The Greens Vote on Sep 15: CEC Clarification of the issue

“This NEFA et al inputted method is surprisingly good given the realities on the ground.

“The Australian National University were contracted to draft it, … 

“… locally they invited NEFA et al to submit input …

“… Dailan Pugh et al specifically raised the issue of permanence [*Note: other cc nf methods are for only 21 years then the forest goes back into the harvesting pool to be re-contracted, or not.]

“Dailan et al also included that cutting the surrounding forest region be reduced 20% below baseline.

“The ANU included both as draft.

“And the thing that is surprising about it is that the government said “Yes.”

“And we are about to lose this because of an already lost either way principled Greens Policy of native forests not being in the carbon credits scheme. read more

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Sue Higginson Gets It.

Sue Higginson went on to say, ‘I do not support this method, but if it’s removed then we know an alternate method already developed by the native forest logging industry will be put forward, and it will mean that the logging continues and carbon credits will be generated from forests anyway.’

‘The most respected legal, ecological, and economic leaders in the environment movement recognise that this method is high integrity and will permanently protect forests.’

The federal Greens may likely vote with the National ect to disallow a method of forests for carbon credits inputted by environmental groups, and an industry method will be introduced instead, for a principled policy which will be lost either way. read more

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Will the Federal Greens really vote to scrap the NEFA/CEC supported cc scheme method that pays the NSW government to take public native forest out of the harvest schedule … for a principle that is already lost?

This is about State Owned Native Forests and big news about stopping the logging.

A carbon credits scheme already exists in Australia and is operational: forest establishment projects and other carbon abatement projects generate carbon credit certificates, polluters must cut ‘excess emissions’ or buy the carbon credits. The model is that the polluters therefore finance the carbon abatement projects.

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The Australian National University were contracted to draft the Native Forests part of the carbon credits scheme, the ‘rules’ about the State taking more State forests off the ‘harvestable’ list in return for carbon credits money.

Forest Alliance campaigners were specifically asked for their input, our friends at NEFA et al asked for Big Wins, and the NSW Labour Government, to their credit, said surprisingly yes. read more

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Sustainable Living Festival – 12 September – Program now available

TSC:

“The Tweed Shire Council Sustainable Living Festival is now less than 2 weeks away and the full program is now live. 

There are lots of topics to inspire our community about rewilding their backyards, electrifying their home, making more sustainable food choices, being prepared for emergencies and more resilient in a changing climate, ethical investing, and much more! 

There will be a local seamstress available to provide tips for mending and getting more wear from your wardrobe. 

The Kingscliff Men’s Shed will also provide tips and advice for fixing or upcycling your stuff. They will also have a range of second-hand tools on sale.

  • If you have small furniture items, bikes, clothes etc., bring them along for some tips!

There are more than 20 presentations and workshops, and 20+ stalls to browse. We’ll also have food and entertainment to create a great day out. read more

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The TSC Draft Growth Management, Housing and Employment Strategy (Draft GMHES)

CEC Highlighted for speed and ease of reading.

The ‘GMHE Strategy’ implements the NSW State planning policy the North Coast Regional Plan 2041, which requires Councils to “Identify and direct suitable land to accommodate planned growth” “to respond to higher than expected housing demand.” The GMHE Strategy identifies that land.

From the TSC draft GMHES:

“Current population 99,793, growing to 107,125–119,082 by 2041. Previous GMHES work identified a potential upper limit of 128,333.”

“Capacity to deliver approximately 27,400 new dwellings.” [!]

Hinterland villages to grow via boundary expansions (Burringbar, Tumbulgum, Tyalgum and Uki) and infill: (Chillingham, Crabbes Creek and Stokers Siding). read more

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The Tweed Rural Housing Issue

CEC Note Regarding the Rural Housing component of TSC’s ‘Draft GMHE Strategy’:

WRT Section D1.5.1, p.60. “Rural Housing.

“Secondary dwellings (granny flats) or dual occupancy (detached) … in the RU1 Primary Production and RU2 Rural Landscape zones. These can occur where:

  • “lots have a minimum lot size of 5 hectares.
  • “secondary dwellings have a maximum [floor] size of 60m2.
  • “the additional dwelling is located no more than 100 metres away from the principal dwelling.
  • “sharing a single property access point and driveway.”

