Battle of the Bill
Filming Approval Bill 2004
(July 2004)
The article in last month's Hut News described the situation to 30 May
2004 - a few days before the Filming Amendment Bill 2004 was due to
come before the Parliament. The Bill was debated in the Upper House
on 2 and 3 June, and finalised in the Lower house on 4 June. A total
of thirteen amendments were agreed.
The good news is that the amendments provide strong constraints for
filming in wilderness areas. Films like "Stealth" are clearly
excluded from wilderness areas.
The bill now also contains additional environmental criteria which the
Minister must take into account when issuing a filming approval. Protection
for recovery plans for threatened species was also added.
The bad news is that third party appeal rights were diminished.
Legal challenges to the validity of a filming approval can only be initiated
within 14 days of the issuing of a filming approval. Legal challenges
arising from breaches of the conditions of a filming approval can only
succeed after the Department of Environment and Conservation has been
given 30 days to remedy the complaint.
The 14 day and 30 day conditions did not previously exist. They have
come into being despite the Minister's assertion that "third party
appeal rights will exist as they were before". The 30 day rule
means that, in future, if the conditions of approval are breached and
the environment movement wants to remedy the situation, this new 30
day rule requires that 30 days must elapse before the Court can issue
an injunction or other direction to stop the damage. The likelihood
is that filming will be finished before 30 days have elapsed. In the
Stealth case the filming was scheduled to take between one and two weeks.
Our website contains a copy of the draft
bill, the approved
bill and a schedule
which compares the draft and the approved bill.
The Stealth issue has again demonstrated the strong commitment to our
natural environment held by Blue Mountains residents. The successful
campaign to protect Butterbox Point was a co-operative effort between
residents and environmental groups, including Colong Foundation for
Wilderness, National Parks Association, Blue Mountains Conservation
Society, members of the Wilderness Society, Greens MLC Ian Cohen, Democrats
MLC Arthur Chesterfield Evans, Environmental Defender's Office and many
other individuals.
Thank you to everyone who was involved in the campaign - attending meetings
and rallies, blockading, writing a letter, sending a fax, lobbying politicians,
handing out leaflets, talking to people …
This tremendous effort could only have happened in the Blue Mountains!
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