14 November, 2014
Conservation groups welcome strengthened planning laws
NSW environment groups have welcomed increased penalties for developers who break planning laws and provide false and misleading information in support of a development application.
The NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 2014, which was passed by the NSW parliament yesterday, aims to:
- Create a three-tiered scale of penalties, with fines of up to $5 million for corporations;
- Upgrade the offence of providing false or misleading information in environmental impact statements; and
- Clarify that it is an offence for directors of companies related to development applicants, not just applicant themselves, to not declare political donations.[1]
“We applaud Planning Minister Goward for taking these important steps to strengthen the regulatory framework around planning breaches,” said Nature Conservation Council CEO Kate Smolski.
“We recognise, however, that increasing penalties will not deter dodgy developers from breaking the law if government agencies do not have the resources to monitor compliance and prosecute breaches.
“This was one of the key messages coming out of the Chief Scientist’s recent report on the coal seam gas industry. Minister Goward must also defend the public’s right to seek remedy for a breach of planning law in the Land and Environment Court.”
Jeff Angel, Executive Director of the Total Environment Centre, said that new provisions relating to false and misleading information were an important step towards addressing community concerns about the quality and accuracy of information provided by environmental consultants.
“The community is always cautious when information is being provided by experts paid for by developers, and rightly so,” Mr Angel said.
“We need a system that guarantees information provided to decision makers is accurate and unbiased.”
The groups also welcomed proposals for a new online portal that would make planning information more accessible to the public.
“The new online portal should allow the public to register for updates when new information is published on the website,” said Mr Angel.
[1] www.planning.nsw.gov.au/NewsCentre/LatestNews/TabId/775/ArtMID/1658/ArticleID/243/New-penalties-for-planning-breaches-to-be-toughest-in-Australia.aspx
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