We [CEC] object to the draft 5 hectares minimum lot size for eligibility for the secondary dwelling / dual occupancy.

Our [CEC] position is that such allowance should be only on land over 40 hectares.

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Background: The NSW Government’s ‘North Coast Regional Plan 2041’ requires Councils to “Identify and direct suitable land to accommodate planned growth” “to respond to higher than expected housing demand.” Tweed Shire Council have in response published for public comment the draft of their updated ‘Growth Management, Housing and Employment Strategy’, the GMHES, which identifies that land. read more

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The aim of the CEC

The following statement of our purpose is from our Constitution:

“The aim of the Caldera Environment Centre shall be to promote the conservation, protection and betterment of the environment along sound ecological guidelines.”

Caldera Environment Centre

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Submission – Variations and Changes to Complying Development

Summary 

The State is proposing to increase the uptake of ‘Complying Development’ applications to fast track housing.

Complying Development replaces Tweed’s building assessment codes with statewide, cookie cutter, ‘sea of roof’ style, building codes, that bypass consideration of virtually all other Tweed planning controls, bypass public exhibition, and bypass your right to legal appeal. 

The character of our Shire would be stripped away, forming one urban sprawl to the next under these State building codes. 

———-

Submission Objecting to the Proposed NSW Variations and Changes to Complying Development.  

The Caldera Environment Centre objects to the proposed NSW ‘Variations and Changes to Complying Development’ provisions as they apply to Tweed Shire. read more

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Submission: Low Rise Housing and Targeted Assessment Pathways

Summary:

The State is proposing another, whole new development pathway, called Targeted Assessments. This would be for virtually all other residential developments that still doesn’t fit the Complying Development criteria. 

The State’s cookie cutter building codes would again replace Tweeds building codes for these Targeted Assessments, and Tweed’s other planning and environmental controls would be weakened so much as to be virtually ineffective except in the most extreme cases.

Tweed has the highest number of threatened species in Australia, is a fragile, steep, wet, active, erosion caldera, and has an urban population within the midst of this stunning ‘National Iconic Landscape’.  We have an obligation to protect this region in Australia’s public interest.  read more

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World Environment Day Festival 2026

Well done to all for the event, a turn-out of local community groups, all with the common interest of the local natural environment, its value, its preservation and its restoration.

Thank you all.

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The Caldera – The Tweed Volcano Erosion Caldera

The Tweed Volcano: twenty million years ago, three million years of periodic volcanic eruptions.

Lava flows from volcanic eruptions over 3 million years left layer upon layer of lava, forming a ‘shield volcano’, a circular, dome shaped mound of layered lava, hardened into hard basalt rock, to a height of 800 meters above the current height of Mt Warning, covering the landscape to the south as far as Alstonville and past Kyogle to the west.

Oxygen and water have ‘chemically decomposed’ the hard basalt rock of the shield volcano into a soft, friable, fine, red colour, fertile clay soil.

Because of the the shape of the coastal landscape, and because of coastal current and weather patterns, and because of the the height and shape of the volcano, there is an unusually high localised rainfall over the volcano. read more

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Housing and the Environment – Finding the Balance: Mur’bah Daring Dialogues

With the NSW removal of public consultation for neighbouring buildings approval, with the TSC vote to permit un-rate-chargable second remote dwelling construction, with the public apathy of defeatism … what on earth will become of the landscape ecology and what can be done to arrest the building out of the Tweed rural and natural environment. A Daring Dialogue at the Kambucha Cafe Tuesday 9th June 6.30pm.

Please also be aware of the Draft Growth Management Housing and Employment Strategy (GMHES) (soon up for exhibition) and a new fast track proposal by the state that will bypass the low rise housing (1-2 storey) DAs and their local conditions such as site placement, compensatory bush regeneration etc.  read more

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URGENT Your Right to be Consulted under Threat

RED ALERT!!!

Very important – submissions needed please before 5pm 3rd June.

Proposed NSW Community Participation Plan.

NSW Labor and the Liberals have teamed up again this time to attack your right to community consultation on local development applications.

Thrilled by their latest success in December that will entirely strip your local Councillors of any powers to determine development applications, they are now trying to cut the community out too.

