The Threatened Species Amendment (Biodiversity Banking) Bill 2006 is a disaster for NSW biodiversity. See below for a short summary of the problems with the Bill. Check out the DEC website www.environment.nsw.gov.au for further details on the proposals, and NSW parliament www.parliament.nsw.gov.au to download a copy of the Bill. HCEC is opposed to the biobanking scheme in its current form because (and these are just the big ones):

1. it does not protect high conservation value areas from urban landclearing and development
2. it does not provide protection for offset sites in perpetuity
3. it does not require all development to pass a test to maintain or improve biodiversity
4. it will not legislate the fundamental principles that should control offsetting, for example, that offsets must only be used if it can be demonstrated that impacts cannot be avoided.
5. it does not provide for any public exhibition and consultation over biobanking agreements or statements
6. it allows developers to pay money in order to satisfy their biodiversity assessment and protection responsibilities.

Private property ownership does not confer ownership of the complex life systems that are supported on that property, just as it doesn't confer ownership of the minerals beneath or the air above. Protection of biodiversity values on provate land is a public interest matter, and has been too long neglected. We encourage everyone to get active in opposing urban landclearing, in any way they can.