This is the second in our series of posts analysing and providing comment upon the suite of updates to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (the Act) which commenced on 1 March 2018. Part one is available on this blog. In part two we consider the objects of the Act. Background As most readers…
In 1998 the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Northern Ireland, India and Pakistan tested nuclear devices, Google was founded, Viagra came onto the market, Titanic became the first film to make $1 billion, and a new planning framework for managing contaminated land was implemented in New South Wales. Twenty years later and the contaminated…
The Chinese Government’s ban on the import of certain recyclables and waste announced last year came into force on 1 January 2018. The ban is impacting the Australian waste industry, which now needs to find new markets for recyclables and waste that was previously exported to China. Local councils and waste operators should be looking…
Outline This post is the first in a series that will provide an overview and analysis of the updates to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (the Act), which commenced on 1 March. Background The updates to the Act are the product of a two-stage process which involved: Initial consultation with broad stakeholder engagement…
The New South Wales Government will roll out a container deposit scheme ‘Return and Earn’ from 1 December 2017. The scheme is established by the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Amendment (Container Deposit Scheme) Act 2016 (NSW) and the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery (Container Deposit Scheme) Regulation 2017 (NSW). The scheme provides for the…
The NSW Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) (collectively, the Prosecutor) have secured their biggest fine for a prosecution in the Land & Environment Court. Justice Robson fined the Clarence Colliery Pty Ltd $1.05 million for two offences: $720,000 for breaching section 116(1)(a) of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act…
On 30 June 2017, the NSW Government released a Bill to amend the Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act) to replace the idea of a ‘staged development application’ with a ‘concept development application’. The Bill is a swift response to a decision of the NSW Court of Appeal in Bay Simmer Investments Pty Ltd v State…
On Monday 17 July 2017 new planning controls for obtaining complying development approval for new 1 or 2 storey dwelling houses, including alterations and additions, begins in NSW. These changes will take effect through a new and simplified Housing Code within State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008 (Codes SEPP) and are…
The NSW Land and Environment Court has held that the Proclamation which merged Dubbo Council with Wellington Council, to become Dubbo Regional Council, ‘ended’ the prosecution proceedings that had been commenced by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) but not determined by the Court. The reason the prosecution ended was because the Proclamation did not have…
The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal of NSW (IPART) has released a draft review of rent models for social and affordable housing. The review recommends a number of changes to the current system of social housing in NSW to improve delivery of services to those in greatest need. In January 2016, the NSW Government released…
Planning and Environment in NSW 