Under their new proposed Community Participation Plan a development application won’t be publicly advertised for comment if it apparently meets all the planning controls, whether it’s the house next door or a high rise.
The problem is that planning controls can be open to interpretation and arguable, eg bulk and scale, visual impact, privacy, environmental impact or even hazard risk impacts. That’s why we have consultation. read more

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NSW Government’s Forest Industry Action Plan, Consultation Report Released

Stakeholder Consultation Report, attached, interesting bits highlighted for quicker reading.

Highlights:

Submissions from more than 1500 individuals and 160 organisations.

Viewpoints and evidence in support of environmental concerns tended to submit that:

• Native forest harvesting in NSW has major impacts on biodiversity and endangered species and should cease as soon as possible.

• Healthy, protected and intact forests are intrinsically, socially and culturally valuable.

• The forestry industry does not have the capability to deliver beneficial environmental outcomes.

NEFA: “Stakeholder Consultation Report confirms the public want an end to logging public native forests.”

“The Stakeholder Consultation Report for NSW’s Forestry Industry Action Plan (FIAP) raises more questions than it answers, though with 70% of submissions expressing support for ending native forestry it confirms that most people want an end to this archaic and destructive industry. read more

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Thank You Council: Microplastics with your coffee

Council voted 3 to 4 against the proposed single use materials policy, which would have banned plastic lined cardboard coffee cups at public markets on Council land.

Councillor James Owen, voting against the policy, said “Any Councillor who votes for this policy is against small businesses.” No Councillor James Owen, that’s not true. The other Councillors are against waste, single use plastics, and we reckon that if the small business owners of the market coffee shop stalls knew they are ingesting millions of nanoparticles of plastic with every cup of coffee, they themselves wouldn’t drink from a plastic lined cardboard coffee cup.

When the plasticised-cardboard of the take-away coffee cup goes through the temperature change of being filled with the hot liquid, thousands of micro and millions of nano sized plastic molecules fracture and fragment away from the plasticised-cardboard, into your cup of coffee. [Source: (link).] read more

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[nefanews] Local Land Services Amendment (Private Native Forestry) Bill 2026

The Shooters and Fishers Party seek to stop Councils that require consent for PNF in rural zones (most private native vegetation) from doing so, such as Kyogle, Tweed, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie-Hastings, ect.

They don’t want logging to be subject to the same scrutiny as most other developments that require DAs – such as actually having to survey for threatened species, complying with Council requirements, notifying neighbours, and assessing impacts. They just want to comply with LLS’s tick-a-box assessments.  

The Shooters and Fishers have introduced “An Act to amend the Local Land Services Act 2013 and the standard instrument prescribed for principal local environmental plans under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 in relation to private native forestry; and for related purposes“. read more

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M’Arts, Food Forever

Talk & Community Forum.

Food Forever!

Building a local food movement for the Northern Rivers with Michael Shuman.

Sat 23 May, 2–4:30pm at MJArts Precinct, Mur’bah.

Only $5 entry (kids free).

Ideas, skills & action needed!

Scan QR or get tix @ Humanitix.

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Forest Frontline Forum

On March 21, at the Southern Cross University campus, hear from frontline campaigners and local experts who know the forests best, to hear about the plan to secure protection for Richmond River Koala Parks.

This is a chance to understand what’s at stake – and how protection is possible when our community stands together.

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Tell Council: “YES, do that.”

They are asking, so tell Council “YES” to going back to crockery and cutlery at events and markets.

When the single use plasticised-cardboard take-away coffee cup goes through the temperature change of being filled with the hot liquid, thousands of micro and millions of nano sized plastic molecules fracture and fragment away from the plasticised-cardboard, into your cup of coffee. Almost all plastic we ingest passes through us, though the <1% we retain accumulates primarily in the brain. Lets not ingest plastic.

We note that washable plastic cups or plates will of course still leave the problem of millions of plastic particles shattering and fragmenting from the plastic due to temperature change of the hot food or drink, and ingested. We therefore request and highly recommend the inclusion in the policy that replacement of the single use items is to be with non-plastic cups and plates, even if washable, due to the the plastic ingestion issue. read more

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SAY NO TO PLASTIC!

Shop at the Caldera Environment Centre Instead.

