Victoria's Planning Minister Matthew Guy is investigating possible changes to planning controls on contaminated sites, while the state's Auditor-General is poised to review separately how effectively the EPA and planning authorities regulate them.
Guy has appointed a three-member committee to make recommendations on updating and clarifying planning controls and processes that apply to potentially contaminated land.
The terms of reference note that existing planning provisions "have increasingly caused difficulties for local government and been the focus of Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) cases".
The committee, established under the auspices of s151 of the Planning and Environment Act, will release an issues and options paper next month.
It has already held preliminary workshops with some stakeholders, including one last week with the remediation industry and developers.
The committee must submit its final report to the minister by October.
Fundamental issues need attention
Mark Beaufoy, environmental and planning partner with law firm DLA Piper, told CE Daily the committee's review was "long overdue", but cautioned that broader changes also warranted investigation.
"There are a number of technical planning issues that need to be resolved for local government and developers which are in the advisory committee's terms of reference," he said.
"However, there are more fundamental issues that need attention like the resourcing and role of the EPA and the currency of our environment protection legislation," he said.
NSW, Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania have all recently either updated their contaminated land laws or enacted new legislation, he said.
Beaufoy noted that Victoria's Auditor-General has scheduled a separate review of how well the EPA and planning authorities regulate contaminated sites.
The audit will focus on how effectively authorities "mitigate the potential health impacts" of contaminated sites, according to the Auditor-General's 2011-12 annual plan.
