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Mr MIKE BAIRD (Manly) [10.09 a.m.]: I lead for the Opposition on the Crown Lands Amendment (Special Purpose Leases) Bill. I acknowledge in the gallery a good friend of mine, Ben Hoskins. I thank him for the contribution he made to the 2007 State election campaign. Ben is a good young man and I appreciate the help he provided.
The stated object of the bill is to simplify land acquisition for renewable energy purposes to provide an alternative to compulsory acquisition through negotiated lease arrangements. If that is the premise of the legislation, the Opposition will support it. However, we seek assurances from the Government and the Parliamentary Secretary that the legislation will not be used to circumvent due process with regard to environmental planning and assessment.
We strongly support initiatives to boost sources of renewable energy in New South Wales. Indeed, New South Wales has been lagging behind other States for too long. However, we want to ensure that this bill is not used as a mechanism to facilitate land acquisition that bypasses proper environmental and planning requirements. We take it on good faith that this is not the intention of the bill, but I note in the agreement in principle speech that the Parliamentary Secretary said the Department of Planning "will continue to play a role." They are broad words and we seek specific confirmation that the processes will remain unchanged—that is, that this bill is solely about negotiating leases rather than compulsorily acquiring land in relation to this process. If that is the case, we remain supportive.
The object of the Crown Lands Amendment (Special Purpose Leases) Bill 2009 is to amend the Crown Lands Act 1989 to extend provisions permitting special purpose leases from the Western Division of New South Wales to the Eastern and Central Division to facilitate new renewable energy development such as small-scale wind farms. Clause 3 will allow the Minister for Lands to grant a second lease a special purpose lease [SPL] for a period of up to 100 years over a parcel of land within the boundaries of the pre-existing lease in the Eastern and Central Division of New South Wales. The special purpose lease could be granted only with the consent of the lessee and would run simultaneously with the pre-existing lease. The amendments will allow the State to enter into a direct lease without the need for the State to compulsorily acquire the land in question, or reduce the tenure connection to pre-existing tenants to their leasehold land.
The special purpose lease would be granted only for an approved purpose, being the construction and operation of facilities for the harnessing of energy from any source, including the sun or wind, and its conversion into electrical energy. Existing leaseholders in the Eastern and Central Division of New South Wales, such as graziers or farmers, will be able to negotiate for adequate compensation in return for their consent, while retaining the right to repossess the land once the special purpose lease expires.
The Coalition fully supports any initiatives that boost renewable energy supply in New South Wales. At the moment about 6 per cent of the total energy usage in New South Wales is provided from renewable energy sources, according to figures released last year. That is far less than States such as Queensland and Tasmania. Indeed, if we remove the Snowy Hydro, New South Wales is languishing quite significantly at about 1 per cent of total energy usage from renewable sources. It is time we got serious about renewable energy, which is one of the reasons we have supported initiatives such as gross feed-in tariffs, as an example. Certainly, we need to facilitate alternative energy usage. If this bill helps to facilitate that, we will be supportive.
According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, New South Wales uses the least amount of natural gas while Western Australia and Victoria remain streets ahead. On many renewable energy fronts New South Wales continues to lag behind the rest of the country.
Mr Frank Sartor: We have less in reserves.
Mr MIKE BAIRD: The former Minister for Planning says we have less in reserves. The truth is that the coal seam methane reserves are estimated to be in excess of Queensland.
The member for Burrinjuck has concerns affecting her electorate and we seek assurances. She said that the bill lacks clarity in the definition of a small-scale wind farm. I ask the Minister and the Parliamentary Secretary to outline what the Government intends to classify as a small-scale wind farm. The Coalition seeks assurances that the next step in this process will not be coastal wind farms and all their associated processes.
We are concerned about environmental assessment and planning. Section 44E of the Crown Lands Act 1989 states that the minimum distance of a special purpose lease to a dwelling must be more than 200 metres. The usually accepted minimum setback distance for wind turbines from dwellings is 800 metres. I understand that even from that distance noise can cause disturbance. I refer to the Gullen Range wind farm in the upper Lachlan shire of New South Wales, for example. If the Council were the planning authority for this wind farm, its development control plan would have insisted on a buffer zone of two kilometres, or 15 times the tip height of the turbine used, whichever is greater.
We seek clarity on behalf of leaseholders of Crown Land in the Eastern and Central Division of New South Wales as to the minimum distance that will apply between special purpose leases and existing dwellings in relation to this bill. Those real concerns are at the forefront, particularly for local members such as the member for Burrinjuck. Further to this, in the case of the Gullen Range wind farm, the approval required only above-ground structures be removed on decommissioning, however, each structure has around 20 metres of concrete foundations below ground that could be a potential source of contamination if not removed. We seek assurances that the bill will not allow this to occur on Crown land.
Broadly we support the bill and its intent as a mechanism to enable the Government to charge fair rent for the use of Crown land for renewable energy production. We support the bill as a mechanism to simplify land acquisition or the use of land rather than through compulsory acquisition, and the ability to sublease. Certainly, that makes sense if it remains the intent of the bill.
We seek clarity on the concerns we have raised and we seek assurances that the bill will not be used to circumvent the proper environmental and planning process. That is our primary concern with the bill. As the bill is presented on good faith, we support its tenets.
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