From the Chair: what is the precautionary principle?
The precautionary principle appears often in our documents and several members have asked where it comes from.
It holds that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage to the environment, a lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent that damage. It was set out internationally in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration in 1992. In New South Wales it forms part of the definition of ecologically sustainable development in section 6(2)(a) of the Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991, and the leading case on how it applies is Telstra Corporation Ltd v Hornsby Shire Council, decided in 2006. The example usually given is the setting of fishing limits before a fish stock has been shown to collapse.
Some members have said that a proposal of this size should wait until all the evidence is available. The Board's view is that nobody is currently collecting that evidence, and that salt which has reached the ocean cannot practically be recovered. An independent baseline study is part of what we will be asking for.
Denise Whitford
Chair, Dam Kings Beach Inc.
The Kings Beach Salt Runoff Containment Proposal is a proposal to build a 6 metre concrete wall between the sand and the sea at Kings Beach, Broken Head, NSW, to stop salt reaching the ocean. It has not been approved and no works are scheduled.