When such situations arise, as they often do, the council's expert should deal with it openly and fairly. The expert must recognise the reality of the situation, namely that the Court must give preference to the local environmental plan. It is not satisfactory to skirt around the issue by saying that the development control plan should be preferred because it is more recent, or based on more thorough studies. A similar situation arises when an expert recommends that the Court give major weight to a draft instrument. Experts should never do this lightly, only because the draft instrument assists their case.
Several questions are likely to arise in a commissioner's mind.
The expert's role is to provide this information to the Court. The expert's role is to convince. To be effective, experts must be convinced of the correctness of their evidence. Conviction shines through expert evidence and imbues it with credibility. Conviction helps make the evidence shorter, clearer and more relevant.