It’s
time. Time that at federal, state and local government level all
elected and appointed officials, all public servants and council
administrations really accepted that global warming and climate
change is real and is happening right now.
To
turn and face what the phrase “climate
crisis”
actually means in macro and micro terms.
Everyone
needs to recognise that in 2022 science knows more that it
did in the years 1990,
2000,
2010.
What
was once thought the degree of global warming that the earth could
tolerate (5°C
above pre-industrial levels) is
now in doubt and the tipping points
causing
‘large-scale discontinuities’ are thought to have the
potential to occur at as
low as 1
and 2 °C
– some of which have already occurred.
Australia’s climate has warmed on average by 1.44 ± 0.24 °C since national records began in 1910 leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events.
With
most of this
warming occurring since the 1950s.
According
to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology
in
2020 a
number of factors caused by a warming Australia can be identified;
Oceans
around Australia are acidifying and have warmed by around 1 °C
since 1910, contributing to longer and more frequent marine
heatwaves.
Sea
levels are rising around Australia, including more frequent
extremes, that are increasing the risk of inundation and damage to
coastal infrastructure and communities.
There
has been a decline of around 16 per cent in April to October
rainfall in the southwest of Australia since 1970. Across the same
region May–July rainfall has seen the largest decrease, by around
20 per cent since 1970.
In
the southeast of Australia there has been a decline of around 12 per
cent in April to October rainfall since the late 1990s.
There
has been a decrease in streamflow at the majority of streamflow
gauges across southern Australia since 1975.
Rainfall
and streamflow have increased across parts of northern Australia
since the 1970s.
There
has been an increase in extreme fire weather, and in the length of
the fire season, across large parts of the country since the 1950s,
especially in southern Australia.
Again
according to BOM, by 2021 the national mean temperature was
0.56 °C warmer than the 1961–1990 average.
In
other words, the continent continues to warm and our weather is
changing across all seasons of the year and catastrophic weather
events are either becoming more frequent or more intense.
The
Climate Council in its UNINSURABLE
NATION: AUSTRALIA’S MOST CLIMATE-VULNERABLE PLACES,
3 May 2022 report states:
Worsening
extreme weather means increased costs of maintenance, repair and
replacement to properties – our homes, workplaces and commercial
buildings. As the risk of being affected by extreme weather events
increases, insurers will raise premiums to cover the increased cost
of claims and reinsurance.
Insurance
will become increasingly unaffordable or unavailable in large parts
of Australia due to worsening extreme weather…..
Across
Australia approximately 520,940 properties, or one in every 25, will
be ‘high risk’, having annual damage costs from extreme weather
and climate change that make them effectively uninsurable by 2030.
In addition, 9% of properties (1 in 11) will reach the ‘medium
risk’ classification by 2030, with annual damage costs that equate
to 0.2-1% of the property replacement cost. These properties are at
risk of becoming underinsured….
Climate
change affects all Australians, but some federal electorates face far
greater risks than others.
The
top 10 most at-risk federal electorates by 2030 are:
– 1.
Nicholls (Vic)
– 2.
Richmond (NSW)
– 3.
Maranoa (QLD)
– 4.
Moncrieff (QLD),
– 5.
Wright (QLD),
– 6.
Brisbane (QLD),
– 7.
Griffith (QLD),
– 8.
Indi (Vic)
– 9.
Page (NSW) and
– 10.
Hindmarsh (SA).
In
these at-risk electorates, 15% of properties (165,646) or around one
in every seven properties will be uninsurable this decade….
The
percentage of properties that will be uninsurable by 2030 in each
state and territory is 6.5% in Queensland; 3.3% in NSW; 3.2% in
South Australia; 2.6% in Victoria; 2.5% in the Northern Territory;
2.4% in Western Australia; 2% in Tasmania and 1.3% in the ACT.
People
living in the NSW Northern Rivers Region’s seven local government
areas will recognise that both of their federal electorates are
on the “Top 10 most at-risk” list.
In
the Page electorate this refers to Parts of Ballina,
Lismore, Richmond Valley, Clarence Valley, with
a combined total of 103,657 properties at levels of risk ranging from
medium to high. With 5.4% of properties at high risk to riverine
flooding, 0.4% of properties at high risk to surface water flooding
and 5.3% of properties at high risk to bushfire.
