NSW Removing the Need for Development Consent for Private Native Forestry

Local Land Services Amendment (Private Native Forestry) Bill 2026

Private Member's Bill

6 May 2026: MPs in the first house are debating whether this bill is a good idea in principle.

Legislative Council

Legislative Assembly

Assent

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Topics

environmental planning forestry land use private native forestry rural land

Introduced by: Mark Banasiak MLC (SFFP)

Links to official parliament websites

Official page: progress through parliament

Official page: bill text and explanatory notes

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

the rules governing private native forestry operations (commercial timber harvesting on private rural land) will be amended in relation to planning approval and land management requirements

News articles and press releases

Local Land Services Amendment (Private Native Forestry) Bill 2026

The Hon. MARK BANASIAK — 2026-05-06

This is not theoretical. Right now, two systems are colliding: a State framework that authorises private native forestry, and local planning instruments that can require development consent for the exact same activity. So, what happens? In one council area, a landholder proceeds; in another, they are forced into a development approval process—the same activity, different rules. That is not consistency; that is dysfunction. This bill raises a very simple question: Why is this activity treated differently? Farmers manage vegetation every single day. They control weeds, they manage landscapes and they undertake agricultural operations. They actively steward the environment, and they are not required to go through two approval systems to do it. But here, in this one space, they are.