Question Without Notice No. 21 asked in the Legislative Council on 13 March 2018 by Hon Dr Steve Thomas
Parliament: 40 Session: 1
PLANNING — BUSHFIRE ATTACK LEVEL ASSESSMENTS
21. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the minister representing the Minister for Planning:
I refer to the bushfire attack level assessments being used in the state planning process.
(1) What legal advice has the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage or the Western Australian Planning Commission received from the State Solicitor's Office regarding the use of BAL assessments in the planning process?
(2) What independent legal advice has the department of planning or the Western Australian Planning Commission received regarding the use of BAL assessments in the planning process?
(3) Has any of this legal advice been made public; and, if not, why not?
(4) Will the minister table this advice or make this advice available to members; and, if not, why not?
Hon STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1)–(4) It is not considered necessary to obtain legal advice to adopt an assessment process as a decision-making tool within a planning instrument. Bushfire attack level—BAL—assessments are used in the planning process as a decision-making tool to achieve appropriate standards of health, safety and amenity. The use of a BAL assessment, based on Australian Standard 3959, ''Construction of buildings in bushfire-prone areas'', as a decision-making tool is no different from the use of assessments requested by other planning instruments to inform the planning process. Other examples include the use of noise targets in ''State Planning Policy 5.4: Road and Rail Transport Noise and Freight Considerations in Land Use Planning'' and the requirement for a site and soil evaluation—a hydro-geological assessment—required by the draft ''Government Sewerage Policy'' for onsite sewage disposal. ''Development control policy 1.1: subdivision of land — general principles'' states —
The WAPC will require sufficiently detailed assessment of the site and its immediate surrounds, in accordance with the relevant policies of the WAPC �