Updates to the legislation and regulation

We have made minor changes to the Vegetation Management Act 1999 and reviewed the current regulation to ensure our framework continues to be effective and efficient.

Land and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2023

The Land and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2023 was passed on 23 February 2023 and provided for improvements to the Vegetation Management Act 1999. These improvements:

reduced advertising and publication costs associated with notification requirements for preparing a declaration
clarified that area categories shown on a property map of assessable vegetation have the same effect as the area categories shown on the regulated vegetation management map
corrected outdated terminology, references or errors mostly resulting from amendments to related legislation

The new act also introduced the vegetation management regional ecosystem description database (VM REDD) which lists regional ecosystems, their class, and also distinguishes grassland structure categories.

Most amendments took effect on 28 February 2023, however the provisions to establish the VM REDD commenced on 22 November 2023.

Vegetation Management Regulation 2023

In Queensland, a regulation automatically expires or 'sunsets' after 10 years unless action is taken to preserve it. We completed a sunset review on the Vegetation Management Regulation 2012 and found that the regulation is still necessary for:

allowing low ecological risk clearing under accepted development vegetation clearing codes
prescribing species related to the Forestry Act 1959
determining fees for property maps of assessable vegetation (PMAV) and the preparation of a restoration plan.

The review also found that minor improvements could also be made to the regulation without changing policy intent or significantly impacting landholders. These included:

removing all the listings of regional ecosystems as the VM REDD is now the point of truth
updating most of our accepted development vegetation clearing codes
removing requirements for applying for a PMAV—these requirements are already included in the PMAV application form.

There are no changes to fees listed under the regulation.

The new regulation commenced on 22 November 2023.

Last updated: 22 November 2023
Last reviewed: 22 November 2023