OPEN SLATHER FOR DEVELOPERS IN NSW - THE STATE GOVERNMENT'S PLANNING LAW PROPOSALS

The NSW Government is planning extensive changes to the state's planning system.

Before the election which brought them to government, Mr O'Farrell's party promised to improve the planning system by repealing the Labor Government's  Part 3A of the Planning Act and give local communities more say in planning matters. (Part 3A gave the Planning Minister sweeping powers to approve developments.)

However, more empowerment to local communities, to ordinary people, is another promise that the NSW Government has reneged on.  Certainly Part 3A of the Planning Act has been abolished but something far more extreme is being put in its place.

What the Government is proposing is clearly defined in the planning White Paper, A New Planning System for NSW.  The White Paper is currently on exhibition with people able to comment on it until June 28th. 

Some of the measures which the Government wants to introduce are listed below.

• Key planning decisions on land use will be given to unelected regional bodies dominated by Ministerial appointees.
• Up to 80% of developments will be approved in 10 to 25 days without any community notice or input.
•  Local councils will be forced to deliver unpopular planning decisions made at a state and regional level. 
• Both heritage and environmental protections will be further reduced. 
• Strategic Compatibility Certificates (SCC) allow the Director-General of Planning, the chief Planning bureaucrat in NSW,  to "certify that specific development on specific land  is permissible... despite any profhibition on the carrying out of the development" in a Local Plan. 
• The Planning Minister may declare a development a State Significant Development (SSD).  The criteria for such decisions (if indeed criteria exist) have not been revealed.
• The use of developer-paid private certifiers to assess and approve the majority of developments will be expanded.

Late in 2012, commenting on the Government's planning reforms, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) raised concerns about the risk of corruption. ICAC pointed out that taking powers away from local councils and handing them to state officials does not fight corruption.  "There is no reason to suppose that a minister or state-level planning official is any more or less susceptible to corruption than a local councillor or professional planning officer."  (ICAC Submission on NSW Planning Reforms, Sept. 2012)  Indeed the ICAC hearings earlier this year into the granting of coal mining leases should have made the Government re-think this.  But perhaps the Government believes that such corruption could never happen with Coalition ministers!

In the Paper the Government pays lip-service to "sustainable" development but has quite deliberately rejected the important concept of "ecologically sustainable development".  It is  obvious that the natural environment will suffer severely if the Government's plans are implemented. 

Interestingly, there is no consideration in the proposals for meeting the challenges of climate change. It would seem that the suspicion about this Government being climate change "deniers" is being confirmed.  Surely it's not just a case of incompetence and forgetting about the issue!

            

There is widespread community concern about the further centralisation of planning powers in the hands of the Minister for Planning.  The Better Planning Network (BPN) is a group of volunteers which was formed in 2012 to monitor the NSW Government's approach to changes to planning legislation.  There are currently 400 groups around the state which are affiliated with with the BPN.  

BPN's Submission Guide.

The NSW Government's White Paper focuses on economic development and centralised control to the exclusion of social and environmental matters.  If the proposals become law, developers become the big winners and the general community and the natural environment will suffer.

MP Referred to ICAC over Gifts From CSG Company

Scot MacDonald, a Liberal member of the NSW upper house, the Legislative Council, is being referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) by the NSW Greens for accepting gifts from gas company Santos after making statements in favour of coal seam gas mining in NSW.  Mr MacDonald, from the Guyra area of the NSW Northern Tablelands, was elected to parliament in 2011. (Santos is the company seeking to develop a gasfield in the Pilliga woodland, an area of major ecological importance, in the central west of the state.)

As a member of the Legislative Council Committee which inquired into coal seam gas mining in NSW, Mr MacDonald made a dissenting report following the inquiry.  In this report he stated, "It is difficult to reach any other conclusion than the coal seam gas industry should be developed as quickly as possible."

Shortly after the findings of the Inquiry were made public in May, Mr MacDonald accepted from major CSG company Santos flights to and accommodation in Tasmania where he spoke at a forum alongside Santos officials on the topic of coal seam gas and agriculture.

Mr MacDonald declared both the flights and the accommodation on the pecuniary interests register and claims that he has complied with all the parliamentary guidelines.  He stated, "I have consistently said we need to ensure gas supplies for this state if it can be shown that CSG can be extracted safely and landholders are treated respectfully."

Mr MacDonald seems to be missing the point that the general community does not believe that CSG can be extracted safely. Moreover, the community does not believe that the "safeguards" the NSW Government has put in place will effectively protect both the environment and the community from damaging long-term impacts from the CSG industry.  He also seems to be unaware that export is the main focus of the companies seeking to exploit coal seam gas – not a desire to "ensure gas supplies for this state."

Greens MP, Jeremy Buckingham said, "We think it's outrageous that, while Parliament is still considering the Coal Seam Gas Inquiry Report, he accepted a gift from one of the largest coal seam gas companies, Santos."