Officials will study Govt’s proposals

Press, 24 June 1985, Page 2

Officials will study Govt’s proposals

By OLIVER RIDDELL Twelve aspects of the proposed sweeping changes in environmental administration will be considered by an officials committee set up by the Government last week.

This was announced by the Under-Secretary for the Environment, Mr Woollaston, at the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society’s annual meeting. He said the officials committee would be convened by the State Services Commission to report to the Cabinet policy committee.

It would consist of representatives and the commission itself, the Treasury, Lands and Survey Department, Forest Service, Commission for the Environment, Ministry of Works and Development, and Internal Affairs, D.5.1.R., Agriculture and Fisheries, Transport, Trade and Industry, and Prime Minister’s departments. Mr Woollaston said the officials committee had been directed to prepare reports on: The native forests hold by the Forest Service; the land development andsettlement

functions of the Lands and Survey Department; the Crown land management functions of Lands and Survey. The surveying and mapping functions of Lands and Survey; the town and country planning functions of the Ministry of Works and Development; the water and soil functions of the Ministry; the relevant research functions of the proposed nature conservancy; the Wildlife Service of the Internal Affairs Department. The Historic Places Trust serviced by Internal Affairs; the “control” function as proposed for the new Ministry for the Environment; legislative provisions to bind official agencies to the environmental policies of the Government; and other related functions to the new environmental administrative structure proposed to the Government by the working party after the March Forum.

Mr Woollaston said the officials committee would also report on the environmental advisory councils’ desire to support the structures proposed. It would also provide financial and management assessments of the structures finally approved by the Government, he said.