Property developers continue to come after State Significant Farmland in the Northern Rivers region

 

Historically three facts are clear about farmland in New South Wales.

1. Approximately half of the state's land mass can be considered to have moderately low to extremely low agricultural value [Adams VM & Engert JE, 2023]. Yet New South Wales produces about $15.1 billion of agricultural food and $38.1 billion of manufactured food & beverage products each year [NSW Govt, Investment NSW, 2024], with agriculture and primary production generally being an important industry on the North Coast as one of its largest employers and a significant contributor to the regional economy.

2. The state's 1,973km long coastal strip from the ocean to the Great Dividing Range has historically produced around 20 per cent of its primary production annually [Melville JM, 2012].

3. Agricultural and pastoral land is being removed from the state's coastal zone at an alarming rate. With up to 60% of agricultural land within the Greater Western Sydney 'food bowl' - which produces more than three-quarters of the total value of agricultural produce in the metropolitan region - being lost to property development in the last ten years. However, agricultural land loss to property development is not confined to major cities, but can be found all along the coastal zone. Wherever there are regional cities, towns & villages seen as highly desirable by those seeking a tree change or sea change lifestyle.

Such is the case here......

ECHO, 3 May 2034:

The contentiousCudgen Connection development proposed on State Significant Farmland (SSF) on the protected Cudgen Plateau next to the Tweed Valley Hospital (TVH) site was in front of Tweed Shire Councillors at yesterday’s planning meeting.

The council staff report had recommended that the application for gateway determination should be approved however, Kingscliff Ratepayers and Progress Association (KRAPA) were clear in their objections to the proposal and highly critical of the inaccurate statements and reports relating to the SSF site.

When the TVH was proposed on the SSF the issue split the local community and when the hospital was approved and the site re-zoned from SSF both sides of the political spectrum gave ‘iron clad’ promises that there would be no further development of or rezoning of SSF on the Cudgen plateau.

Six to one in favour of refusal

‘We are so grateful to the six councillors who voted to refuse this application,’ Peter Newton, President of KRPA told The Echo.

‘Particularly the community could not have had better representation than from Mayor Cherry, Deputy Mayor Dennis and Councillor Firth who forensically addressed every community concern in speaking to the item. It’s disappointing that it was left to Mayor Cherry and others to detail the clear shortcomings and inconsistencies within this proposal, which we would have expected to see in the Council report.’

Mayor Cherry spoke to the proposed refusal telling the meeting that, ‘In order to support a variation allowed for under the North Coast Regional Plan, we need to be satisfied that the variation is supported by a sound evidence base addressing agricultural capability and sustainability. Is the land capable, is this sustainable?

‘We’re required to form a view as to whether the proposal has to strategic and site specific merit. For the clarity strategic merit means that the proposal has alignment with the New South Wales Strategic Planning Framework and government priorities. It also needs to have alignment with our priorities, and those that have council that have been approved by the state government. Is it consistent with the North Coast Regional Plan? Is it consistent with the Tweed Local Strategic Planning Statement with our strategies with the Tweed Regional Economic Development Strategy.

‘These are the questions we’ve had to consider and this is the site suitable for the relevant development. This is one question that hasn’t really come out in this assessment at all. Where’s the strategic assessment and the demonstrated need for 120 bed private hospital in this location, where is consideration of the impacts that that might have on our Tweed Valley Hospital on the existing private hospital John Flyn, on our other day surgeries in Tweed Heads? Does the proposal give regard and assess the impacts of the natural environment, including the known resources and what is our SSF but a finite resource? We can’t make any more of it.’......

Developer won’t back down

Speaking to the meeting conservative Cr Warren Polglase told the meeting that the developer wouldn’t be walking away from the proposal.

‘Well I support the proposal as it is,’ Cr Polglase told the meeting.

‘I will be voting in favour of it and I realise that the applicant is definitely going to go to review and I guess a determination will be put forward to the Regional Planning Panel, which will finish up on the minister’s desk.’

