Landscape Administration Fund

399 Dr CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (3 February 2021). In relation to the Landscapes Administration Fund:

(a) Are each of the regional landscapes boards responsible for all of the funds they have collected from councils?

(b) In what circumstances will money held in the Landscapes Administration Fund (or the accounts of individual regional landscapes boards) be allocated other than through the decisions of regional landscapes boards?

(c) Who makes these decisions, upon what criteria and where will the reasons for making each such decision reported?

(d) Do the allocations on page 173 of Budget Paper No. 4, Vol. 2 for the Landscapes Administration Fund include any component for reimbursing the costs incurred by councils incurred in collecting landscapes levies in their respective council areas? If not, where in the 2020 budget papers are these payments represented?

(e) Will the government reimburse the full costs incurred by councils in collecting the landscapes levy, or will some of this cost be left to ratepayers to fund?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water): I can advise:

(a) The landscape boards are responsible for the funds that they collect from councils. The contributions made by constituent councils as part of any levy imposed by a landscape board is paid directly to the Landscape Administration Fund and then transferred to the relevant board accounts.

(b) The Landscape South Australia Act 2019(the act) provides me as the relevant minister with the authority to apply any part of the Landscape Administration Fund for a range of purposes including, among other things, making payments to regional landscape boards or for any other purposes to further the objects of the act or to support the operation or administration of the act. The regional landscape boards determine how funding from the Landscape Administration Fund is to be spent through the development of their annual business plans.

(c) The act provides me as the relevant minister with the authority to approve any deductions made from the Landscape Administration Fund prior to disbursements of funds to the landscape boards after consultation with the Treasurer. The only currently approved deduction from the fund is associated with water planning and management charges which are authorised by the Treasurer in accordance with section 89 (2) of the act.

(d) The budget papers do not include any component for reimbursing the costs incurred by councils in the collection of the landscape levies. Those payments are the responsibility of the landscape boards. The costs associated with the levy collection process are identified in the landscape board business plans which do not form part of the budget papers.

(e) The landscape boards are responsible for managing council collection costs and are liable to pay each constituent council an amount determined in accordance with regulations. Section 70 of the act and associated regulation 14 of the Landscape South Australia (General) Regulations 2020make provisions for landscape boards to reimburse councils for costs incurred in complying with the above requirements.