[Greens-Media] (Sylvia Hale MLC) Green Window-Dressing Can’t Justify Gerroa Sand Quarry Extension

[Christopher Holley]

Green Window-Dressing Can’t Justify Gerroa Sand Quarry Extension 

The NSW Greens MP and planning spokesperson Sylvia Hale has condemned
the decision to approve the extension of the Gerroa sand quarry.

Ms Hale, who spoke out against the proposal in parliament, said the
environmental conditions placed on the approval by Planning Minister
Frank Sartor were “window-dressing designed to hide the fact that the
extension is unnecessary and will do significant environmental
damage.”

“The removal of 3.4 hectares of coastal forest at Seven Mile Beach
will have an adverse and irreversible impact on high conservation
ecological communities that provide habitat, maintain vegetation links
for corridors, and conserve biodiversity,” Ms Hale said.

“The expansion area contains two Endangered Ecological Communities,
Littoral Rainforest and Bangalay Sand Forest, and is habitat for a
number of endangered species protected under the Threatened Species
Conservation Act.” 

“None of this can be adequately replaced by planting native trees
somewhere else. Compensatory plantings are just a political smokescreen
for allowing damage to the environment.”

“The coastal forest is listed as an area of high conservation value
in the Kiama Local Environment Plan and as significant native vegetation
in the Illawarra Regional Strategy. It falls within the coastal zone and
under State Environmental Planning Policy 71, which has an aim of
protecting and preserving native coastal vegetation.” 

“The Minister’s decision overrides those local and state
environmental protection instruments. For the Minister to argue that his
decision meets the State Plan Priority of “better environmental
outcomes for native vegetation, biodiversity and land” shows that the
State Plan is a joke and that Labor will never let the environment get
in the way of profit.”

Ms Hale questioned the economic need for the quarry extension. “The
Gerroa sand resource is a very small and strategically unimportant
resource of less than one million tonnes. This compares to the Dunmore
resource, 10 kilometres north of Gerroa, which has eight million tonnes
of sand and is licensed to quarry 800,000 tonnes a year over the next 25
years. The overwhelming majority of the Illawarra market is currently
supplied by resources other than from the Gerroa quarry,” said Ms
Hale.

“The environmental consequences of this proposal far outweigh any
genuine economic imperatives. It is a very bad decision for the native
vegetation and threatened species in the Seven Mile Beach area.”


Contact: Chris Holley (02) 9230 3030 / 0437 779 546