Dr. Fred Logue:

The answer is they do not. The idea for associations under Aarhus is that people can act collectively. It is recognised by the EU as something that has benefits by reducing litigation and making procedures smoother. To use the Senator's example, if we say there are 50 households with 20 opposed and 30 in favour, the former group can form an association to make an observation or a take a judicial review and the latter group can form another association to support it. The Aarhus Convention contemplates that people can form ad hocgroups to participate in the planning system. The problem is we are somewhat mixing up residents associations with environmental NGOs and they are totally different things. The idea is if 30 or 40 people band together into "Concerned Residents of Wherever", instead of 30 people taking 30 judicial reviews we get one association taking one judicial review or making one submission. This strengthens the decision-making and reduces litigation. That is the idea. Excluding that entirely goes against that and I have severe doubts the Government can actually do it.