NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Rob Stokes yesterday referred the Narrabri Gas Project to the Independent Planning Commission.

Yesterday an update on the Independent Planning Commission website indicated that Mr Stokes has requested the IPC to ‘conduct a public hearing into the carrying out of the Narrabri Gas Project prior to determining the development application for the project under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act.

The referral is a significant step towards resolution of the project’s future.

Mr Stokes requested that the IPC complete a public hearing and make a determination on the application within 12 weeks of receiving the Department’s assessment report in respect of the project, unless the Planning Secretary agrees otherwise.

It is likely public hearings will be held in Narrabri in the near future.

The referral to the IPC is another step in the exhaustive process which began five years ago.

Lock the Gate Alliance has condemned the referral.

“The Commission will be stabbing in the dark when it tries to make a decision on this destructive, polluting proposal,” Lock the Gate NSW spokesperson Georgina Woods said.

“An inquiry found just two weeks ago that NSW regulation of the coal seam gas industry is not up to the standard recommended by the Chief Scientist. The regulation was exposed as being too weak to protect water resources and farmers from unforeseen damages, leaving landholders to suffer under an industry labelled ‘uninsurable’.

“We don’t see how the Independent Planning Commission can approve the Narrabri coal seam gas project in this context.”

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