The Bellingen Environment Centre (BEC) will be allowed to give advice to the Land and Environment Court of NSW during the sentence hearing of the NSW Forestry Corporation by the Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
In a judgement handed down on 16 August 2024, Justice Pain found that the court had full discretion to allow the BEC and other groups to give advice to the Court about the impacts of environmental crime when considering penalties for the offenders.
The BEC had applied to give advice to the court in response to the Forestry Corporation pleading guilty to destroying six 'giant-trees' and three hollow-bearing trees in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest in June and July 2020, crimes that could attract a maximum penalty of $18 million.
Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said "This is such a welcome decision of the court, restorative justice demands community participation. It's a real indictment on the Minns Government that the two state agencies involved, the Forestry Corporation and the forest regulator the Environment Protection Authority, both argued hard to close the door to the Bellingen community and deny them access to justice in the Court,"
"The crimes of the Forestry Corporation are extreme and are a matter of public interest. They have a profound impact on the environment and the communities who live close to our public forests, this decision has recognised the importance of considering this impact of the crime on the community,"
"When the EPA prosecutes the Forestry Corporation for unlawful acts, both the prosecutor and the defender are essentially government agencies, and share a common interest in protecting one another and given the Forestry Corporation keeps breaking the law there doesn't seem to be any real deterrence. But out in the community, people are furious and have been denied access to justice,"
"The EPA argued that the community had nothing to add, and the Forestry Corporation argued that the Court wasn't allowed to take advice from the community - both of these arguments have been rejected by the Court,"
"This is a small, but significant, win for all of NSW. The court's decision is clear, that it has the discretion to listen to the community in relation to crimes committed by the Governments Forestry Corporation. There are communities across the State that are living with the impacts of illegal logging, it's important that they are heard in the prosecution process in our courts," Ms Higginson said.