Mr Newton told The Echo that, ‘This result was the outcome our community wanted and deserved. While this decision is a very clear endorsement for protecting our precious SSF and the unsuitability of the Cudgen Connection proposal, we do appreciate that this is one step in the process.’.

Read the full article at:

https://www.echo.net.au/2024/05/contentious-cudgen-connection-development-refused-but-developer-not-backing-down/

Youth crime and crime generally are always good ways to scare rural and regional communities and a scare campaign has been running hot and cold in 2024

 

Youth crime and crime generally are always good ways to scare rural and regional communities and a scare campaign has been running hot and cold since the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOSCAR) released the state's 2023 December quarter crime statistics.

The National Party members of the NSW Parliament have been beating up these figures and supporting any group who will drink the political Kool-Aid.

On 23 February 2024 the NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley in Budget Estimates described the Country Mayors Association calls for an inquiry into regional crime as calling for nothing more than a “talkfest”.

By 14 March 2023 the political situation but not the statistics had changed.

TheCountry Mayors Association of NSW has welcomed the NSW Premier’sannouncement that the NSW Government will implement new initiativesto start to address regional youth crime.

The mayors' law and order concerns were somewhat recent given the last annual survey conducted by the CMA saw the 69 rural and regional local governments who answered this survey placing law and order low on their priority lists.

Readers of Murdoch media and local Northern Rivers newspapers may also have noticed the sudden flurry of journalistic and National Party concern about local crime rates.

The Clarence Valley Independent of 13 March 2024 was a case in point:

News of an escalation in youth crime in the Clarence Valley has gone right to the top of the Coffs Clarence Police District, with the Commander, Superintendent Joanne Schultz involved in implementing prevention and intervention strategies to prevent re-offending....

Last month, Member for Clarence, Richie Williamson joined calls by the Country Mayors Association of NSW for the Minns Labor Government to launch a parliamentary inquiry into rural and regional crime, following a spike in crime in the Clarence and Richmond Valley’s.

“The most recent data from the authorities show that youth crime continues to rise, especially for stealing motor vehicles and break and enter offences,” Mr Williamson said.

So what had changed for the Minns Government?

Well, firstly the state electorate is now only six months away from the NSW Local Government elections on Saturday, 14 September 2024 and both incumbent governments and their political opposition like to play the 'laura norder' card in an election year which sees party politics playing a significant but rarely openly stated role in council elections.

Secondly, the NSW Premier has announced new punitive legal measures aimed at youth offenders when it comes to matters like consideration of bail applications and certain increased penalties and, what better way to win support for this move and a policy of "proactive policing" of vulnerable groups than to further demonise young offenders.

Thirdly, a 'helpful' study was released by BOSCAR this month titled "Crime in Regional and Rural NSW in 2023: Trends and Patterns".

While this study openly admitted that in the last 20 years property crime had fallen by 48 per cent in regional NSW, this was seen as deficient because property crime had fallen by 67 per cent in Greater Sydney over the same period and as due to the different rates of decline, in 2023 the rate of recorded property crime was 59 per cent higher in Regional NSW compared to Greater Sydney. A most unfortunate statistical clash.

The study also stated: In 2023 the aggregate rate of recorded violent crime in Regional NSW was equivalent to the recorded rate in 2004. In Greater Sydney, however, violent crime declined significantly in the two decades to 2023 (down 20% from 2004 to 2023). The long-term decline in violence in Sydney and relative stability in Regional NSW has increased the disparity between the rate of violent crime in the regions versus the capital city. In 2023 the rate of recorded violent crime was 57% higher in Regional NSW compared with Greater Sydney.

Leaving a distinct impression that the comparisons being made are beginning to resemble the apple and orange variety and are unhelpful to anyone except state and local government politicians on the make in a local council election year.

