22nd November 2024
The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state's leading environmental advocacy organisation has today welcomed passage of the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Biodiversity Offsets Scheme) Bill 2024 as an important first step in reforming NSW nature laws.
"We have been calling for reform of the broken scheme for many years, and today we finally have an important first step to deliver better protections for nature." said NCC Policy and Advocacy Director, Dr Brad Smith.
Statements attributable to NCC Policy and Advocacy Director, Dr Brad Smith:
"This Bill will finally create legal standards to make it clear that offsets should only be used as a genuine last resort, through the avoid and mitigate hierarchy - this is long overdue."
"It will also transition the scheme to achieving 'net positive' outcomes for biodiversity, something we urge the government to deliver as soon as possible."
"It is very encouraging to see the Government also recognise the need to consider 'Part 5' government development under the scheme, as the Minister said: "If the government expects the private sector to abide by biodiversity rules, we should do the same."
"We also welcome recognition of the need to reform the 'serious and irreversible impacts' provisions as part of the next tranche of work. This must be strengthened to prevent the destruction of irreplicable, high conservation value land. This is a crucial piece of puzzle to achieve nature positive outcomes in NSW."
"Despite today's progress, the biodiversity offsets scheme is still deeply flawed. We welcome the Minister's comments that "There is a lot more work to be done do to get the scheme right. This is just the beginning".
"We look forward to working with the government and all sides of politics to rein in habitat clearing and strengthen protections for biodiversity."
