Moorebank Intermodal withholds notification of threatened plant discoveries

Media release from RAID Moorebank Vice President, Jennifer French
Did a Federal Government Business Enterprise knowingly withhold information from State Government Agencies?
As Chris Corrigan’s Qube Logistics continues to promote the much hyped Moorebank Intermodal Container Terminal, there is growing concern that the Leaseholder [GBE] Moorebank Intermodal Company Limited may have intervened to limit and or suppress information that may have contradicted a previous consent and or impacted on determinations being conducted by the NSW Planning and Assessment Commission.
The attached documents indicate that a number of threatened species and the now critically endangered Hibbertia Fumana were discovered in October / November of 2016. The Planning and Assessment Commission made its determination in early December without access to this information. A representative of PAC advised that; the first it had heard of the discovery of the presumed extinct flower, was when the story originally broke in the press – SMH.
The rediscovered critically endangered species exists in an eco system of other threatened species and vegetations communites. This land is on the northern tip of Holsworthy Military Reserve, which according to an Environment Officer for the Department of Defence; is considered to be “in the top 5, in the state for species diversity”.
It is this land that will traversed by the proposed heavy rail spur line. The plants and ecosystem cannot be moved; there can be no legitimately buy biodiversity credits to offset losing a critically endangered species; without the rail spur, there is no intermodal.
One might consider such circumstances to be of great relevance to the Planning & Assessment Commission and its deliberations.
Please click links and download official Media Release and supporting FOI documents:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64316710/RAID/MIC_Withholds.pdf
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64316710/RAID/FOI%20170203%20third%20party%20documents%20for%20release.pdf
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2 comments
Login here Register hereCapitalism has no respect for the environment and neither do our politicians.
Bits of bushland and patches of trees are only seen as places awaiting development, not yet in use, waste ground. Emphasis needs to be placed on the precious nature of any remnant bushland in the city, and alternatives found. Surely the project could use the huge areas of industrial development. Knocking down a few old factories would not cost much, and there is enough of a transport network in the area to provide a further rail corridor if needed. I suspect the bushland would be made available at little cost but derelict factories would have a higher price. There is no value placed on the ecosystem services of bushland, or on the social need for green areas