Conclusion

ERR has not effectively regulated rehabilitation bonds, meaning the state is financially exposed to significant costs for site rehabilitation. The amount ERR holds in bonds is likely to be at least $361 million short of the estimated cost of rehabilitating Victoria’s existing mines and quarries.

ERR cannot demonstrate that it ensures sites have been rehabilitated, as required, before returning the bond to operators. This includes ensuring that the state has no remaining liability.

Victoria has a long history of mineral and quarry exploration. Since the Ballarat gold rush started in 1851, Victoria has produced over 2 400 tonnes of gold. This accounts for 32 per cent of all gold mined in Australia and almost 2 per cent globally.

Victoria is also rich in other minerals, such as coal, silver, gemstones and heavy mineral sands, and in extractive resources, including rock, gravel, limestone and clay.

We have consulted with DELWP and Parks Victoria, and we considered their views when reaching our audit conclusions. As required by the Audit Act 1994, we gave a draft copy of this report, or relevant extracts, to those agencies and asked for their submissions and comments.

Responsibility for the accuracy, fairness and balance of those comments rests solely with the agency head.

Responses were received as follows:

• DELWP
• Parks Victoria

A governance framework should have the structures, systems and practices to ensure:

The extended timeframe for land acquisition makes controlling threats to grassland ecological values increasingly critical. Managing privately held land is important to ensure that grasslands do not further degrade before formal acquisition.

As noted in Part 2, DELWP has not progressed the GEWR. Therefore, this Part focuses on the WGR.

The main purpose for establishing the WGR and GEWR is to offset the losses of Natural Temperate Grasslands and Grassy Eucalypt Woodlands. The reserves will also protect other grassland-inhabiting species.

2.1 Conclusion

DELWP has not met the state’s commitment to the Australian Government to establish the WGR and GEWR by 2020.

The trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses indigenous to Victoria are key to our natural heritage. They provide habitat for many plant and animal species and form ecosystems that support land productivity and contribute to human wellbeing.

Native grasslands

Grasslands are types of native vegetation, which in Victoria include Natural Temperate Grasslands and Grassy Eucalypt Woodlands. They help the state’s ecosystem by storing carbon, improving water infiltration, reducing soil erosion, and providing habitat to animals. This supports land productivity.

Natural Temperate Grasslands and Grassy Eucalypt Woodlands used to be widespread across the Victorian Volcanic Plain, in the state’s south west.

Independent assurance report to Parliament

Ordered to be published

VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT PRINTER June 2020

PP no 132, Session 2018–20

Acronyms