The Deal Is Done, But All Is Not Lost At Catho

Newcastle Herald

Thursday September 11, 2008

writes Sue Whyte

THE State Government's decision last week to approve the massive development proposed for Catherine Hill Bay is a sad and tragic outcome for the people of NSW and especially for folks in the Hunter.

That this decision didn't come as a surprise to anyone least of all the people who live in Catherine Hill Bay is also a sad and sorry reflection of the way government policies are conducted in NSW these days.

No doubt the Government will try to sell it as a good outcome, made with the community in mind, but the only thing the community should know about the decision is this: that it was first and foremost a deal between the developer and the Government.

In October 2006, then minister for planning Frank Sartor negotiated a deal with landholders Rose Group and Coal and Allied to allow them to bypass planning laws and council regulations to build on protected land. Last week he signed off on that deal.

It would seem neither urban planners from councils, nor community representatives nor heritage experts were paid any heed. Even the independent umpire of the Land and Environment Court was kept out.

Under part 3A of the planning law introduced and then used extensively, Mr Sartor made himself the sole consent authority on developments that took his interest all he had to do was declare them "major" projects. Wherever you go in this state, from Catherine Hill Bay to Currawong to Wollongong, it's the same story, the same deal, the same winners and losers.

The method is the appointment of the independent panel, whose members are selected by the minister, whose terms of reference are determined by the minister and whose decision the minister can apparently ignore.

The public are invited to comment on development proposals in the form of submissions, but they, too, may be ignored.

Nearly 6000 submissions objecting to the Rose Group's two proposals were sent to the Planning Department. The submissions came from far and wide, from experts, surfers, and mums and dads.

Their opinion was unanimous: don't destroy the Bay; protect it for our children.

It is little wonder that the public feels it's being treated with contempt.

It is little wonder that State Labor is on the nose, even in traditional heartlands like Newcastle, the Central Coast and Wollongong.

How can you vote for a party that first takes you for granted and then betrays you?

Yes, the people of Catherine Hill Bay feel betrayed by this State Government.

But our sense of loss is not just personal; we feel strongly that this is a loss for the people of NSW and Australia.

For more than a century, the Catherine Hill Bay Progress Association has seen its role as caretaker of a special place.

We have long argued that big housing estates in the Bay would overwhelm and disfigure the land, the beach, the history and the community.

Once the bulldozers move in and the first brick is laid down, dear old Catho is on the way to looking like all the other suburbs that stretch from Sydney to Newcastle.

Once 900 homes are finished, the shops built, the roads and carparks sealed, there will be little left to remind people that here was a mining town with a unique identity forged in 140 years of working life and stunning natural surroundings.

The "pearl of the coast" will become a white elephant, with hundreds of houses built far from infrastructure and transport.

The bushland and wildlife judged by a government department to be of high conservation value will also be gone, forever.

While the news this week is depressing, the community will not give up on the Bay.

While the Government may have sold Catho to the developer, the community will never accept this deeply flawed proposal. We take heart in the Gunns pulp mill example in northern Tasmania.

Two years after it was approved by the Howard government not one sod of earth has been turned because of public opposition. Even the banks are fleeing from the project.

In an editorial two years ago, this paper urged the minister not to proceed with the development at Catherine Hill Bay.

Mr Sartor, it wrote, "would surely not want to go down in history as the man who destroyed a precious piece of Australia's history. A society that obliterates its past faces a soulless future."

Hopefully the new Minister for Planning, Kristina Keneally, will take community wishes into account.

Sue Whyte is president of the Catherine Hill Bay Progress Association.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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