The icing on the cake was the following paragraph, which totalled five years of crime statistics to achieve impressive numbers which are broken down in red annotations:

Four major offences, however, significantly increased in Regional NSW over the five years from 2019

to 2023:

o Motor vehicle theft (up 20% or 1,239 additional incidents) An est. average increase of 248 offences per year across 95 regional local government areas. In this category and unspecified number of youth offenders are alleged to be found.

o Non-domestic assault (up 14% or 1,825 additional incidents) An est. average increase of 365 offences per year across 95 regional local government areas. On a yearly average est. 204 were youth offenders.

o Sexual assault (up 47% or 1,505 additional incidents) An est. average increase of 301 offences per year across 95 regional local government areas. In this category it is solely adult offending.

o Domestic violence related assault (up 24% or additional incidents)

An est. average increase of 659 offences per year across 95 regional local government areas. On a yearly average est. 86 were youth offenders.

For those interested BOSCAR released a set of graphs which breakdown the trends into more specific crime categories at:

https://www.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/Publication%20Supporting%20Documents/RCS-quarterly/Supplementary%20charts%20-%20Recorded%20Crime%20Charts%202019%20to%202023.pdf

As for "stealing motor vehicles and break and enter offences" the Nationals MLA for Clarence points to in relation to youth crime, BOSCAR data for January to December 2023 show NSW Police proceeded against a total of 27 vehicle thefts in the Clarence Valley LGA, with 9 of these thefts alleged to be by young offenders aged between 10-17 years of age. While break and enter offences proceeded against totalled 33 offences, with 9 of these break and enters alleged to be by young offenders aged between 10-17 years of age.

As for motor vehicle theft and break and enter statistics for the Coffs Clarence Police District, BOSCAR shows Coffs-Grafton statistical district was considered "stable' over the last five years. With the change in motor vehicle theft being +113 thefts between 2019 and 2023 totals. While break and enter dwelling fell by -145 incidents and break and enter non-dwelling fell by -9 incidents between 2019 and 2023 totals.

From a personal perspective - yes let's all insist on higher numbers of police in all regional areas to improve crime clear up rates and because police are often spread thin on the ground during emergencies and, in the Northern Rivers region in particular we now have such events far too often.

However, does the desire to have more police in our towns mean that we need to endorse a more punitive response to young offenders by a state government and its police force?

ABC News, 18 March 2024:

Some of the country's top legal and criminal justice experts have written to NSW Premier Chris Minns about proposed bail changes. Sixty organisations signed the letter, including the Aboriginal Legal Service and the Sydney Institute of Criminology....

Amnesty International, Save the Children and the Human Rights Law Centre are also signatories to the letter, which states the premier's bail changes will "make crime worse in regional communities, not better".

"Your new policy to increase youth incarceration is a betrayal of your Closing the Gap commitments," they tell the premier....

When it comes to trashing the built environment & amenities in small regional towns the Minns Labor Government is as big a destructive bully as its Liberal-Nationals predecessors

 

This is a cruel hoax being perpetrated by the NSW Minns Labor Government which benefits no-one except financial speculators and slapdash property developers 

Echo, 21 December 2023:

The latest ‘affordable housing’ reforms by the NSW Labor government have been roundly criticised by the peak body representing councils, with Local Government NSW (LGNSW) saying it ‘further erodes council involvement in town planning, giving developers increasingly free rein in both city and country’.

The legislation that governs NSW ‘affordable housing’ is the State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP), and a revamped SEPP came into effect last week under NSW Labor, which aims ‘to make it faster and easier to build more affordable housing’.

It followed the original policy announcement made earlier in June.

A joint statement by Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully, and Minister for Housing, Homelessness and the North Coast, Rose Jackson, spun a positive message around the reform, including amendments ‘to ensure the bonuses are available to Build to Rent developments, by allowing them to apply in commercial zones, even if residential accommodation is prohibited under the relevant Local Environmental Plan (LEP)’.

Inconsistent statements

Ms Jackson said, in the media release, ‘These reforms are about bringing together all key delivery partners while making sure we consider the views of councils and communities, so we get high quality homes supported by the right infrastructure and amenity.’