Reusable beeswax wraps are an alternative to plastic wrap.

The wraps we stock are made with organic cotton, and are made locally (in Byron).

“Shape the wrap over food and dishes … wrap fruit and veggies … seal in the freshness and keep food fresh for longer, cover a bowl or a plate, wrap half an avocado, fresh herbs, celery, kale, shallots, breads, sandwiches and snacks on the go … take your lunch to work in a beeswax wrap … use as a cover on kombucha and fermented foods.”

The beeswax wraps are compostable at the end of their life cycle. Plastic wrap never decomposes and will be around for 300,000 years or more.

Using plastic feels awful. Emotionally, deep within you, you are unhappy about the plastic situation.

Replace plastic where you can in your everyday life with nice natural decomposable things and you will remove some of the everyday triggers which make you so unhappy and instead you will have happy feelings about the natural alternatives you now use. read more

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Please make your Submission to the TSC Draft Development Control Plan

The opportunity to ‘Have Your Say’ on the Tweed Development Control Plan closes 5pm Friday!

We’ve attached the CEC submission document for your interest, and for copy and pasting all or parts of as your own submission which is allowed and we encourage.

Please do make a submission, it is quick and easy on the Council website (link here: www.yoursay), or forward the attached CEC submission expressing your own support for it (email to tsc@tweed.nsw.gov.au).

To the General Manager Tweed Shire Council,

Submission on the Draft Tweed Development Control Plan 2026.

Tweed Council is commended for the many proposed improvements to the Tweed Development Control Plan.

Please find below some further requests for inclusion in the Plan. read more

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The Draft Tweed Development Control Plan – Have Your Say

The Tweed Development Control Plan (DCP) is the Plan by which Council Controls Building and Development Works.

Section B2 of the plan, ‘Preservation of (Urban) Trees and Vegetation’, applies restrictions on the clearing of vegetation.

The CEC support that the draft includes a new protection level for urban local natives at 3 m or higher, previously 5 m, and exotics protected at 40 cm stem diameter, previously 80 cm.

These new reduced limitations are reflected in Table B2.1, urban vegetation which cannot be cleared without Council approval.

Link to Tweed Shire Council’s website to Have Your Say: www.yoursay

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WITHDRAWN! Fingal Mining Exploration Licence Application

Update: The application has been withdrawn.

An exploration licence application to sample the mineral content of the sand that is being pumped by the Tweed Sand Bypass at Fingal Head NSW to the Gold Coast beaches was advertised in the Tweed Valley Weekly Public Notices on 19th Feb.

Minerals sought include Rutile, Zircon and Ilmenite. 

If sampling is successful the aim is to build a processing plant next to / connected to the Sand Bypass to extract these heavy minerals from the pumped sand.  

The extracted minerals would be trucked out through Fingal Head.

We don’t know the specific method of extraction or its actual impacts but concerns from initial research of such activities include: read more

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Takayna/Tarkine Rainforest Update

While a mining company’s scrapping of plans for a tailings dam in Tasmania’s Takayna rainforest is welcome, its revised site reflects how little the environment minister cares. By Bob Brown.

“MMG was flagging the withdrawal of its contentious plan to dump its acid wastes in the Takayna/Tarkine rainforest at McKimmie Creek. That project involved constructing a pipeline from Rosebery, north over the Pieman River into Takayna – discounting the values of the rainforest and its wildlife to zero.

Read more: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/share/22750/VkQBExYS

Also, a reminder of the March for Forests in March event, Lismore, Sunday 22nd of March.

March in March for Forestshttps://marchforforests.org  read more

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Caldera Report > With Every Cup of Coffee: 25,000 micron-sized and 12 million nano-sized microplastic particles!

Cardboard take away coffee cups are plasticised, because, if not, the cardboard cup would soak and fall apart when filled with liquid.

When the plasticised-cardboard of the take-away coffee cup goes through the temperature change of being filled with the hot liquid, thousands of micro and millions of nano sized plastic molecules fracture and fragment away from the plasticised-cardboard, into your cup of coffee. [Source: (link).]

Mostly the plastic we ingest passes through us, however, we accumulate plastic nano-particles and studies show them throughout our bodies.

