Garrett and Sartor must act before ADI site is hacked - 10 March 2010

Greens MP Ian Cohen is calling for a halt to clearing of 360 hectares of critically endangered bushland on a former ADI site in the Cumberland Plain. The imminent clearing by bulldozers of this bushland - adjacent to sensitive wetlands - flies in the face of the NSW Government’s own advice on the Cumberland Plain. The environmental approval that allows Delfin Lend Lease to clear the area and build homes for 6500 people was granted under now superseded Federal conservation laws. The site should be reconsidered using current Federal law and NSW State guidelines.

“This clearing should be halted immediately. Both Federal scientists and NSW Department of Environment Water and Climate Change (DECCW) scientists have listed this area, the Cumberland Plain Woodland in the Sydney Basin Bioregion, as a Critically Endangered Ecological Community and yet it is about to be bulldozed,” says Greens MP Ian Cohen.

“Environment Minister Sartor must talk to his Federal counterpart, Mr Garrett, and act to save the Cumberland Plain from desecration.

“The best way to protect the Cumberland Plain is through a specific State Environment Planing Policy (SEPP) for the area. Planning Minister Tony Kelly must take control of management of the Cumberland Plain, place restrictions on subdivision and clearing of vegetation and act to protect habitat corridors.

“In November last year DECCW released a Draft Recovery Plan for the Cumberland Plain. The Recovery Plan does not incorporate the recommendations of DECCW’s own Scientific Committee to protect critically endangered habitat. It is a set of guidelines only that cannot override environmental planning instruments that currently apply to the land.

“Already NSW Planning Laws and Local Councils have shown a failure to protect biodiversity in Western Sydney and I suspect the Government’s Recovery Plan for the Cumberland Plain will be similarly ineffectual.

“Western Sydney’s natural heritage should not be laid bare to desecration because there is no political will in NSW to stop it happening.”