After a bruising week of attacks over political donations
from developers, Mr Sartor’s enemies said the proposed changes would make the
State Government unaccountable.
But he insists the changes are only “housekeeping”
amendments.
Anti-coalmine activist Peter Gray said he was
“absolutely flabbergasted” by the latest bill to amend the
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act of 1979, introduced by former Labor
premier Neville Wran to give the community more say in planning.
Although environmental checks would be removed from
planning, Mr Sartor had not given MPs enough time to study the bill, his
political nemesis, independent MP Clover Moore, said.
“It just makes the minister a dictator,” she said.
“The only way it [a proposed development] could be voted down is if
there’s a real public outcry.”
Mr Gray said the proposed laws would directly affect his
legal battle against the Government over a controversial open-cut coalmine at
Anvil Hill near Muswellbrook in the Hunter
Valley. He had wanted the
Land and Environment Court
to rule that the greenhouse impacts of all major projects, including coalmines,
are assessed.
“It is just the height of arrogance,” Mr Gray
said. “It’s going to affect every major development application in the
future.
“If the minister wants to approve anything, he can
approve it.”
A spokeswoman for Mr Sartor said the claims were unfounded.
“It has no impact on the robust environmental assessment which takes place
under the major projects law,” she said.
Instead, the plan was to address recent comments by a judge
that raised legal uncertainty about when the minister could determine an
application, she said.
Last year the State Government passed laws that allowed Mr
Sartor to take control of projects from councils. As a result, he had taken
over more than 200 across NSW.
He now has the power to overrule the objections of local
councils, the Land and Environment
Court and residents.
Last week, former prime minister Paul Keating spoke bitterly
of the “wall of money” given to the State Government by developers
and called for a banning of their political donations.
IN MINISTERIAL HANDS
The projects that Planning Minister Frank Sartor has power
over:
– Six-hectare redevelopment of Carlton United brewery site
on Broadway.
– 600-dwelling development at historic Catherine Hill
Bay.
– 795-dwelling development of Ryde Rehabilitation Centre.
– Macquarie
University.
– 2450-hectare Western Sydney
employment hub.