As part of each permit assessment, GBRMPA commonly prepares a risk

ANAO Report No.3 2015–16 Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Permits and Approvals 62 people intentionalaccidental damage from permit holders’ staff and tourists andor equipment; • eight assessments that did not include risks related to the impacts on other Marine Park users for issues such as aircraft noise, location overcrowdingoveruse or privacy; and • one research assessment to locate dumped munitions from World War II that did not consider the risks to the reef or to the divers involved should the cartridges discharge their contents. Comparison of permit application risk assessments with other risk information

3.22 As noted earlier, the permit application risk assessments prepared by

GBRMPA indicate that most risks to the Marine Park can be effectively managed through existing controls—primarily through permit conditions. Those permit application risk assessments, based on templates, generally reflect GBRMPA’s consideration of risks as at March 2012—over three years ago. However, more recent risk information gathered by GBRMPA in a permit risk assessment workshop in September 2014 indicates that existing controls are generally insufficient to detect non-compliance with permit conditions see Chapter 5 for more information on this matter. In light of the workshop’s findings, it would be prudent for GBRMPA to review the risk ratings contained in permit risk assessment templates. Permit application assessment reports

3.23 The assessments of permit applications by assessment officers against

mandatory and discretionary considerations, and risk assessments where prepared, are included in the permit application assessment reports for the delegate’s consideration. In addition, the permit application assessment reports are also to contain reference to: referrals within GBRMPA andor to QPWS; native title notifications; environmental management charge payments by the applicant; and QPWS endorsement of the draft assessment where required. While some of these assessment activities have been addressed in assessment reports on all applicable occasions, other matters have been overlooked from time-to-time. In this regard, the 79 permit application assessment reports examined by the ANAO contained references to: • comments requested and received from other areas of GBRMPA on all 14 occasions where comments were sought;