AGY-1670 | Lord Howe Island Board

Full description

The Lord Howe Island Board was established on 23 April 1954 by the Lord Howe Island Act, 1953 (Act No.39, 1953). (1) The Act reconstituted the Lord Howe Island Board of Control appointed in 1913, and administrative responsibility for the new Board moved from the Chief Secretary’s Department to the Department of Lands.

Part II of the Act established a Board of five members appointed by the Governor. The Board’s responsibilities include the affairs, trade, care, control and management of Lord Howe Island. The Board’s powers, authorities, duties and functions, are set out in Part III of the Act. They include all local government functions in addition to the protection and conservation of fisheries, flora and fauna, regulating the tourist trade, dealings in leases, administering the Island’s health services, generating electricity, managing all Crown Land, and acting as the Local Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Section 7 of the Act established an Islander Committee consisting of four persons elected every three years by Islanders over the age of twenty-one years who are the holders of any tenure of land or who have been in residence for at least one year. Pursuant to Section 14 of the Act, the Committee can make recommendations to the Board on any matters relating to the Island. The Committee can exercise or perform on behalf of the Board any power, authority, duty or function authorised by the Board. The purpose of this provision ‘is to give the widest possible scope for the Island people to share the responsibility of administration on behalf of the Board.’ (2)

The Committee was abolished in 1981 by the Lord Howe Island (Amendment) Act 1981 (Act No.50, 1981) with Islander’s gaining representation on the Lord Howe Island Board. (3) The reconstituted Board now consisted of three elected Islanders, one person appointed by the Minister, (who was previously appointed by the Governor) and one other person.

The Lord Howe Island (Amendment) Act 1981 constituted the Island as a region for the purposes of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, 1979, and to provide for the management of the Lord Howe Island Permanent Park Reserve.

In September 1983 Ministerial responsibility for the Lord Howe Island Board was re-allocated from the Minister for Lands to the Premier. (4) Responsibility for the Board moved to the Minister for Local Government on 5 September 1986 (5) and then to the Minister for the Environment on 15 April 1988. (6) On 2 April 2007 responsibility moved jointly to the Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Water and the Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water (Environment). (7) When the portfolio was split on 27 February 2008 responsibility passed to the Minister for Climate Change and the Environment. (8). The Office of Environment and Heritage was established as a separate office within the Department of Premier and Cabinet in 2011. (9) Responsibility then passed to the Minister for the Environment in 2014 when the Office of Environment and Heritage within the Department of Premier and Cabinet was transferred from that Department to the Office of Environment and Heritage, which was established as a Public Service agency. (10) On 1 July 2019, the Office of Environment and Heritage was abolished and transferred to the Department of Planning, Industry and the Environment with the Lord Howe Island Board reporting to the Minister for Energy and Environment. (11) From 21 December 2021 the Minister for Environment and Heritage had responsibility for the Lord Howe Island Board. (12)

Endnotes
1. Assent, NSW Government Gazette No.234, 24 December 1953, p.4272; commenced NSW Government Gazette No.71, 23 April 1954, p.1213.
2. Lord Howe Island Bill, 1953 (26 Nov), pp. 2259-2260.
3. Proclaimed on 29 May 1981, NSW Government Gazette, 1981, p.2905.
4. Concise Guide to the State Archives, (LO): Lord Howe Island Board.
5. NSW Government Gazette No.139, 5 September 1986, p.4291.
6. NSW Government Gazette No.73, 15 April 1988, pp.2270-71.
7. NSW Government Gazette No.47, 2 April 2007, p.2095.
8. NSW Government Gazette No.23, 27 February 2008, p.1238.
9. Public Sector Employment and Management (Departments) Order 2011, clause 8.
10. Administrative Arrangements Order 2014, clause 9.
11. Administrative Arrangements (Administrative Changes—Public Service Agencies) Order 2019, clause 12.
12. Administrative Arrangements (Second Perrottet Ministry - Allocation of Acts and Agencies) Order 2021 (2021 No 789), Sch.1 cl.40; NSW Legislation Website, 21 December 2021.