Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Nobody waited a year. They did not a wait a year to approve it. They approved it according to the process when the approval actually went forward.

Flying foxes have been in Maclean for many years, and the problem is one that is primarily a result of poor state planning and highlights the need to have better planning practices. The Commonwealth involvement is not formally triggered until a referral has been made. As I said, 29 September 2010 was the date that the application went in. Before that there there was no application so there was no opportunity to grant approval. The Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has always been willing to consider the proposal through the process set out in the legislation—legislation that we all support and that was brought into being in this place by the then Howard coalition government.

Until the New South Wales Department of Education and Training actually applied under national environment law, the department simply had nothing to act on and could not get involved. When they did apply, the department acted immediately and made a decision based on the application and the requirements of the legislation. There were no delays in that decision, which was made within the 20-business-day statutory time frame required by national environment law. The Commonwealth department has been talking to the New South Wales education department for several years about ways to prevent or deter the flying foxes from setting up camp at the school and how to avoid having a significant impact on the flying foxes. That discussion has been going on for a number of years, and the state department also needs to take action. It is not a federal issue alone. It is one where a joint solution needs to be found.

The P&C of Maclean High School have written to me and thanked me for my assistance and my role in making sure they understood that I was working to assist them to deal with the immediate problem and, equally, looking at having solutions over a long period of time—and that is what is necessary. I have been to the school site and I have spoken to the students. I asked the students: ‘What do you want me to do?’ They responded and I did that. There is a range of views among the students, but the primary one is, ‘We cannot live here when the flying foxes are here all the time.’ It is disturbing. It is very smelly. You have to have windows closed. There are thousands of them that come into the school environment. Some people are scared about health risks and about things that they do not know about health risks. Understandably, the parents are scared too, and it does need those solutions.

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