UDIA is aware that the NSW Government is considering an option to approve the Cumberland Plain
Conservation Plan (CPCP) under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2021 in advance of the required
approval by the Federal Minister for the Environment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
Whilst we are interested in how this may work; we are concerned that this proposal will only further
complicate a difficult joint-approval process.
The separate approvals approach takes away the certainty that the CPCP offers, leaving developers to run
a concurrent process under the EPBC Act with a development application. Noting there is no guarantee
on the commonwealth approval, which also reflects the current situation without the CPCP.
This level of uncertainty adds risks to the NSW development process, especially since the proposed
biodiversity charge contained in the Infrastructure Contributions Reform Package has not been resolved.
It could also lead to a need for a potential developer compensatory mechanism should a charge be
payable under both the NSW and Commonwealth legislation, until the CPCP is signed off by the
Commonwealth.
There is also uncertainty around what this means for contributions, and it could result in a developer
paying a Regional Infrastructure Contribution to offset the NSW requirement, but then being required to
pay for a different kind of offset to the Commonwealth.