Don't rush Crown Land reforms through Parliament

David Shoebridge

After four years of review, 1000 public submissions, a review from the Auditor General and a Parliamentary Inquiry, the Baird-Grant Government has finally handed down its proposed reforms to manage the Crown land estate. The Crown Land Management Bill 2016 creates a new, single piece of legislation to administer Crown land in NSW.

The Greens cannot and will not support the bill as it is presently drafted.

The bill fails to appropriately protect environmental values of Crown Lands and the overriding need for public access to public land. Many stakeholders see the bill as allowing large scale sale and privatisation of public land. 

Though reform to the system is well overdue, there are still many changes to be made before we can say NSW has a system that will properly manage and protect the 33 million hectares of Crown Land in this state. 

We need to make sure that this bill gets it right, is not rushed through and properly protects public land.

·         Share our Facebook post calling for the Baird-Grant Government to properly protect Crown Land and not rush these reforms 

We have a comprehensive set of amendments to improve this bill and implement environmental,  social and cultural safeguards but the fact is we shouldn’t be rushing these reforms through in the last few sitting days of the year.

David Shoebridge

Greens MP in the NSW Legislative Council

P: (02) 9230 3030 T: @ShoebridgeMLC