Bob Brown Foundation has made its submission on the final day of the Rockliff Government’s curtailed public comment period on its bill to neuter the State Coastal Policy ahead of the Environment Protection Authority’s Supreme Court appeal against aspects of the Robbins Island wind farm.

At the centre of the EPA’s case was the unlawful approval granted to the Robbins Island proponent to build a 509-meter-long private wharf through sensitive and mobile sand dunes on the east coast of the island.

The Bill seeks to retrospectively approve past decisions of planning authorities that were unlawfully granted in breach of State Coastal Policy. In its argument, the government had sought to prevent the Supreme Court from hearing the Environment Protection Authority’s case.

“The Validation (State Coastal Policy) Bill, or as it should be called the Quick, Let’s Nobble the Supreme Court Before It Can Hear The EPA’s Case Against Our Multinational Corporate Mates Bill, is a shameful attack on the independence of the EPA, the laws that protect our coastal areas from inappropriate development and the capacity of the Supreme Court to do its job in this case,” said Bob Brown Foundation Campaigner Scott Jordan.

“This government loves to pay lip service to having an independent EPA and ‘robust’ environment and planning assessment laws, but the moment they show even a hint of saying no to inappropriate, or in this case unlawful, development the government throws the regulators under the bus.”

“They won’t even wait for the outcome of the case. In a farce reminiscent of the Pulp Mill Assessment Act (2007), they are seeking to sideline a decision of a body they can’t control, and impose their will regardless of what laws might prevent it.”

“We are calling on parliament to reject this disgraceful Bill, and ensure the Supreme Court and the EPA can conduct their duties without interference.,” said Scott Jordan.