Planning rules changed to stop long distance agitators hijacking wind, solar and battery approvals

The New South Wales state government has made significant changes to its planning rules to deny the ability of long distance agitators to mount orchestrated campaigns and hold up planning approvals for new wind, solar and battery projects.

The package of changes, made by state planning minister Paul Scully, lifts the bar on the number of objections that can trigger an automatic independent review of projects, disallows interstate and overseas complaints, and excludes grid scale battery projects from the process altogether.

The NSW system currently requires projects that attract more than 50 objections to be referred to the Independent Planning Commission.

But the process has been hijacked by a group of agitators, many of them living interstate, overseas or hundreds of kilometres, with sometimes wild claims that have no relevance to the project itself. This is affecting nearly nine out of 10 renewable energy projects, adding up to 300 days to the assessment process.

“The Independent Planning Commission plays an important role in the planning system, but objectors from interstate and overseas have turned what should be a clear pathway into a clogged pipeline,” Scully said in a statement.

“These are decisions that shape our communities, our economy, and our future. They should not be driven by organised interstate and international political campaigns from objectors as far as the United States.”

Scully said the reforms would mean IPC will be able to focus on projects that communities care about most, and will not dilute the requirements on project developers.

“Councils will continue to play a vital role in the planning process, their advice will continue to be carefully considered, and communities will continue to have their say,” he said.

“These reforms make sure that submissions that trigger an IPC referral come from individuals, businesses, and communities with a genuine connection to NSW.”

State significant data centres, resource projects or energy projects will now only be referred to the IPC if they receive 100 or more objections, or if a reportable political donation has been made.

This appears designed to circumvent the efforts of small groups of agitators, some of them located in small towns, who – as Renew Economy has reported – have been filing multiple submissions across a range of projects, often confusing their names and lodging complaints about the transition to renewables rather than the projects themselves.

The NSW department cited a number of examples that prompted the changes, including the Homebush battery, designated to be built on old industrial land next to one of the city’s major freeways.

The department noted that 19 of the 59 objections were from outside of NSW, and this added a number of months to the planning process. But as Renew Economy wrote at the time, most of those within NSW came from repeat opponents, most of them located more than 800 km away.

See: Big battery in middle of Sydney forced to planning review by residents of tiny towns 800 km away

The NSW planning department says standalone battery storage projects have been removed from the IPC removal process because they are regarded as low risk and well understood, and the Department is best placed to assess them efficiently.

Renew Economy understand that the changes will come to late for projects such as the Ebor and Romani batteries, which are destined to be referred to the IPC because of the weight of submissions, including those from interstate, that oppose the projects.

Renew Economy reported earlier this week that the submissions came from familiar areas and with familiar themes, including claims that renewables will lead to communism and that they encourage slavery because they include cobalt (they don’t).

The new rules will take effect from August 19, but projects already in the planning pipeline such as Ebor and Romani will still have to face an IPC review.

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