Yet LGNSW president, Cr Turley, said the new SEPP removes councils from the approval process, which removes community checks and balances, and that the reforms also do not address how the infrastructure required by the additional density and growth in population would be funded.

‘You can vote out a council which makes planning decisions you don’t support, but you have no such power to get rid of the bureaucrats,’ she said.

The Echo asked the office of Ms Jackson why she believes councils’ views were considered in the revised SEPP, given the views of LGNSW.

Additionally, The Echo asked how can the NSW government ‘be confident that their affordable housing reform will be effective, given there is no measure of effectiveness in this reform?’.

Also, ‘Does Ms Jackson support a parliamentary inquiry into the SEPP to establish how affordable housing outcomes can be measured and improved?’

Ms Jackson’s reply will be published if received.

Cr Turley added the SEPP change also allows developers of the biggest buildings to bypass every single component of the council approval process, leaving no protection for local communities.

‘Under the State Significant Development (SSD) pathway, communities will be at the mercy of faceless government bureaucrats any time a building costs more than $75m in the city, or $30m in regional areas’, she said.

The 2023-24 Summer Fire Season arrived early and is now causing concern

 

By late yesterday afternoon the NSW Rural Fire Service had 115 incidents on its online interactive fire map.

All were bushfires or grassfires, with two listed as Emergency Warning - Out Of Control (Bega Valley & Cessnock).

Bushfires at Coolagolite on the NSW South Coast. CREDIT:JAMES BRICKWOOD. The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 October 2023

In the Northern Rivers region there were 7 fires in the Clarence Valley LGA, one in Richmond Valley LGA, one in Kyogle LGA and one in Tweed LGA.

Having burnt since Friday 29 September, the Richmond Valley bushfire at Northern Boundary Trail, Evans Head, had entered Bundjalung National Park and, by yesterday afternoon covered est. 1,235ha. 

Burning near to the unexploded bomb area of the RAAF air weapons range, it also came too close for comfort to houses in the small coastal village of Evans Head.

Flames lit up the night sky over the small coastal town of Evans Head on the NSW north coast.(Supplied: Allyson Cuskelly). ABC News, 3 October 2023

At 6pm, there are 86 fires burning, with 29 not yet contained. There are currently over 1300 firefighters and incident management specialists working to contain these fires. Extreme and high fire danger has been forecast tomorrow, with 3 TOBANs declared. https://t.co/SwFG8PzKTA pic.twitter.com/d6P3CcVSPT

— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) October 3, 2023

Fire Danger Ratings and Total Fire Bans in NSW can be checked at:

https://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/fdr-and-tobans

In the early hours of Wednesday 4 October the Coolgolite fire ground in the Bega Valley had grown to 4,529ha and fire had broken out on Goodwood Island in the lower reaches of the Clarence River in northern NSW. However the number of active bush or grass fires across the state had fallen to 85 by 1:20am.

NSW State of Play 2023: governments being 'city-centric' has consequences that follow remote & outer regional populations to their graves

 

The Australia Institute, media release, 14 February 2023:

New analysis reveals residents born in Far West NSW are suffering substantially worse health outcomes than residents in Sydney.

People in Far West NSW are dying earlier than they should, from avoidable causes, and while suicide rates have steadied in Sydney, they are on the rise in the most remote parts of the state.

The report warns of serious and growing inequality in health outcomes between city and country residents and recommends immediate investment in the sector.

Key points:

• Life expectancy: People born in the Far West have a life expectancy 5.7 years less than those in Sydney, with the divide worsening

• Premature death: Residents in Far Western NSW are 2x more likely to die prematurely than those in Sydney

• Avoidable death: ‘Potentially avoidable deaths’ are 2.5x more likely in the Far West than in Sydney

• Suicide: Residents in the NSW Far West are 2x as likely to commit suicide than those in Sydney, with a clear upwards trend in suicide rates

“Far West NSW is in serious need of medical attention. Where you live shouldn’t dictate how long you’ll live, but unfortunately in NSW it does” said Kate McBride, Researcher at The Australia Institute.

