Draft copy of a letter sent as an email by two Clarence Valley residents to 24 members of the Legislative Assembly, so that none of these honourable members can plead ignorance in the future if they pass this piece of environmental vandalism into law.
The letter was not sent to Liberal and Nationals members of the Upper House given it concerns a government bill originally presented to NSW Legislative Assembly by their confederates there and, therefore were thought not inclined to lend an ear to residents from affected regional areas.
Members
of the Legislative Council
Parliament
of New South Wales
Macquarie
Street
Sydney
NSW 2000
8
November 2020
ATTENTION
Mark
Banasiak MLC, Robert Borsak MLC, Abigail Boyd MLC,
Mark
Buttigieg MLC, Anthony D’Adam MLC Greg Donnelly MLC,
Cate
Faehrmann MLC, Justin Field MLC, John Graham MLC,
Courtney
Houssos MLC, Emma Hurst MLC, Rose Jackson MLC,
Mark
Latham MLC, Daniel Mookhey MLC, Tara Moriarty MLC,
Fred
Nile MLC, Mark Pearson MLC, Peter Primrose MLC,
Rod
Roberts MLC, Adam Searle MLC, Walt Secord MLC,
Penny
Sharpe MLC, David Shoebridge MLC, Mick Veitch MLC.
Dear
Members,
Re:
Local Land Services Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2020
SUMMARY:
Passing bad law does not produce good outcomes. It is not in the
public interest to extinguish state protection of the Koala from the
bulk of public and private land in New South Wales. Neither is it
advisable to extinguish on those same lands the protections afforded
to persons and native wildlife by other existing state legislation.
On
or about 10 September 2020 the media reported that the NSW
Parliamentary National Party was strongly opposed to that version of
the State Environmental Planning Policy (Koala Habitat Protection)
2019 in force on 3 September 2020.
However,
within a matter of weeks an agreement had been reached with the NSW
Parliamentary Liberal Party that this state environmental planning
policy would be amended to ensure that the policy did not impinge on
the rights of farmers “to
farm without encumbrance from new koala planning laws”.
This
was how changes to NSW koala habitat protection policy was
consistently put to the state electorate by government spokespersons
at the time.
Indeed,
State
Environmental Planning Policy (Koala Habitat Protection) 2019
was amended on 16 October 2020.
The
amended State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP):
Retains
its new commencement date of 1 March 2020;
Doesn’t
apply to - (b) land dedicated under the Forestry Act 2012 as
State forest or a flora reserve. An exemption also contained in the
previous 3 September 2020 version of this SEPP;
Only
applies to 83 named local government areas out of a total of 128
local government areas and to - (a) in the koala management area
specified in Schedule 1 opposite the local government area, or (b)
if more than 1 koala management area is specified, in each of those
koala management areas. Clauses also included in the previous
version of this SEPP;
Only
applies to land classified as core koala habitat which is over 1
hectare in size. This applied to land in the previous version of the
SEPP as well;
Doesn’t
apply to any land on which a development application has already
been lodged, as was the case under the previous version of this
SEPP;
Tightens
the definition of core koala habitat so that a higher level of proof
is required at this clause - “(a) an area of land which has
been assessed by a suitably qualified and experienced person in
accordance with the Guideline as being highly suitable koala habitat
and where koalas are recorded as being present at the time of
assessment of the land as highly suitable koala habitat”;
Made
more land exempt from its provisions - “(c) land on which
biodiversity certification has been conferred, and is in force,
under Part 8 of the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016”;
Allows
larger buildings or buildings on a different part of a post-bushfire
residential lot by repealing - “(b) the replacement dwelling
house is within the existing building footprint”.
The
NSW Government decided
to introduce
a separate
Bill which sought
to go further
than the
amended SEPP and
which the government members of state parliament misrepresented at
the time as only removing that SEPP from farmland
This
bill, Local
Land Services Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2020, seeks:
(I)
to remove all local government areas from the protection of State
Environmental Planning Policy (Koala Habitat Protection) 2019
with the exception of core koala habita in just 5 of the original 28
local government areas covered by the current version of the SEPP.