The plastic nano molecules we accumulate accumulate primarily in our brains, we don’t know why, however plastic accumulates in our bodies mostly in our brain, Plastic accumulates in the brain at ~10 times higher levels than in the liver or kidneys (91% vs. 4% and 4% of total plastic mass in these organs). [Source: (link).] read more

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The Wollumbin Caldera – It’s Geological Formation and Flora

The Wollumbin / Mount Warning shield volcano and its erosion caldera is a unique volcanic landform which has functioned as a refugium, over the 20 million years since it’s formation, for a core area of Gondwana rainforest flora.

The Caldera is located in a major climatic transition zone, between temperate and tropical floral and faunal species, giving high species diversity under a wide range of habitats, its volcanic origins and very high localised rainfall make this a very complex and interesting landform.

20 million years ago the continent, bearing its Gondwanic rainforest flora, was moving north, away from Antarctica. The continent had been passing over one of the earths hotspots, and this had given rise to a chain of volcanic activity down the east coast of the continent, including the volcanic eruption and subsequent laval covering of the landscape which was the formation of the Mount Warning / Wollumbin Shield Volcano. The height and spread of the laval mound of the volcano is estimated at 2km high and a spread which for example extended 30km out onto the continental shelf beyond the current sea level. read more

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They are removing the environmental protections from the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act [!] .

Key purposes of the Act until now have been: to ensure that ‘development’ is done in an environmentally sustainable way; to protect the environment; to ensure community participation – they are rewriting it so that they can ignore all of those things.

Example: One of the many changes is a new assessment pathway that is “unconstrained and expressly prohibits consideration of environmental impacts and the public interest.” note the EDO.

The intention behind the changes is to allow development in otherwise environmentally protected areas.

The Act is New South Wales’ primary legislation for land use planning and development assessment. It governs environmental planning instruments like State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs) and Local Environmental Plans (LEPs). read more

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Tweed Landcare UPCOMING EVENT Seed Collection Safari

Join Tweed Landcare and Michelle Chapman for an engaging and informative seed collecting safari bus trip. Contribute to the North Coast Regional Seedbank Project, creating a vital, genetically diverse native seedbank for the entire NSW North Coast region.

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The Tweed Valley: “A deep rich valley clothed with magnificent trees, … ” Oxley: 1823

In 1823 John Oxley was the first European to see the Tweed Valley, and he wrote of it: “A deep rich valley clothed with magnificent trees, the beautiful uniformity of which was only interrupted by the turns and windings of the river, which here and there appeared like small lakes. The background was Mt. Warning. The view was altogether beautiful beyond description. The scenery here exceeded anything I have previously seen in Australia.”

Oxley was sailing up the eastern coast of Australia from Sydney in search of a penal settlement site “for difficult convicts”. Sailing further, they decided on Redcliffe, part of now Brisbane (perhaps explaining something of the Queensland culture of today). read more

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We Are All Ingesting Plastic

Plastic does not decompose back to its original naturally occurring elements. The plastic existing today, if exposed to sunlight, temperature change or abrasion, will degrade into smaller particles, though those particles will still exist, hundreds of thousands to millions of years from now.

The CEC note the growing awareness of the public to the issue of our unwanted ingestion of these plastic molecules, and the retention of these molecules in our bodies.

Bioaccumulation of microplastics in human brains.

25,000 micron-sized microplastic particles released from disposable paper cup into 100ml hot drink, 21 million sub micron particles [!].

Microplastic flakes found in ‘almost all’ bottles of mineral water on sale.  read more

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Live at The Citadel: The Mushroom Whisperers is an immersive experience, perfect for the intimacy, acoustics and intention of The Citadel.

Sunday December 14th 3pm & 7pm.

You might have caught Follow the Rain on Netflix;Steve Axford and Catherine Marciniak’s gorgeous stop-motion fungi imagery and documentary, affectionately known as “the Fungi film”.

As a special event for the arts and nature lovers of Murwillumbah, the world-class musicians behind the music to Follow the Rain are coming to perform live at The Citadel. 

Carla (flute & voice) and Romano (violin & piano) accompany additional fungi time-lapse imagery to channel the hidden pulse of the fungal kingdom. Fusion arts and improvisation at its most exquisite.

