Western Australia’s peak environmental law body has slammed the state government’s proposed Green Growth Plan for Perth and Peel (GGP), labeling the plan unsustainable and incapable of providing the necessary protections outlined by government last year.
The Environmental Defender’s Office of WA (EDOWA) released their 120-page White Paper response to the Green Growth Plan on Friday, the last day public submissions were open to respond to the plan.
The EDOWA found multiple faults in the plan’s documents, including unclear maps, repeated information and a lack of environmental protection policy.
“When it released its draft Plan, the Government extolled it as a ‘21st century approach to intefrating environmental protection and land use planning’,” EDOWA principal solicitor Patrick Pearlman said.
“But after spending weeks wading through mountains of paper and electronic maps, it looked to us that the PPGG Plan doesn’t represent good practice urban planning and environmental assessment, but rather maintains the worst aspects of the last century’s poor planning and environmental approvals that have put the Perth and Peel regions on an unsustainable path.”
Mr Pearlman said the draft Strategic Conservation Plan – the section of the GGP which outlines delineations of state parks and environmental conservation areas – associated action plans and strategic assessment reports do not meet “the highest levels of rigour and transperancy”.
The co-writer of EDOWA’s report, Keith Claymore, said many of the documents attached to the report were “highly repetitious”.
“Yet details for many of the proposed conservation commitments and management arrangements for implementation remain illusive and ill-defined,” Mr Claymore said.
In his report during the release of the White Paper, Mr Claymore said the Green Growth Plan had been marketed by the state government as something it’s not.
In its white paper, the EDO argue the government’s aim to provide certainty through comprehensive environmental assessment actually only made it easier for the business community to further private development through the cutting of red tape and foregoing existing environmental laws, such as the WA Australian Environmental Protection Act 1986.
Instead of applying the Act, Mr Pearlman said, the GGP would be recommended for approval by way of an “advice”to the Environment Minister provided by the Environmental Protection Authority, under section 16(e) of the legislation.
“While section 16(e) advises have been used in the past, to our knowledge, this is the first time it has been used to pre-approve or assess broad classes of development over the course of decades,” he said.
“We’re just not convinced of the legality, or the wisdom, of what the Government appears to be doing.”
Public submissions to the Green Growth Plan closed on May 13. The government’s draft can be found at the Department of Planning’s website.