While
in the Richmond
electorate
this refers to Tweed,
Byron, Ballina,
with a combined total of 106,445 properties at levels of risk ranging
from medium to high risk. With
14% of properties being at at high risk to riverine flooding, 0.4% of
properties at high risk to surface water flooding and 5.2% of
properties at high risk to bushfire.
The
insurance, banking and real estate industries have noticed these
statistics for years and now speak in terms of coastal zone
properties in danger of becoming uninsurable, sited on land that will no
longer have a monetary value.
One
co-author of the Climate Council report has advised
home owners and buyers to have a deep understanding of the local
hazards and to acquire a property-specific report on their risk.
Three
years after the first U.N. assessment report containing predictions
of global warming and climatic impacts, the NSW Government protected
itself and local councils against being held accountable for future
deficiencies in decision making with regard to urban and
infrastructure planning by establishing a new the Local Government
Act in 1993.
This Act divested local councils of
any and all responsibility by a presumption that local government in
all things acts in good faith unless proven otherwise and, local government across the state
slowly began to apply a superficial wash of climate change mention in
policies and sometimes even planning documents.
Safe
in the knowledge, that when considering actual development
applications for both large and small land subdivision by
predominately professional incorporated property developers, councils In The Chamber, council executives, administrations and all employees
had a “Get out of Jail Free” card. Because after all it’s
just a game of Monopoly, innit?
This
attitude is what drives Clarence Valley Council and a number of
property developers with land in Yamba. Who after decades of poring
over maps of West Yamba together have increasingly been making
decisions about Yamba township with little or no regard for either
the wellbeing or concerns of residents and ratepayers.
It’s
reached the risible stage in relation to that land zoned residential, accessed via Carrs Drive. Where a long promised Master Plan for the entire urban land release was not proceeded with and its need later denied.
When land filling
resulted in problems on surrounding properties becoming very evident, Council
administration was careful to go through a very limited form of
cursory community consultation designed not to have a binding outcome
and, rather
conveniently is now only offering a West
Yamba Urban Release Area information page on Council’s website
and a printed quarterly update on
development progress previously mutually agreed to
by property developers and Council.
A
move which offers no binding certainty on population density, lot
numbers or sizes and still treats land filling on an ad hoc basis.
The
lack of any real consideration of climate change impacts is appalling
and mirrored in other large subdivisions such as those in Orion
Drive, Park Ave and Golding Street.
The video at https://www.keepyambacountry.com/copy-of-more-information demonstrates just how poorly thought through was the approx. 2.8 AHD landfill and drainage at the Park Ave lot which has raised an est. 6.65ha of land above the ground level of a significant number of adjoining and adjacent long established and occupied residential properties.
Similar
scenarios are being played out in other Northern Rivers local
government areas. Developers are not stupid. They know that now
climate change is not just an abstract idea but something that can be
seen and experienced they only have a finite time to offload their coastal zone subdivisions onto unsuspecting residential lot purchasers – before the next
catastrophic flood or bushfire devastates a town/area considered to
be a desirable place to live and wipes out the urge to buy land
there.
BACKGROUND
Excerpts
from Local
Government Act 1993 as of 16 July 2022:
731
Liability of councillors, employees and other persons
A
matter or thing done by the Minister, the Departmental Chief
Executive, a council, a councillor, a member of a committee of the
council or an employee of the council or any person acting under the
direction of the Minister, the Departmental Chief Executive, the
council or a committee of the council does not, if the matter or
thing was done in good faith for the purpose of executing this or any
other Act, and for and on behalf of the Minister, the Departmental
Chief Executive, the council or a committee of the council, subject a
councillor, a member, an employee or a person so acting personally to
any action, liability, claim or demand.
733
Exemption from liability—flood liable land, land subject to risk
of bush fire and land in coastal zone
(1)
A council does not incur any liability in respect of—
(a)
any advice furnished in good faith by the council relating to the
likelihood of any land being flooded or the nature or extent of any
such flooding, or
(b)
anything done or omitted to be done in good faith by the council in
so far as it relates to the likelihood of land being flooded or the
nature or extent of any such flooding.
(2)
A council does not incur any liability in respect of—
(a)
any advice furnished in good faith by the council relating to the
likelihood of any land in the coastal zone being affected by a
coastline hazard (as described in the coastal management manual under
the Coastal Management Act 2016) or the nature or extent of any such
hazard, or
(b)
anything done or omitted to be done in good faith by the council in
so far as it relates to the likelihood of land being so affected.
