Permits granted by GBRMPA allow permit holders to undertake

ANAO Report No.3 2015–16 Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Permits and Approvals 75 Table 4.1: Common conditions applying to Marine Park permits Condition Type Applicable Permits Condition Details Standard • All permits • Activities undertaken in accordance with Qld laws • Permit or certified copy must be held on sitevessel • Permit holder must inform staff and participants of relevant restrictions applying under permit, zoning plan, plans of management and Marine Park regulations Location • All permits • Can be broad such as the entire Marine Park or one of four Marine Park management areas or specific particular reefs or a set of GPS coordinates • Limitationsrestrictions in particular sensitive frequent use areas in terms of: access frequency; closures at times of the year; vessel speed limits; vesselaircraft size; and aircraft flying altitude Vessels aircraft • Tourism • Limitations on number, size, passenger capacity • Use of fit-for-purpose moorings • Barge • Vessel maintenance, harm minimisation Specified activities • Tourism • Can include swimming, snorkelling, diving, fishing, fish feeding, passenger transport, non-motorised watercraft, motorised watercraft, coral viewing, sail training, whale watching, scenic cruisesflights • Research • Harvest fisheries • Limitations on species types, species quantity, collection methods and collection locations • Moorings • Installation, maintenance, harm minimisation • Facilitiesworks structures • Installation, maintenance, harm minimisation • Application of environmental management plan • Involvement of environmental site supervisor Indemnity insurance • Tourism • Moorings • Facilitiesworks structures • Permit holders indemnify GBRMPA and the State of Queensland against loss or damage • Public liability insurance commonly 10 million Deeds bonds • Facilitiesworks structures • Reimbursement of site monitoring costs • Facilitates the: • removal of unpermittedunmaintained facilitiesstructures at GBRMPA’s discretion • remediation of sites Monitoring reporting • All permits • Varies by permit type and is examined in Chapter 6 Source: ANAO analysis of GBRMPA information. ANAO Report No.3 2015–16 Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Permits and Approvals 76 Design of permit conditions to manage risks

4.17 Permit conditions are the primary means through which risks identified

during permit application assessments are addressed or mitigated. Overall, most permit conditions have been satisfactorily designed to address many of the identified high or medium-rated risks. Nevertheless, some conditions do not sufficiently address all aspects of some risks—for example, some conditions focus on GBRMPA’s ability to take corrective action should the risks materialise, rather than on preventing the occurrence of risk events. The regular review of standard permit conditions attached to common permit types would provide GBRMPA with additional assurance that significant risks to the Marine Park are being appropriately managed. Permits to new applicants

4.18 The permissions and conditions included in permits issued to new

applicants were generally relevant to the permitted activities that were sought. Of the 26 permits to new applicants examined by the ANAO, 25 96.2 per cent contained all relevant permissions and associated conditions, although one permit did not grant access to a location requested by the applicant where activities such as those to be conducted by the applicant can occur. 81 In addition, 10 permits to new applicants contained permissions not requested by the applicants—relating to provision for ‘special charters’ 82 and the types of activities the permit holders could undertake under their permits. GBRMPA did not: • document in the permit application assessments the rationale for including permissions and related conditions that had not been requested by the applicants; and • draw applicants’ attention to, or provide the rationale for, the inclusion of permissions in permits that were not requested when informing applicants that their permits had been granted. 81 Correspondence between GBRMPA and the applicant regarding the location of the activity was evident during the permit application assessment process. However, the assessment does not document why all locations ultimately requested by the applicant were not included in the issued permit. 82 Special Charter Program conditions, which were introduced by GBRMPA for vessel and aircraft Marine Park permits from 2012, allow permit holders to transport GBRMPA personnel and others so that they can undertake Marine Park management activities or other specified activities permitted or allowed under the Zoning Plan.