Land Act 1994

This section applies in relation to the chief executive deciding a conversion application.

The chief executive must consider the following in deciding whether or not to offer to convert a lease, the conditions on which the offer is made and, if the offer is for a lease, its imposed conditions—

whether part of the lease land needs to be set apart and declared as State forest under the Forestry Act 1959;

whether part of the lease land is better suited for long-term forest management for the production of indigenous timbers of commercial value than for all other forms of primary production;

whether the public interest could be adversely affected, other than about an issue mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b), if the lease were converted;

whether part of the lease land is needed for environmental or nature conservation purposes;

the condition of the lease land;

the extent to which the lease land suffers from, or is at risk of, land degradation;

whether the lessee has complied with, or to what extent the lessee has complied with, the conditions of the lease and with any land management agreement for the lease;

whether part of the lease land is on an island or its location, topography, geology, accessibility, heritage importance, aesthetic appeal or like issues make it special;

whether part of the lease land is needed for a public purpose;

the most appropriate form of tenure for the lease land;

the lessee’s record of compliance with this Act;

the natural environmental values of the lease land.

Subsection (2) does not apply if the conversion application relates to a lease for development purposes and the lease states that conversion of the lease will be considered on compliance with the conditions stated in the lease.

Also, subsection (2)(d) applies only if the NCA department has given the chief executive—

a notice stating the environmental or nature conservation purposes for which the part of the lease land is required; and

either—

a map showing the required particulars for a map of the part; or

a description of the boundary of the part by reference to the prescribed datum.

To remove any doubt, it is declared that, to the extent the lease land is in an urban area, the chief executive need not consider any issue that is not relevant to an urban environment.Example of an issue not relevant to an urban environment—whether part of the lease land should be set apart and declared as State forest

In considering the natural environmental values of the lease land, the matters to which the chief executive must have regard include any advice about the values the chief executive receives from the NCA department.

For subsection (2)(j), section 16 applies, with necessary changes, as if a reference in the section to an allocation were a reference to a decision mentioned in subsection (2).

In this section—prescribed datum means the geodetic reference framework prescribed under the Survey and Mapping Infrastructure Act 2003, section 6(4).required particulars, for a map of a part of lease land, means each of the following—

the boundary of the area or part on an image base;

5 or more points visible in the image base that correspond to identifiable fixed features;

coordinates for each point defined by reference to the prescribed datum;

a description of the feature that each point represents.