The Mushroom Whisperers is an immersive experience, perfect for the intimacy, acoustics and intention of The Citadel. We invite you to join us in this enchanting world where music and nature intertwine. read more

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The NSW Far North Coast Regional Water Supply Project

NRG: The NSW Far North Coast Regional Water Supply Project will be assessing regional options to improve long-term water security in our region. Several information sessions will be held to inform the public about the project. One will be held online; the others will be local drop-in sessions. See details below, as provided by the project:

Online session:  
Wednesday 19 November 2025, from 10.30 am – 12 pm via MS Teams. To register, go here. 

Drop-in sessions: 
Sessions will be held in Tweed Heads, Byron Bay, Ballina, Mullumbimby, Casino, Lismore and Murwillumbah. 

  • Monday 24 November from 5 pm –7 pm at Tweed Heads South Community Centre, 18 Heffron Street, Tweed Heads 
  • Tuesday 25 November from 10 am – 12 pm at Murwillumbah Community Centre, 113 Wollumbin St, Murwillumbah 
  • Tuesday 25 November from 4 pm – 6 pm at Byron Community Centre, 69 Jonson St,Byron Bay 
  • Wednesday 26 November from 10 am – 12 pm at Mullumbimby CWA Hall, Cnr Gordon and Tincogan Sts, Mullumbimby 
  • Wednesday 26 November from 4 pm – 6 pm at Ballina Surf Club, 65 Lighthouse Pde, Ballina 
  • Thursday 27 November from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm at Lismore Library, 110 Magellan Street, Lismore 
  • Thursday 27 November from 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm at Casino Community and Cultural Centre, 35 Walker Street, Casino 

Registration for drop-in sessions is not required.

We look forward to sharing project updates.

For more information, visit the project webpage.  read more

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30 years of removing legal safeguards for native forests is destroying what is left of native forest ecologies.

Below is a concise summary of legislation changes over the past 30 years that have removed existing legal protections and increased the destructiveness of logging of native forests.

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1.  Native Vegetation Conservation Act 1997 (NSW) – [Later replaced by the [even worse] Native Vegetation Act 2003:

The 1997 Act claimed to regulate land clearing but instead allowed exemptions for forestry operations from existing regulations under Integrated Forestry Operations Approvals (IFOAs).

The 2003 Act relaxed restrictions further, introducing self-assessment for landholders and reducing oversight on clearing activities.

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2.  Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment Act 2005 (NSW):

This amendment reduced scrutiny and simplified development approvals, reducing environmental impact assessments for forestry and other projects. read more

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Dear Tweed Shire Council,

I strongly support the proposed funding in Council’s budget for maintenance of Tweed’s Littoral Rainforest remnants, as has been proposed by Councillor Firth and is awaiting a vote of the 7 Councillors.

Regarding the Literal Rainforest remnants:

4 Council owned small pockets of land with trees and related ecologies.

Council is deciding soon that Council can’t afford weed control and basic vegetative management, so they won’t approve it in the budget, so it will continue to be uncared for.

The 4 small patches of rainforest are almost all that is left of what was once the best remaining rainforest on the mainland, The Rainforest of the Tweed Volcano Caldera. read more

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[nefanews] Will the Feds save forests?

There has been some hope that the Federal changes to the EP(BC) Act (the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act) may result in improvements for native forests, such as by adopting and applying strong  environmental standards that over-ride RFAs, though an assessment of the new laws by EJA maintains that we will be worse off on most counts (https://envirojustice.org.au/environment-law-reform-scorecard/). EDO also consider that the positives are undermined by extensive exemptions and opportunities for ministerial discretion (https://www.edo.org.au/2025/10/31/epbc-act-reforms-make-it-to-parliament-edos-first-impressions/). It seems that for forests we will still suffer under 25 year old “evergreened” RFAs, applied through nice sounding intents, such as ‘ecologically sustainable’ and ‘adaptive management’, that can actually mean whatever the Governments want (usually nothing). Given that we already have species recovery plans that are meant to apply to forestry, but in practice make no difference, it seems the national standards will be more of the same. read more

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TVW: Planning Reform Fears

Tweed Valley Weekly interview with TSC Councilor Nola Firth about the planned NSW Planning Reforms Bill and its implications:

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NCC: Email your MP, Template, Stop the NSW Government’s Plan to Weaken Planning Laws

This is the most significant reduction in development controls in 50 years, and it’s being done with zero public consultation. If passed, these reforms will be a giant step backward for environmental protections in NSW and significantly undermine the progress we are aiming to achieve. 

