Iemma's NSW Government changes planning legislation

The Iemma Government has passed fundamental amendments to the state's planning legislation, that will allow major developments to be approved, regardless of the adequacy of their Environment Assessment. The amendments will allow greenhouse intensive developments such as coal mines to be approved without any assessment of their impacts through climate change.

The changes to NSW planning legislation, passed by the Lower House last week and the Upper House last night, will:

• allow the Planning Minister to approve Major Projects, even if the Environmental Assessment for a project does not meet Environmental Assessment Requirements.
  
• apply retrospectively to developments currently being assessed. The legislation will therefore nullify the outcome of the current case in the Land and Environment Court which seeks to force assessment of the climate change impacts of the proposed Anvil Hill coal mine in the Hunter Valley.
  

Previously, compliance with the Environmental Assessment Requirements was a prerequisite for a project being approved. Under the new law this will no longer be the case. The amendments merely require the Director General of the Planning Department to prepare a "statement relating to compliance with environmental assessment requirements" before a proposed development is approved. The amendments do not state that the requirements have to be met.

Rising Tide Newcastle issued the following quotes for the media: "The Iemma Government is losing all credibility on climate change. The NSW coal industry is a major global source of climate change, and is expanding rapidly. The amendments passed last night will allow new coal developments to be approved, without any assessment of the climate change impacts of the greenhouse pollution that results. These amendments are a disaster for public accountability. They are a disaster for the environment of NSW, let alone the rest of the world.

"Morris Iemma postures on climate change, but the actions of this government tell a very different story . The world's biggest coal port at Newcastle is gearing up to get twice as big, and the Iemma Government is changing the law to allow that to happen without even assessing the impacts of it. This is disgraceful."

For more info please go to www.risingtide.org.au.