Councillor Chris Harris

The environment.
R.I.P.

It was a black day for Sydney as Justice Jagot in the NSW Land & Environment Court ruled against the environment in favor of unsustainable development and the unfettered powers of Minister Sartor.

This was the first Australian case (Drake-Brockman v Minister for Planning) dealing with the climate change effects of a large urban development. The development – the Carlton United Brewery site (CUB) in Chippendale – was formerly owned by Foster’s Ltd and recently acquired by Singapore based Frasers Property. 

Justice Jagot upheld that while Minister Sartor should encourage sustainable development, under the law the Minister was not compelled to, nor was it in the court’s jurisdiction to force the Minister to do so.
 
Deputy Lord Mayor, Greens Councillor Chris Harris: “Under Part 3A Minister Sartor can do whatever he likes to the environment and the Land and Environment Court is powerless to stop him. 
 
“Thanks to this ruling, the CUB development could legally spew out millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from the 2300 cars approved for the site. Using coal-fired generated electricity it could pump hundreds of thousands of litres of water to the site and hundreds of thousands of litres of sewage from the site and into the harbour every year.   Not only that but this development will be the benchmark for every other development approved in the city.

“If Labor wanted to lower the bar on sustainability and kill off the environment they couldn’t have found a better man for the job than Mr Sartor.

“Ironically businesses, schools and ordinary Australians are the ones coming up with innovative ideas to counter climate change. Hopefully Frasers will join this group and differentiate themselves  from Fosters and the Labor government who are so blinded by the pollution they create that they sacrifice future generations for profit?” Cr Harris said.

The judgement in full can be found here.