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DEC, the
Department of Environment and Conservation is responsible for ensuring
that development of the ADI Site complies with NSW Environmental
Legislation.
Minister for DEC is: Bob
Debus
Dear Mr
Debus,
I am writing to express my disgust and disgrace at what is happening at the St
Marys ADI site concerning the kangaroos. Why are you not doing ANYTHING to
hold Delfin lend lease responsible for the barbaric way in which these animals
are being treated.
You have been sent evidence in the forms of photos and letters relating to the
capture, sterilisation and death of these animals. WHY ARE YOU NOT DOING
ANYTHING? Delfin Lend Lease are just a big company out to make money and
the animals on this site are just getting in their way. So they tell you
that everything is OK. WELL IT IS NOT
I live near the ADI site and it gives me immense pleasure to drive past this
site each day and see the beautiful animals. I have been doing this for
the past 15 years. Over the past month or so, these animals are hardly
seen anymore WHY? because they are being killed off NOT sterilised. WHY ARE YOU NOT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT?
You have all you need to do something about this situation, but you choose not
to. I have all I need to vote for you and your party at the next election,
but I will choose NOT TO and so will a ot of other people from this area.
What do we say to our kids when they ask 'where are all the kangaroos and emus
gone mummy'? what do we say? what would you tell your kids? I am
honest with mine and tell them that 'the Government people are greedy and only
listen to big Corporations, so they let the big companies treat the animals
badly and kill them. This will stick in their minds so that future
generations of constituents will not choose to vote for you or your party.
You have been given everything you need and it is in your power to do something,
so Mr Debus choose to do something positive for the people of Western Sydney and
hold Delfin Lend Lease responsible and stop this culling and cruelty of these
animals.
Cranebrook Resident
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS)
is now part of DEC. The NPWS has been involved in the planning process
since the Site was earmarked for urban development in the early 1990's.
ADI RAG is critical of NPWS
for its lack of protection of the natural environment. Senior NPWS
bureaucrats and officers have, like most other government departments,
embraced the ideology of forming partnerships with the private sector to
offset costs to the public purse. Partnerships between governments and the
private sector result in trade offs whereby the private sector in exchange
for its funding seeks from the government policy outcomes that assist the
private sector partner to benefit financially.
Lend Lease has agreed to give
DEC $6.9 million for the set up of its Regional Park. From our perspective
this funding has bought the silence of DEC and allows Lend Leases
development to proceed with the minimum of scrutiny or interference by
NPWS.
NPWS has consistently shown
throughout the planning history of this site its preparedness to trade off
the environment in exchange for a financial contribution from the
developer.
This was no more evident than
in 1999 when NPWS and DUAP authored a report to the ADI Joint Steering
Committee reviewing the Australian Heritage Commissions listing of 828
hectares of the site in the Register of the National Estate (read
Report)
This Report argues that the
conservation values of the ADI Site could be adequately protected by a
conservation zone equating to approximately only 600 hectares. (See map
showing area NPWS agreed to protect and that the AHC had listed for
protection)
This recommendation by NPWS
and DUAP clearly favoured the developer and was based purely on
economics, that the State Government would lose out on developer dollars
by supporting an increased conservation area. See excerpt from Report below.
NPWS at this period had negotiated with Lend
Lease a funding arrangement that would see $500 given to NPWS for every
housing lot, meaning, the more houses Lend Lease developed the more funding
NPWS received. Today's funding arrangement of $6.9 million is far greater
yet with 3000 less houses to be developed. In hindsight this proves what a load of
garbage the 1999 Report was in recommending that a reduced development
would not deliver enough financial contributions from the developer.
ADI RAG has had dealings with many NPWS
Officers and Bureaucrats and we believe that there is an entrenched culture
within NPWS of accepting environmental compromise as an inevitable part of
their job, that at least preserving a representative sample of an areas
biodiversity is an adequate conservation outcome. This really is a zoo
mentality which suits the agenda of the
development lobby and those profiting from the destruction of the
environment.
A Senior DEC bureaucrat, Lou Ewins, attacked
ADI RAG's credibility during a phone conversation with ADI RAG Convenor ,
Geoff Brown. Mr Brown had contacted NPWS to question its handling of the
discovery of Koala Scat in July 2004. The following paragraphs were sent
to NPWS Director General, Lisa Corbyn, following Lou Ewins comments about
ADI RAG.
"...However, it
appears that the situation has changed from Friday and a survey of a
remnant Koala population in the St Marys South
Creek region is not going to happen. This was communicated to me on
Wednesday the 4th of August 2004 by Anne Louise Ewin, the Manager of the
Conservation Programs and
Planning Division of DEC. Ms Ewin stated that no NPWS Officers had
stated that a Koala survey would be done. Ms Ewin
said it was considered that the Koala scat found by Threatened Species
Officer, Ray Giddins, belonged to … "an isolated Koala or one
that had been released in the area…and that…
on that basis there was not strong enough evidence to justify any Koala
search."
Ms Ewin went on
to denigrate the integrity of ADI RAG with an assumption that we were
antidevelopment and would do anything to stop the
development implying that ADI RAG had planted the Koala
scat found by Ray Giddins. Ms Ewin went on to express support for the
development of the ADI Site, claiming that ADI RAG
had no idea about urban planning and the benefits of developer contributions
to infrastructure in the area. She claimed to be responsible for the
$6.9 million dollar funding by Lend Lease as
outlined in the St Marys Development Agreement and argued that this funding to NPWS had set a precedent for all conservation
management in the future. She claimed she was not
interested in how much Lend Lease paid for the ADI Site or that it was
considered undervalued.
The comments of
Ms Ewin, a Senior State Government Bureaucrat, are deeply offensive to
ADI RAG. The decision not to proceed with a
thorough investigation for Koalas appears to be at odds with the
aims of the NPWS and related legislation. The deduction by NPWS that the
Koala scat found on Friday belongs to that of an
isolated Koala or from one that has been released in the area has no scientific basis or merit. That deduction can only be
determined by a proper study."
The above sums up some of the frustration
felt by ADI RAG and would be shared by other groups in NSW attempting to
protect our environment.
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