Amendments have been proposed for two pieces of legislation of relevance for surveyors in Queensland, the Surveyors Act 2003 and the Survey and Mapping Infrastructure Act 2003.
The proposed changes are being worked on by the state’s Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing, and Regional and Rural Development, for an amendment bill for the Lands portfolio.
The amendments — for which a consultation summary document is available online (PDF) — would remove the consulting endorsement category under the Surveyors Act and update requirements for the submission of survey information under the Survey and Mapping Infrastructure Act.
According to an alert issued by the Department, the change to the Surveyors Act would “streamline the Queensland framework for registration of surveyors without significant impact on the framework and its public protection aims”.
“The consulting endorsement has been critiqued for creating additional administrative complexity for both cadastral surveyors and the Surveyors Board of Queensland (SBQ).
“The competency criteria for the consulting endorsement provide onerous documentation requirements for new registrations and career episode reporting, and inefficient overlap exists with the criteria of the foundation cadastral endorsement category.”
The other proposed amendment would “clarify the obligation for surveyors to submit surveying information under section 16 of the Survey and Mapping Infrastructure Act 2003”.
According to the Department’s alert, “The current trigger is related to the placement of a mark as a tangible indicator of the occurrence of a survey or a boundary being made identifiable on the ground”.
“Some forms of cadastral survey occur that may not always involve the placement of marks, but do provide valuable survey information, such as Preservation of Survey Infrastructure (POSI) surveys, fully compiled plans and preliminary identification surveys undertaken for large scale infrastructure projects”.
“The proposal is to clarify the trigger under the existing provision, so these situations are clearly reflected within the requirement to submit cadastral survey information”.
Feedback is being sought from Queensland’s surveying community (via email to surveying@nrmmrrd.qld.gov.au), the deadline for which is Monday, 10 November.
