Why should major projects have their assessment time halved and fast-tracked, when, in reality, these major projects need to be very carefully scrutinised, as most of these major projects related to mining run for an extended period, many for 25 or 30 years, and can have enormous impacts on the local district and residents. 

The environmental impacts can be felt for generations to come if there are no proper measures in place, and all aspects of the project are not scrutinized and made accountable. This takes time.

The approval process is one of the starting points, not the point at which someone in government waves his or her magic pen in a hurry because there is money at stake. 

I believe that the economics of these major projects are at the centre of these approvals, and not the environment or the people or local businesses that they will impact.

Many of these projects are in the wrong place, and the inevitable impacts are too great to take a chance on the outcome of just words on paper that have been paid for by the company wishing to “fast track” their project.

For the NSW minister for Resources and Energy to suggest that assessment time be halved, tells us that the government is all about protecting the mining industry at the expense of the environment, and ignoring the input from locals and indigenous people who know the areas where these projects are planned. 

Consultation with all groups concerned regarding these proposed projects takes time, and this local information is generally skimmed over and ignored. 

Many of the environmental assessments are done using modelling and not on the ground surveys.

Although they are done by independent individuals or companies, I would question the modelling and some surveys provided by people who are paid by the very company that is applying for the approval. 

I don’t question there are genuine environmentalists who do the right thing and provide accurate information, but I would have a guess these environmentalists wouldn’t get much work from mining and exploration companies, and probably wouldn’t want to work in this field of surveying and modelling for specific outcomes that the mines require to get their approvals passed. 

To those companies that cry “unfair” because they believe the judicial system has failed them, I would say you can’t have it both ways! 

The minor penalties that the various government agencies dish out for breaches of approval regulations are just a mere slap on the wrist which doesn’t deter the companies from doing the same thing again. 

After all, these fines would not be applied if the companies did as they had agreed to do in their commitments and special instructions from the director general under the approval.