(2A)
A council does not incur any liability in respect of—
(a)
any advice furnished in good faith by the council relating to the
likelihood of any land being subject to the risk of bush fire or the
nature or extent of any such risk, or
(b)
anything done or omitted to be done in good faith by the council in
so far as it relates to the likelihood of land being subject to the
risk of bush fire.
(3)
Without limiting subsections (1), (2) and (2A), those subsections
apply to—
(a)
the preparation or making of an environmental planning instrument,
including a planning proposal for the proposed environmental planning
instrument, or a development control plan, or the granting or refusal
of consent to a development application, or the determination of an
application for a complying development certificate, under the
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, and
(b)
the preparation and adoption of a coastal management program under
the Coastal Management Act 2016 (and the preparation and making of a
coastal zone management plan under the Coastal Protection Act 1979
that is continued in effect by operation of clause 4 of Schedule 3 to
the Coastal Management Act 2016), and
(c)
the imposition of any condition in relation to an application
referred to in paragraph (a), and
(d)
advice furnished in a certificate under section 149 of the
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, and
(e)
the carrying out of flood mitigation works, and
(f)
the carrying out of coastal protection works, and
(f1)
the carrying out of bush fire hazard reduction works, and
(f2)
anything done or omitted to be done regarding beach erosion or
shoreline recession on Crown land (including Crown managed land) or
land owned or controlled by a council or a public authority, and
(f3)
the failure to upgrade flood mitigation works or coastal protection
works in response to projected or actual impacts of climate change,
and
(f4)
the failure to undertake action to enforce the removal of illegal or
unauthorised structures that results in erosion of a beach or land
adjacent to a beach, and
(f5)
the provision of information relating to climate change or sea level
rise, and
(f6)
(Repealed)
anything done or omitted to be
done regarding the negligent placement or maintenance by a landowner
of emergency coastal protection works authorised by a certificate
under Division 2 of Part 4C of the Coastal Protection Act 1979,
(g)
any other thing done or omitted to be done in the exercise of a
council’s functions under this or any other Act.
(4)
Without limiting any other circumstances in which a council may have
acted in good faith, a council is, unless the contrary is proved,
taken to have acted in good faith for the purposes of this section if
the advice was furnished, or the thing was done or omitted to be
done—
(a)
substantially in accordance with the principles contained in the
relevant manual most recently notified under subsection (5) at that
time, or
(b)
substantially in accordance with the principles and mandatory
requirements set out in the current coastal management manual under
the Coastal Management Act 2016, or
(c)
in accordance with a direction under section 14(2) of the Coastal
Management Act 2016.
(5)
For the purposes of this section, the Minister for Planning may,
from time to time, give notification in the Gazette of the
publication of—
(a)
a manual relating to the management of flood liable land, or
(b)
(Repealed) a manual relating to the
management of the coastline.
(c)
a manual relating to the management of land subject to the risk of
bush fire.
The
notification must specify where and when copies of the manual may be
inspected.
(6)
A copy of the manual must be available for public inspection, free
of charge, at the office of the council during ordinary office hours.
(7)
This section applies to and in respect of—
(a)
the Crown, a statutory body representing the Crown and a public or
local authority constituted by or under any Act, and
(b)
a councillor or employee of a council or any such body or authority,
and
(c)
a Public Service employee, and
(d)
a person acting under the direction of a council or of the Crown or
any such body or authority, and
(e)
Water NSW, but only with respect to the exercise of its functions in
the Sydney catchment area (within the meaning of the Water NSW Act
2014) or the exercise of its functions in any part of the State in
connection with the granting of flood work approvals under the Water
Management Act 2000,
in
the same way as it applies to and in respect of a council.
(8)
In this section—
coastal
zone has the same meaning as in the Coastal Management Act 2016.
manual
includes guidelines.
8
Personal liability
A
matter or thing done or omitted to be done by the Project Review
Committee, a member of the Project Review Committee or a person
acting under the direction of the Project Review Committee does not,
if the matter or thing was done or omitted to be done in good faith
for the purpose of executing this or any other Act, subject a member
or a person so acting personally to any action, liability, claim or
demand.
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