AAP Report on Premier's Reaction to Court Win
29th April, 2004

NSW Premier Bob Carr today said he instructed the cabinet office to draft legislation overturning a court decision which halted filming of a Hollywood movie.

The government was this afternoon in the Supreme Court appealing this morning's Land and Environment Court ruling, which prevented filming of the $130 million movie Stealth in the Grose wilderness area in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

If that fails to succeed, Mr Carr said he would introduce special legislation to the parliament when it resumes next week.

``I've asked the cabinet office to draft it,'' he told reporters.

Mr Carr said the decision sent the wrong message to overseas filmmakers, to whom NSW had pitched itself as a top location for shoots.

He said the conservationists opposing the shoot were picking ``a fight for the sake of having a fight'' and that the filmmakers had gone to great lengths to comply with environmental guidelines.

This included the building of boardwalks to stop native plants and animals being trampled.
``They've had an environmental impact statement thicker than the Yellow Pages,'' he said.

Producers of the action movie were scheduled to start filming tomorrow in the Grose Wilderness Area, after the NSW government granted approval earlier this month.

But the Blue Mountains Conservation Society challenged the approval, arguing that filming was inconsistent with the purposes and objectives of a wilderness area.

Justice David Lloyd in the the Land and Environment Court today set aside the approval for filming, saying declared wilderness areas were "sacrosanct".

The proposed filming was contrary to provisions of the Wilderness Act and hostile to the sensitive environment, he said.

Justice Lloyd also restrained the Director-General of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and Environment Minister Bob Debus, from granting any further licences to film in the area.

The disruption to its filming schedule will cost the company $500,000 a day, the court heard.

Outside the court, Greens MLC Ian Cohen said the film company could shoot in other locations which were not environmentally sensitive.

"We are very, very pleased that this court decision today will stop what is an extremely dangerous precedent to downgrade the environmental values in NSW," he said.

Conservation groups also applauded the court's decision.

"This proves yet again that the Blue Mountains community is ultimately the strongest protection for the greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area," Blue Mountains Conservation Society spokeswoman Robin Mosman said.

Colong Foundation for Wilderness director Keith Muir said the precedent ensured wilderness must be conserved.

"If we had lost, then wilderness everywhere would have been vulnerable to a death by a thousand commercial concessions," Mr Muir said in a statement.

NSW National Parks Association executive officer Andrew Cox said the film company could now select from 30 other sites suggested by environmentalists during court proceedings.