Greens state member for Ballina Tamara Smith says she has written to planning minister Paul Scully seeking advice and counsel over controversial opt-in conservation zones in the Ballina Shire.
The NSW planning department is to review a council decision made last week concerning the zones.
At the council’s ordinary September meeting last Thursday, Mayor Sharon Cadwallader used the power of her casting vote to pass a motion supporting what Councillor Rodney Bruem has referred to as ‘property rights’.
The amended motion offered more detail than what was featured in the agenda from Cr Eva Ramsey.
Cr Bruem called not only for landowners impacted by council staff proposed conservation zones to be given the right to ‘opt in’ to the scheme but for objecting landowners to have their land re-zoned according to regulations from the 1980’s.
Land in the Ballina Shire is currently split between two Local Environment Plans, one from 2012 and the other dating back to 1987.
The independent councillor, part of a group of conservatives who appeared on Cr Cadwallader’s ballots in the 2021 election, also called for staff to compile a report on ‘how landowners who undertake Conservation and biodiversity improvements could be better supported’.
Cr Bruem later told The Echo the move was in line with similar council regulations introduced in the Lismore Local Government Area as part of ‘a scheme designed with the support of the Greens Party councillors there’.
‘I would like to see Ballina Shire invest in a Rural Landholders conservation initiative similar to Lismore to encourage better outcomes on private land,’ Cr Bruem said, ‘as I said at the meeting, taking a carrot rather than a big stick approach’.
Conservative councillors resist imposing C2 map
The former coaltion state government introduced Conservation Zones to the state’s local government planning system more than a decade ago.
But resistance from Ballina’s conservative councillors to using local government planning powers for conservation has stymied progress on their introduction into a shire reported to have less than 20% of its native vegetation left.
The Ballina Environment Society last week issued a statement referring to 83% of council survey respondents saying they were extremely/very concerned about biodiversity loss in the shire.
The nearby Kyogle Shire Council only recently amended its Local Environment Plan (LEP) to allow landowners the right to volunteer to have their land rezoned and Ballina Mayor Sharon Cadwallader was soon calling for the Ballina Shire Council to consider the same ‘opt-in’ model.
Last week’s vote pre-empted one expected to happen in November on a review of the C2 Conservation Zone mapping staff have been working on since at least 2012.
Staff say the work has included consultation with landowners but the mayor said in September some were absentee owners who didn’t receive their letters.
Council staff then held a briefing on Conservation zones with councillors and members of the public.
The mayor said the session was informative but still left her with questions over matters pertaining to owners’ rights for dams and fire trails and potential costs of development applications.
Council still has Conservation Zone powers, says Cr Bruem
Last week’s motion applied only to land mapped in the 2012 recommendations, which don’t include ecologically sensitive West Ballina land recently submitted to the planning department for C2 Ecological Conservation.
Cr Bruem said the council was still working to introduce Conservation Zones to protect areas including remnant bushland.
‘The process is due to be concluded by the end of this year,’ he wrote via email, adding that the council would be able to impose Conservation Zones on sensitive sites and via development applications.
The former coalition government’s laws came ‘on top of state and Federal conservation laws’, Cr Bruem said, ‘that already offer protections as well as penalties for infringements such as illegal clearing’.
Mayor’s use of casting vote unconventional, says Greens cr
Speaking to The Echo on Monday, Greens Cr Simon Chate said staff had worked hard to address the mayor’s concerns for property owners and he understood her use of the casting vote to support her own view rather than the status quo was out of convention.
Cr Chate said he was concerned conservative councillors would also eventually try to remove existing environmental LEP protections in the shire.
Cr Chate shared a copy of points he had prepared for last week’s council debate on Cr Ramsey’s original motion.
‘This rushing through of an “opt in” model flies in the face of all the hard work that council staff have done to try to clarify the zoning information in relation to these deferred matters,’ Cr Chate wrote.
The Greens councillor said staff had been looking at each individual case and ‘as a result of this detailed scrutiny’, he understand they were ‘almost ready to present a variety of solutions to council for deliberation’.
He said the intention was to bring the suggestions to an environment committee meeting in November.
Waiting until then would ‘allow for full transparency and give a strong sense of completion through due diligence,’ Cr Chate said.
‘We might still end up with an Opt In model,’ he said, ‘but by allowing the full process to run its course, it will be a much clearer and cleaner result’.
Councillors were evenly split for and against Cr Bruem’s amended version of Cr Ramsey’s motion, with Crs Cadwallader, Ramsey, Nigel Buchanan and Eoin Johnston voting for.
Greens Crs Chate and Kiri Dicker voted against, along with Independent Crs Jeff Johnson, Stephen McCarthy and Phillip Meehan.
The mayor used her casting vote to support the motion.
Developers v Conservation Zones, says Greens MP
Cr Chate told The Echo he and fellow Greens Cr Kiri Dicker had approached Ballina MP Tamara Smith over the council’s decision to relinquish powers over the proposed C2 Zone map.
Ms Smith confirmed she had written to Minister for Planning Paul Scully for advice and to seek counsel on the matter.
‘We are in an extinction crisis, with some of the highest value biodiversity in the world in Ballina Shire,’ Ms Smith said.
‘Environmental protections are not an opt in – they must be immovable if we are to have any hope of protecting our coastlines, wetlands, our rich biodiversity, and our threatened species,’ she said.
The Ballina MP said it was developers who thought removing what little environmental protections existed for new developments was a good idea.
‘Who speaks for nature?’ she questioned.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