These are Ballina, Coffs Harbour City, Kempsey, Lismore and Port
Stephens;
(ii)
to extinguish State Environmental Planning Policy (Koala Habitat
Protection) 2019 on all public and private land in the state,
with the exception of land within the NSW National Parks estate,
declared wilderness areas, dedicated flora reserves, declared
heritage land, land declared to have outstanding biodiversity,
declared World Heritage properties and, certain dedicated or reserved
lots of Crown Land;
(iii)
to
establish as law clauses in
the bill which allow
the commercial logging of native trees to continue unimpeded on
private land and
which extend the life of private forestry agreements to 30 years
duration,
thereby
effectively
circumventing
a planned
government
review of the private forestry system;
(iv)
such logging on private land to be constrained only by a
private forestry plan whose conditions may be altered over time. The NSW Government has decided not to renew the NSW Forest Agreements for
the Upper North East, Lower North East and Eden regions lapsed on 4 March 2019.;
(v)
to define as “allowable
activity land”
suitable for native timber clearing as landholding which:
“(a)
is in an area of the State to which Part 5A applies, and
(b)
is or was wholly or partly in a rural land use zone and the whole or
part of which has been
rezoned
as Zone E2, Zone E3 or Zone E4, and
(c)
is used for primary production”.
(vi)
to permit clearing of native vegetation for allowable activities
specified in Schedule 5A even if there is no approval or other
authority for the clearing required by or under another Act or if it
is in contravention of a provision of another Act,
including the Environmental
Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and
Biodiversity
Conservation Act 2016;
(vii)
to
allow rural land zoned E2
(Environmental Conservation), E3
(Environmental Management) or E4 (Environmental Living) under an
environmental planning instrument to be cleared of native timber,
even if all or any sections of such land was previously protected
under provisions in Environmental
Planning and Assessment Act 1979 or
the Biodiversity
Conservation Act 2016,
provided the land owner/lessee asserts the land will be used for
primary purposes;
and
(viii)
to
allow
clearing
of native vegetation
on land to which State
Environmental Planning Policy (Vegetation in Non-Rural Areas) 2017
would
normally
apply
if
under this bill such landholding is now classified as “allowable
activity land”.
Concerns
Raised By The The
Intent And Wording Of
Local Land Services Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2020
The
major
concerns
can be found in the NSW Parliament’s Legislation Review Committee
report
of
20 October 2020, which in
itself appears to imperfectly understand the impact of logging of
native timber on private land:
“The
Bill seeks to remove several requirements for land owners to obtain
development consent under Parts 4 and 5 of the Environmental Planning
and Assessment Act 1979 (the EPA Act).
In
doing so, the Committee notes that the Bill would remove local
councils' ability to assess development applications, engage with
relevant neighbour and community stakeholders, and make
recommendations regarding the proposed development changes. It may
thereby impact on the rights of these stakeholders to participate in
such processes and be consulted about issues that may affect them.
[My
yellow highlighting]
However,
the Committee acknowledges that these changes are to streamline the
approval process of private and native forestry clearing for
landholders, who are also required to obtain separate approval from
Local Land Services. In the second reading speech, the Minister also
noted that private native forestry is a low-impact activity occurring
rarely on agricultural land and is not a permanent land use change.
Under these circumstances, the Committee makes no further comment.”
It
is a significant concern that the Local Land Services Amendment
(Miscellaneous) Bill 2020 will deprive local councils, ratepayers
and residents of the ability to sustainably manage land development
in rural and regional New South Wales.
It
is noted that the Legislative Review Committee is reporting on the
clearing of native timber aspect of the bill without commenting on
the extinguishing of State Environmental Planning Policy (Koala
Habitat Protection) 2019 on agricultural land and other land on
which private forestry agreements exist or are sought.
It
is also noted that although the Legislative Review Committee report
states that approval for land clearing is required from Local Land
Services it is not clear that the Review Committee took into
consideration the number of exemptions from its provisions are
provided to landholders under the Local Land Services Amendment
(Miscellaneous) Bill 2020.
This
raises another very significant concern because clearing of such land
when it exists within 100 -150 kilometres inland from the NSW
coastline will in all probability represent a permanent change in land
use.
