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On the Barry Cassidy “Insiders” program on Sunday morning, Mr Greg Hunt said, “A final decision on the Shenhua coal mine in the Gunnedah Shire will be made by the State Government”.
This is incorrect because the Local Environment Plan (LEP) has not passed all its requirements and LG is bound by that LEP.
Shenhua has had a license granted from Mr McDonald which allows them to change the rural “use” to a mining use, without notifying the adjoining neighbours from Curlewis to Breeza of this massive land use change.
The “use” from rural to industrial mining is a quantum leap.
It would be feasible for a council to accept a change from say broadacre agriculture to intensive use but, to not notify the adjoining neighbours of this large tract of land from rural use to mining use is not on.
This brings us to whether the state had the right to ignore a normal Development Approval (DA) and set up their special committee called Maters of States Significance.
Historically Local Government has had complete control of land and land tenures for about 170 years and it will take a referendum of all the people in Australia to hand that power over to the states.
The states, since the Commonwealth Constitution was enacted 1901 are not sovereign, only the people are sovereign.
It is the adjoining land owners who must now appeal in mass and demand that the rules of the council’s LEP be administered correctly.
If this means starting again with local planning issues, then so be it.
I have been in LG for nearly 33 years and you do pick up a few points along the way. One point that stands out is that the people are sovereign and the local in LG must be respected.
Cr Bevan O’Regan
Narrabri