After considering the final assessment report and supporting The delegate’s statement of reasons acknowledged gaps in information

ANAO Report No.3 2015–16 Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Permits and Approvals 74 conditions that manage the risks to the Marine Park and can be enforced by GBRMPA. In addition, permit holders that can vary from individuals to multi- national corporations must be clearly informed of the activities allowed under, and obligations imposed by, their permits.

4.14 While GBRMP Regulations specify a range of required inclusions in

Marine Park permits such as, the identity of the permit holder, and the dates the permit was granted and expires, they provide GBRMPA with considerable discretion as to the type, form and content of permit conditions. The conditions incorporated in GBRMP permits have been established in the context of laws and regulations that apply to other users of the Marine Park—including the laws of Queensland and general prohibitions contained in the GBRMP legislation— which have been established as standard permit conditions.

4.15 As was the case for permit application assessments, GBRMPA has

established a suite of permit templates for routine permit types such as vessel-based tourism and research that require minimal tailoring to meet the requirements for each permit. Permit conditions are more extensively tailored or customised to meet the requirements for non-routine permits. The types of conditions commonly found in Marine Park permits are summarised in Table 4.1 on the following page.

4.16 The ANAO examined the extent to which permit conditions relevant to

the circumstances of the permitted activity had been designed to manage identified risks in the sample of permits it examined. 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.