Forest Practices Act 1985

If the Authority is satisfied that an offence under section 17(4), (5) or (5B), 18B, 21(1), 21(3), 41(5) or 42(5) has been committed, it may, on payment of a prescribed fine by the alleged offender – cause any proceedings in respect of the alleged offence to be waived or discontinued; and if the alleged offence involved the unlawful harvesting of timber or the unlawful clearance and conversion of a threatened native vegetation community, allow the alleged offender or another person specified by the Authority to retain the whole or any part of that timber or, as the case may be, the whole or any part of the threatened native vegetation from that community.

For the purposes of this section, the Authority is to establish and maintain a fund.

Prescribed fines are to be paid into the fund and are, for the purposes of section 44(2), taken to be at the disposal of the Authority.

In addition to the purposes set out in section 44(1) for which, in accordance with section 44(2) as applied by subsection (3) of this section, prescribed fines may be disposed of by the Authority, the Authority may provide all or part of a prescribed fine to a person to recompense the person for any costs incurred in repairing or making good any damage done, or in rehabilitating or revegetating any land that has been, or on which the vegetation has been, damaged, degraded, or altered, by reason of the action, or failure to take an action, constituting all or part of the offence to which the fine relates.

In this section – prescribed fine means a fine of – such amount as the Authority determines is equal, or approximately equal, to twice the amount required to make good the damage done or any loss incurred by the commission of the relevant offence; or if the relevant offence is of a particularly serious kind or it will not be possible or practicable to make good the damage done or any loss incurred by the commission of the relevant offence, such amount as the Authority determines will constitute an appropriate sanction and deterrent in the circumstances.