Land
in this area contains the entire estimated range of koala habitat
land.
It
also contains the bulk of land identified by Forestry NSW as suitable
for logging under future private forestry agreements and all the
exisiting timber mills in the state.
The
land indentified as good logging land on the North Coast stretches
for est. 286 kms from Coffs Harbour to the NSW-Qld border and up to
100-135 kms inland.
Extent
of harvestable timber on private land and operating timber mills prior to June 2019
It
is of some concern in a region where sudden torrential rainfall can
occur to note that this map indicates that much of the harvestable
timber is on higher sloping land. Given this timber is also spread
across thousands of individual holdings this concern is amplified by
the ability of Land Services or the Environmental Protection Agency
to adequately police the level of land clearing and/or logging the
Bill before the Legislative Council appears to allow.
Prior
to the devastating bushfires of 2019-2020, the NSW
North
Coast
had a diverse array of forest types and most of the tree cover was
estimated to be between >20 to <30 metres and >30 to <40
metres in height across an est. 20,706 square kilometres,
according
to
the
NSW
Dept. of Primary Industries
(DPI).
Extent
of forest cover in north-east New South Wales prior
to 2019-2020 bushfires
Of
the estimated 6.30
million
hectares
of North
Coast forest
which was thought to be standing in 2018-19 this
is how much was impacted by fire:
Basemap
from ArcGIS Online GEEBAM v3.0 (03/02/2020) © State Government of
NSW and Department of Planning, Industry and Environment 2020
At
least half the forest canopy overall was partially or fully affected
in these fire grounds
according a NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
report.
Mapping
of bushfire affected forests and properties prior
to these bushfires
which had a ‘High’ to ‘Very High’ suitability for timber
production are located within the same est. 286 kms long
by 100-135kms wide area of north east New South Wales.
It
is of great
concern
that
both the depleted forest landscape and what might remains of
harvestable timber both occupy the same land area clearly
identified
as
koala
habitat.
Joint
EPA-Dept. of Industry Forest Science Unit predictive mapping of
remaining NSW koala habitat based on sighting records, vegetation,
soils and climate.
Koala
Habitat
Koala
habitat exists across much of North East New South Wales. It is of
varying quality and quantity.
Core
koala habitat is not consolidated. Pockets
of core
koala habitat are
frequently
scattered
amongst
non-core habitat.
Koalas
travel between these core areas – often using non-core
habitat as travel routes which supply shelter and feeding
opportunities.
In
North East New South Wales non-core habitat is also used by koala on
a permanent or semi-permanent basis.
Local
communities in the Clarence Valley, which is being removed form the
protection afforded by the current
Koala
Habitat Protection SEPP by the proposed Local
Land Services Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2020,
is
a case in point.
Take
Iluka
on the banks of the Clarence River. It
is fringed by and includes within the village area undeveloped open
forest in a mix of Crown and private land.
Here
are some of koala sighted there in the last 10 years:
Photograph
supplied by Iluka
resident Gabrielle
Barto
Photograph
of a koala
in search of a tree at Iluka supplied
Another
Lower Clarence area where koalas
are
easily found is the
village of Lawrence
and here are
koalas snapped in
2019:
Photograph
of Lawrence koala supplied
Photograph
of koala mid-canopy & circled in black supplied
Elsewhere
in the Lower Clarence in 2017:
We
respectfully ask the twenty-four
members
of the Legislative Council listed at the top of this letter to
consider the provisions of
Local
Land Services Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2020 in
light of:
the
shrinking
boundaries of the forested
landscape in
North
East
New South Wales
from Coffs
Harbour to the NSW-Qld
border;
the
potential loss
of local government control of significant
aspects of development
of forested land and the rolling impacts
that may have on koala habitat and koalas numbers; and
the
potential for local extinction of koala in the Clarence Valley
because land in this local government area was deliberately removed
from the protection afforded by the current Koala Habitat Protection
SEPP under provisions
in
Local
Land Services Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2020.
In
anticipation and appreciation of your assistance with this matter.
Yours
sincerely,
[two signatures redacted]
