Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Project Applications) Regulation 2007
Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes: I support Ms Sylvia Hale’s motion to disallow the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Project Applications) Regulation 2007. My reason for doing so is that Kiama Municipal Council, which looked into this matter in great depth, approached a number of members. I will not use the same arguments that were used by the Greens but I make mention of the fact that Gerroa Community Association and all those associations concerned about the environment in the local area have written to all members of the Legislative Council stating that a resolution had been sent to the Local Government Association of New South Wales asking us to support the approach by Kiama Municipal Council and by its general manager. I believe that what they said is legitimate and that we, as members, should support them.
Members might be aware that the application involved the removal of vegetation in an area mapped out as an area of high conservation value under council’s local environmental plan 1996—which is a significant statement. We must take local council’s word for it that this been done properly. During its original submission in respect of the application council raised a number of concerns that included advice that council did not believe the environmental assessment adequately analysed the need for the Gerroa sand resource. The subsequent approval of the application triggered a response from council to the Director General for Planning, expressing disappointment that the application had been approved without due regard to council’s comment in respect of the analysis of the Gerroa sand resource.
Prior to council’s meeting on 20 November 2007, advice was received by council that amendments were being made to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000, which would have the effect of increasing the opportunities for the Minister of Planning to override planning instruments and, therefore, interfere with the appeals process brought by Gerroa Environmental Protection Society against the Minister’s decision. Council unanimously made a number of recommendations. I will not read all of council’s unanimous recommendations, but I make the point that it reaffirms its objection to the succession of amendments to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, and it confirms that the expansion of the Gerroa sand quarry, recently approved by the Minister under the major project legislation, would have been prohibited under the area of high conservation value provisions in the Kiama local environmental plan 1996.
The Gerroa Community Association stated clearly that Gerroa sand quarry is located behind Seven Mile Beach in an area of significant biological value. The forests, which will be removed to quarry the sand, are designated in the Kiama local environmental plan as being forests of high conservation value. They are listed as significant native vegetation in the Illawarra regional strategy and contain at least two endangered ecological communities. This process may impact on adjoining endangered ecological communities that are protected under the Threatened Species Conservation Act. I respond to council’s plea and to the plea of Gerroa Community Association by stating that we uphold the significance of the two endangered ecological communities and this area of land, which is designated as land with a high conservation value.
The broader Seven Mile Beach area contains the State’s largest coastal freshwater wetlands, which together with the zones are the habitat for unique vegetation, six endangered ecological communities and a number of endangered species. This quarry will impact on those communities. Very little of this kind of coastal wetland and sand dunes remains. Most of the areas north of Sydney have already been mined, are in the process of being mined, or have been given mining approval. As was mentioned earlier, over the past 30 years only 80 hectares of this coastal forest have been cleared by Gerroa sand quarry, but this project will result in the loss of an additional 3½ hectares. Gerroa sand quarry is only a small sand resource but it is one of the few remaining major resources of its kind. All who love the Gerroa community and the South Coast, and those within the Kiama Municipal Council area, do not want to see that changed. I support this disallowance motion.