Where a Development Plan requires assessment of ecological sustainability, the planning authority retains responsibility for that assessment even where another statutory authority (such as the Minister of Fisheries) has powers that could address the same concerns. The planning authority cannot simply assume the other authority will exercise its powers appropriately. Where the environmental impacts of a proposed development are unknown, the precautionary principle applies as a matter of commonsense (though not as a principle of law), and the proponent bears the practical burden of demonstrating ecological sustainability. The proper course where conditions under the Development Act are insufficient is to defer the planning consent decision until the conditions to be imposed by the other authority are known.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 11 later cases that cite this judgment.