Ms Maria Graham:

On the foreshore topic, if there is any clarification the committee requires, we will be happy to do so. I understand it is quite a technical area but it is just to give the committee the assurance that this is important. At the moment, we are running a duality of systems because of that issue, so we will be happy to take any follow-up question on board.

On the action plan, there are a couple of important points. It takes on board many of the OPR recommendations as had come out in its phase 1 report and obviously, there also will be a phase 2 report.

First, it deals with conflict of interest and the update of the code, which the OPR talks about. There are a lot of elements about systems and processes that need to be improved to give that surety around conflict of interest. There are also issues around some of the changes to the decision-making process, which would be actions 6 and 7. They relate to some of the things that will be coming in the big planning Bill such as material contraventions and people having surety that when the relevant plan is passed, they will know what it is in it and the board will be working within that. At the moment, there is a slight disconnect between the national planning framework, NPF, being there and not all development plans are aligned with it. In the future, there should be fewer grounds for material contravention and I believe that will lead to less controversy in the external environment. The other area coming in the main Bill is certainty of timelines and we mentioned the offshore sector and renewable energy. In all these sectors, we are hearing that people want certainty of timelines. It is not the length of the timeline but that if you make an application, you know what the likely time is. That will have resourcing and phasing implications. There is a mix of things that have legislative underpinning and a mix of things for the board to do, including recommendations from the OPR on the transparency of the decision-making process. A lot of what we are talking about is refreshing the board, the new regime for recruitment, the recruitment of interim and temporary people and then obviously we are doing the panel. In terms of the planning review, we have outlined in the action plan that in our view, we need to separate the decision-making of board members from the corporate governance role. We need a separate governing body looking at issues of systems, procedures, corporate governance; not into the actual decisions being made by the board but that everything around that is working appropriately. That is one of the main planks coming in the next Bill. Things in this Bill include the increase in members that allows for quorums to be set at a level and to allow for that throughput of people. There are a range of things around strengthening corporate governance. The OPR had talked in particular about having an ethics and corporate unit within what you might call the corporate spine. We are also looking at strengthening the senior management structure. That means there will be a new director of planning for marine and climate, a new post of director of legal affairs, a new role in relation to corporate governance and a new director of transformation. They will be looking after ICT and all of the transformation that will come from the OPR review. As the team at the moment is comprised of the chief officer, the head of corporate affairs and a director of planning, that will be quite an expansion in terms of that senior management structure.

The other piece is organisational resourcing, which Senator Boylan mentioned. We are talking about up to 30 more people coming in. That is before we make an assessment of what the timelines require and it is important that the finances have been provided as part of budget 2023. There is also funding coming from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in terms of the establishment of the marine and climate division within the board. We also see the need for them to consider an organisation capacity review to ensure that they are taking up efficiencies, business re-engineering and the digital agenda. The digital agenda is really important in terms of underpinning these processes, as is learning and development, and the OPR has been working on that. I think they are the main points from the action plan.