If passed this Bill will:

  • Remove mentions of environmental protection and conservation of native species from the objects of the EP&A Act, and shift focus away from community wellbeing and public interest.
  • Introduce of Targeted Assessment Developments as a new fast-tracked assessment pathway — with no guardrails on what type of development could be fast-tracked with minimal assessment.
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TSC October Monthly Meeting, agenda item: Roadside Plastic Litter Pick-Up Pre-Mowing: Admin Staff are Against [ !! ]

At the next Tweed Council Monthly public access meeting is a plastics issue, namely mowing it smaller vs picking it up first.

Plastic does not decompose, it may degrade into smaller pieces when exposed to sunlight or temperature change but it will always remain. We either pick it up or live with it as forever litter’. Should Council pick it up or leave it lying around forever?

If it’s on the roadside, is mowing it smaller and smaller the best solution? Council Administration Staff seem to think so.

Plastic is a forever molecule, the plastic today will still be here in 500 million years. Plastic does not decompose back to natural elements. It may degrade, if it is exposed to sunlight, temperature change, or abrasion, though that is it just getting smaller, it will NEVER go away, it will never decompose back to its natural elements. read more

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TSC Notice of Motion: Cr Firth – Accessing Soft Plastic Recycling

Councillor Nola Firth has submitted to Council the following Notice of Motion:

In Tweed shire we are currently collectively dumping 320 tons of soft plastic into landfill per year. There is considerable community concern on this issue. Single use soft plastic is recognised as a serious waste of our precious finite resources and as a killer of wildlife on land and in our rivers and seas. This is of particular concern in our biodiverse shire where we have the most threatened species in Australia.
Federal regulation is urgently needed to address this situation. The report (also on this agenda) on soft plastics recycling indicates the difficulty we as a regional council have in accessing soft plastics recycling. Even within cities it is not yet available for everyone. The primary cause is lack of created demand for recycled plastic despite its problematic plenitude and the willingness of community to recycle it. There is an urgent need for government action to achieve mandatory industry change, recycling support and community education.

Councillor Firth moves that Council write to the Federal Minister for the Environment and Water, the Minister for the Environment (NSW), Minister for Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (NSW), local state members, local federal member, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation and Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia: read more

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“This is a code red for environmental protection in NSW.”

NCC: “The NSW Government’s proposed changes to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act opens the way for reckless developments of all kinds. 

“This is a code red for environmental protection in NSW. If passed as is, the reforms on the table would have devastating consequences.”

“These extreme changes to our environmental protection laws would strip away environmental scrutiny, making it easier for damaging developments to slip through.

EDO

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TSC DCP Review, An Opportunity to Protect Non-Native Trees As Do Other Councils

The revised Development Control Plan(DCP), when it soon goes on exhibition for Public comment, will be an opportunity to support stronger protection of both native and non-native trees. 

Greens Councillor Nola Firth comments:

“Tweed Shire Council compared to other NSW Councils has had scant protection for non-native urban trees. 

“Non-natives here in the Tweed were only protected if they had a diameter of more than 80cm at breast height. To bring us into line with many other councils and to keep our precious trees intact, the diameter in the DCP is now 40 cm.’

So please have ‘Your Say’ on this change. It’s also an important opportunity to establish housing and landscaping controls that reduce emissions and urban heat, and protect biodiversity.” read more

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Have Your Say, TSC’s New Compensatory Planting Policy

“The many benefits of trees in urban areas are recognised through Council’s Cool Towns: Tweed Shire Urban Forest Program which aims to increase the average total canopy cover in urban areas from 26.8% to 35% by 2030 and then to 40% by 2040 [!].

“We’re [TSC] asking everyone to help restore our urban forest when trees are removed.

“We’ve drafted a new Compensatory Planting Policy to guide how important trees and vegetation are replaced when they’re approved for removal.

“Please read the New Compensatory Planting Policy draft before submitting your feedback so your input can be properly considered in the final recommendations. 

“Share your feedback by 4pm Wednesday 22 October 2025.” read more

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