultation period.

The consultation period must be at least 60 days.

The consultation notice is a notifiable instrument.

The director-general must give additional public notice of the consultation notice.

Public notice means notice on an ACT government website or in a daily newspaper circulating in the ACT (see Legislation Act, dict, pt 1). The requirement in s (4) is in addition to the requirement for notification on the legislation register as a notifiable instrument.

The director-general must consider any written comments received in the consultation period and may revise the draft guidelines in accordance with the comments as the director-general considers appropriate.

This section does not apply to a draft amendment of the environmental flow guidelines that is to make formal changes only.