Earlier this year significant amendments were made to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, perhaps the most controversial of which related to the ministerial appointment of planning assessment panels to replace the role of local councils in determining development applications. This paper reviews the arguments for independent hearing and assessment panels and looks at...

Worldwide demand for energy will be more than 50% greater by 2030 if governments continue their present energy policies. Australia is a net exporter of energy, and is well placed to meet this demand. Australia has significant reserves of coal, and has 36% of the world’s low cost uranium reserves. This paper by Stewart Smith...

In late 2002 a group of leading Australian environmental scientists (the Wentworth Group) proposed a radically new way of managing native vegetation in New South Wales. As a result, the state government introduced bills to implement a new natural resource management regime. Stewart Smith reviews that regime and looks at emerging challenges.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that most of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations. However, this ‘consensus’ science of the IPCC has been disputed. Stewart Smith examines the challenge for governments in assessing this conflicting science to...

Stewart Smith provides an overview of desalination plants and technology from around the world, including case studies, in the context of current NSW government policy. He also compares and contrasts two approaches to water recycling.