Greens win access to Catherine Hill Bay documents
Tuesday 30 September 2008
The NSW Government has failed to defeat a motion from NSW Greens MP Sylvia Hale requiring the Ministers for Planning and Lands to make public all documents relating to the controversial residential subdivisions proposed for the historic coastal hamlet of Catherine Hill Bay, north of Sydney.
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The documents must now be provided to the parliament within fourteen days.
“It is imperative that these documents are made public,” Ms Hale told the parliament.
“The residential subdivisions proposed for the Catherine Hill Bay
and Gwandalan areas are massive and dwarf any existing settlements in
the area.”
“These are highly contentious proposals and there is serious public
concern about how and why decisions have been made that will provide
windfall profits to a significant donor to the NSW Labor Party.”
One of the final decisions made by former Planning Minister Frank
Sartor was to approve a residential subdivision at Catherine Hill Bay
proposed by the Rose group. Research by the Greens has revealed that
Rose Group has donated over $130,000 to the NSW ALP while it has had
rezoning and development applications before the State Planning
Minister.
“The Government frequently claims that political donations do not
influence planning decisions. The public quite frankly doesn’t believe
the government’s assertions.”
“The government clearly doesn’t want these documents in the public
domain but the parliament has accepted that it is in the public
interest for these documents to be released,” said Ms Hale.
The Greens have called for the decision to approve the Catherine
Hill Bay subdivision to be reviewed by an independent panel of
planning, heritage and environment experts appointed by agreement
between the Government, the Opposition and the Greens.
“The Planning Minister has a conflict of interest when assessing
development applications from major party donors. Mr Sartor’s decision
must be reviewed by a genuinely independent panel, not one hand-picked
by the Minister,” Ms Hale said. |
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Sylvia Hale MLC Ph. 02 9230 3030 Email: 