When you submit a development application to transform your house, you know
the plans will be pored over by neighbours anxious to find out what you are up
to. It used to be the same in the country when you wanted to log the back
paddock, but not any more.
On the North Coast, the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, under
its minister, Verity Firth, has reversed the long-standing practice of releasing
details about logging operations on private land.
We know this because of two very different decisions made by the same
departmental officer when he received two freedom of information applications
within eight months.
The department's FoI officer, Racho Donef, received the first request from the
North Coast Environment Council in June last year. It sought access to all
approvals granted to "harvest, log, clear and remove vegetation" on six
properties. Within a month Donef sent back a one-page letter ...