The NSW State Plan sets out some worthwhile targets but fails to show how they will be achieved, according to NSW Greens MPs.
“The State Plan has ended up as a wish list when it needed to be a to-do list,” said Greens MP, Sylvia Hale.
“While it is worthwhile to set out what it would like to achieve, the government has failed to identify for each target the specific initiatives that will be implemented to achieve those targets,” she said.
“In areas like homelessness, youth suicide, preventative medicine and affordable housing genuine new initiatives are needed. The plan contains none,” she said.
Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said:
"While the Greens welcome performance targets attached to the plan, having non-elected private sector appointees on a cabinet committee is a major shift from representative democracy.
"It is characteristic of the Iemma government that it has invited business to sit at its high table, not experts from the community or environment sector.
"The plan contains some measures to tackle climate change, but this is cheap talk when the government continues to be beholden to the coal mining industry in NSW.
"The world has woken up to climate change, but this government is still locked into protecting the interests of the coal industry which is a major creator of greenhouse gas emissions.
Greens MP Ian Cohen said:
"This Government continues its trend of coming out with nice environmental platitudes, which it then contradicts with its actions. Two major issues this week are evidence of this.
"We saw a proposal for the first new dam in NSW for thirty years, wasting $342 million that could have been spent implementing the State Plan's ideals of an "increase (in) water recycling"
"If the Government is serious about living up to the environmental ideals outlined in this Plan it will abandon its destructive bio-banking scheme and the latest changes that will allow the Planning Minister to override environmental problems with new developments. I am not holding my breath.”
Further information: Chris Holley (Sylvia Hale) 9230 3030 or 0437 779 546, Michael Hidden (Ian Cohen) 9230 3305 or 0431 320 085 or Alison Orme (Lee Rhiannon) 9230 3551 or 0427 861 568
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