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Sartor slammed for planning power play

PLANNING Minister Frank Sartor has been branded a dictator after introducing a bill to Parliament that opponents say will further increase his powers reports Catharine Munro in The Sydney Morning Herald of November 5, 2006.

After a bruising week of attacks over political donations from developers, Mr Sartor's enemies said the proposed changes would make the State Government unaccountable.

But he insists the changes are only "housekeeping" amendments.

Anti-coalmine activist Peter Gray said he was "absolutely flabbergasted" by the latest bill to amend the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act of 1979, introduced by former Labor premier Neville Wran to give the community more say in planning.

Although environmental checks would be removed from planning, Mr Sartor had not given MPs enough time to study the bill, his political nemesis, independent MP Clover Moore, said.

"It just makes the minister a dictator," she said. "The only way it [a proposed development] could be voted down is if there's a real public outcry."

Mr Gray said the proposed laws would directly affect his legal battle against the Government over a controversial open-cut coalmine at Anvil Hill near Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley. He had wanted the Land and Environment Court to rule that the greenhouse impacts of all major projects, including coalmines, are assessed.

"It is just the height of arrogance," Mr Gray said. "It's going to affect every major development application in the future.

"If the minister wants to approve anything, he can approve it."

A spokeswoman for Mr Sartor said the claims were unfounded. "It has no impact on the robust environmental assessment which takes place under the major projects law," she said.

Instead, the plan was to address recent comments by a judge that raised legal uncertainty about when the minister could determine an application, she said.

Last year the State Government passed laws that allowed Mr Sartor to take control of projects from councils. As a result, he had taken over more than 200 across NSW.

He now has the power to overrule the objections of local councils, the Land and Environment Court and residents.

Last week, former prime minister Paul Keating spoke bitterly of the "wall of money" given to the State Government by developers and called for a banning of their political donations.

IN MINISTERIAL HANDS

The projects that Planning Minister Frank Sartor has power over:

- Six-hectare redevelopment of Carlton United brewery site on Broadway.

- 600-dwelling development at historic Catherine Hill Bay.

- 795-dwelling development of Ryde Rehabilitation Centre.

- Macquarie University.

- 2450-hectare Western Sydney employment hub.

 

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sartor-slammed-for-planning-power-play/2006/11/04/1162340097190.html