“Those in the Far West have significantly poorer health outcomes, inferior access to health services and face substantial financial challenges to access services.

“Life expectancy, premature deaths, and ‘potentially avoidable’ deaths are key statistical indicators of whether our health system is working. It is clear from the analysis in this report, sirens should be sounding from the Far West of the state.

“There’s a compelling case for significant investment across the continuum of care, from disease prevention to rehabilitation and ongoing care, in regional NSW.

“The first release in a series, this report reflects a wider national trend: That the health system is failing those living in regional and remote Australia” said Kate McBride.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RELATED RESEARCH

Kate McBride, The Unlucky Country: Life expectancy and health in regional and remote Australia. Part 1: NSW, February 2023.

FULL REPORT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpts from the McBride report:

“Australia has the world’s third highest life expectancy at 84.3 years. However, this national average masks the fact that the ‘lucky country’ has some rather less lucky residents. In every state and territory, those in regional and remote areas have life expectancies several years lower than in the city.

New South Wales (NSW) is a stark example of this divide. Life expectancy in Far West NSW is 79.1 years compared to 84.5 years in Sydney. This more than five-year gap has grown from relative parity at the turn of the millennium to the current gap. Today, a person in far west NSW is more than twice as likely to die prematurely (under 75) than someone in Sydney.

While there are many possible reasons for this discrepancy, overall, people die of the same causes in urban and remote parts of NSW; a comparison of the top causes of death in each area reveals that the top 10 are almost identical. However, regional and remote people are dying younger and from preventable causes at much higher rates than those in Sydney. Deaths considered ‘potentially avoidable’ are more than two and a half times as common in the far west than in the state’s capital.

It has been known for years that there is a suicide issue in regional Australia. Suicide rates in far west NSW—already more than twice as high than those in Sydney—are continuing to rise, while those in urban areas remain steady. But while suicide is a significant problem, it is only the tenth leading cause of death in the region. Suicide tends to take people at a younger age than other causes and as a result can disproportionally skew life expectancy, having said this there are other factors likely at play.

In 2022, a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into health outcomes and access to services in rural, regional, and remote NSW found that people outside urban areas had significantly poorer health outcomes, inferior access to health services, and faced substantial financial challenges to access services.

This divide between life expectancy in the cities and in the country is a problem that extends beyond far western NSW. The city/country divide exists across Australia, and it is growing. Inequity between Australians living in capitals and remote areas is a significant problem that demands government intervention, particularly concerning overwhelmed and under resourced health systems.”

NOTE: I draw to the attention of "North Coast Voices" readers, living in what is the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Coffs Harbour-Grafton Level 4 Statistical Area, the fact that the combined populations of Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour City have a projected life expectancy at birth which is 3.9 years lower than that of the population of the Greater Sydney metropolitan area. Only the projected life expectancy at birth for the Far West and Orana region has a worse comparative figure.

The only differences are dehydration and suicide (more below) in the Far West being replaced by heart failure and breast cancer in Greater Sydney. The similarity in causes of death suggests that the factors driving lower life expectancy in the far west are not due to different physical conditions or different lifestyles, but to how causes of death are prevented and managed. [my yellow highlighting]

Sadly, what the preceding paragraph is politely hinting at is that there is a culture within governments which tolerates and, perhaps even relies upon, inequality of access to health care along with an acceptance of delivery of poorer quality health care to those living in remote areas of New South Wales, as one of the tools which allows the provision of a much higher quality of health care to those living in metropolitan centres and inner regional areas on the fringes of major cities. 

That is where the bulk of the state's electorates and voter numbers are concentrated and, it will come as no surprise that ahead of the March 2023 state election little electoral growth was expected in the western half of New South Wales [Report of the Electoral Districts Redistribution Panel on the draft determination of the names and boundaries of electoral districts of New South Wales, 9 Nov 2020].