The role of the Native Vegetation Panel
The Panel’s main role is to make fair and transparent decisions about applications to clear native vegetation. It operates independently from other government departments, including Local Land Services. This independence helps build community confidence in vegetation clearing decisions across NSW.
There are 2 legislative pathways that direct landholders to the Native Vegetation Panel.
Note, applications to clear native vegetation considered by the Native Vegetation Panel must not require authorisation under other legislation. Section 60O of the Local Land Services Act 2013 sets out this condition.
In rural areas
Under Part 5A, Division 6 of the Local Land Services Act 2013.
The Panel’s role within rural areas is to determine applications to clear native vegetation that may not be authorised by:
- Allowable Activities (Part 5A, Division 4 of the Local Land Services Act 2013) or
- Clearing activities under the Land Management (Native Vegetation) Code 2018 (Part 5A, Division 5 of the Local Land Services Act 2013).
In non-rural areas
Under Chapter 2 of State Environmental Planning Policy (Biodiversity and Conservation) 2021 (B&C SEPP).
The Panel’s main role in non-rural areas is to determine applications to clear native vegetation that exceed the Biodiversity Offset Scheme Threshold in section 7.4 of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016. The threshold is determined without regard to clause 7.3(4) of the Biodiversity Conservation Regulation 2017.
Structure of the Native Vegetation Panel
The Native Vegetation Panel is made up of 3 members chosen by the Minister for Agriculture and Western NSW. Together, they bring expertise in public administration, economics and ecology to ensure an objective and evidence-based assessment process.
Panel members include:
- Chairperson – expertise in planning, public administration or social assessment.
- Member – expertise in economics, agricultural economics or agricultural land production systems.
- Member – expertise in ecology or the protection and conservation of biodiversity
The Native Vegetation Panel Secretariat
The Secretariat, provided by Local Land Services, supports the Panel’s work by:
- managing applications and correspondence
- coordinating meetings and assessments
- providing professional, technical and customer-focused support.
The Secretariat is the main contact for landholders, applicants, the public and government agencies.
Current Native Vegetation Panel members
Scott Davenport has had a longstanding career in the Commonwealth and NSW public sectors in the role of policy advisor on primary industries, including forestry, fisheries, mining and agriculture.
Key focus areas have included legislative reforms related to competition policy, regional adjustment and natural resource access pricing.
Scott continues to specialise in the application of contemporary public policy and market failure principles to the development of industry and government policies and programs that deliver more sustainable natural resource management outcomes, both in Australia and overseas.
Scott’s skills and experience in public policy are complimented by extensive experience in the application of evaluation techniques that capture the priced and unpriced environmental, social and financial benefits and costs of policy reform and change.
Scott has a degree in agricultural economics and is an Executive Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government.
Travis Peake is an ecologist with over 25 years of experience working for the private sector and government in NSW.
His experience includes:
- ecological assessment and management
- vegetation survey and mapping
- biodiversity offsetting
- threatened species assessments.
His foundational experience was developed during his comprehensive vegetation survey and mapping across a rural and regional landscape, where landholder engagement and partnership was essential.
Travis leads a large national team of ecologists at a major private environmental consultancy, and regularly provides advice to NSW and Commonwealth agencies, and expert testimony to the NSW Land and Environment Court.
Travis has an honours degree in natural resources from the University of New England and is an accredited assessor for the Biodiversity Assessment Method (BAM).
Diana is a resource economist specialising in environmental assessments and regional economic development analysis in the natural resource based sectors of forestry, agriculture and mining.
She has held board positions with the NSW Rural Assistance Authority, the Murray Darling Basin Authority, Agrifutures Australia and Regional Development Australia - Riverina. She is currently a director of Australian Forest and Wood Innovation and the Australian Forest Products Association.
Diana has an honours degree in science (in Economics with Agriculture) from London University and a masters degree in environmental studies from Macquarie University. She holds a graduate diploma from the AICD, and is a past recipient of the RIRDC Rural Womens Award.
John Madden is an agricultural economist with a long history of working across regional NSW. John specialises in assessment of the viability of infrastructure projects including water developments and agricultural investments. He also has carried out a multitude of socio-economic impact assessments of programs and policies.
Over the past 25 years John has been intimately involved in a range of agricultural and natural resource management issues from native vegetation management, development of water rights, markets and pricing, and the evaluation of agricultural research and regional development initiatives.
John has worked in private consulting as well as public sector roles at CSIRO and the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal.
He has a masters in economics degree from University of New England and a degree in agricultural economics from the University of Sydney and was Associate Commissioner for Water at the Productivity Commission in 2017 and 2018.
Allison has over 20 years of experience working as an ecologist in the assessment and management of biodiversity values.
She has extensive experience working across rural NSW and is a NSW Biodiversity Assessment Method (BAM) accredited assessor. Her experience also involves extensive work on rural land, where complex dynamics often exist between retained biodiversity values and productive agricultural land use.
Allison is highly skilled in identifying, assessing, communicating and mitigating biodiversity related risks and has extensive experience working in areas of high conservation values. Allison also specialises in complex and strategic biodiversity assessments and offset programs and provides advice to a wide range of clients in regard to meeting legislative and policy requirements.
Contact the Native Vegetation Panel
For any enquiries, you can contact the Native Vegetation Panel Secretariat (Local Land Services).