On 6 May 2016, Planning Minister Rob Stokes announced that the NSW Government was revisiting its ‘revolutionary’ but unsuccessful bid in 2013 to amend the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act. After months of consultation and amid community opposition, changes were blocked by Labor in the upper house. Since then, significant changes have been made to…
Following months of public consultation, the NSW Government has recently introduced the Coastal Management Bill 2016 to Parliament. The Bill will repeal the Coastal Protection Act 1979 and the Coastal Protection Regulation 2011 and is to establish a simpler, more contemporary legislative framework for the management of the NSW coastline. The Bill contains new statutory…
Each year in the Land and Environment Court there are about 50 to 100 criminal prosecutions in the “Class 5” jurisdiction. By contrast there are between 100 and 150 cases filed in the Court’s civil “Class 4” jurisdiction involving civil enforcement and judicial review proceedings. The Class 4 jurisdiction has a number of benefits through the…
On 22 October 2015, the NSW Government introduced the Greater Sydney Commission Bill 2015 (Bill) which has three main objectives: to establish the Greater Sydney Commission (Commission); to provide for the constitution of Sydney planning panels for the Greater Sydney Region; and to amend the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) which will…
Dormant adverse possession claims and historical acquisitions for public works: Lawson v South Australian Minister for Water and the River Murray (No 2) [2014] NSWLEC 189 Infrastructure projects in New South Wales have historically been aided by the provisions under the Public Works Act 1912 (Public Works Act). Under the Public Works Act,[1] the Minister…
This week, we continue the theme of environmental crime and novel pleadings. The judgment of Pain J in Council of the City of Shoalhaven v Wilson [2015] NSWLEC 93 involved a defendant making submissions on sentencing about mental health and intoxication. The self-induced intoxication was held to be irrelevant for the purposes of sentencing, whereas…
The Court of Appeal recently handed down judgment in Rafailidis v Roads and Maritime Services [2015] NSWCA 143, dismissing Mrs Koula Rafailidis’ appeal against the judgments of Craig J and Sheahan J. Our earlier blog on Castle-style arguments in compulsory acquisition litigation examined one of these cases at first instance. The Court of Appeal (Beazley P,…
The Land & Environment Court has again pierced the corporate veil to find a director of a developer company guilty of carrying out a development without consent and fined the director $150,000. The Court has also rejected the somewhat creative defence of ‘necessity’ raised by both the developer company and its director, which can be…
The Commonwealth Government’s Assessment Bilateral Agreement Draft Conditions Policy (Draft Conditions Policy) seeks to improve the efficiency of assessment bilateral agreements under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act). In particular, the Draft Conditions Policy seeks to minimise unnecessary duplication between state, territory and Commonwealth conditions on environmental approvals. The Draft…
Overlapping State and Commonwealth approval requirements leading to project risks The environmental approval process under the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) operates in parallel to State-based approval processes, such as the development consent process under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) (EP&A Act). That means that, for example, a…
