NSW BUREAUCRAT'S ADMISSION ON PROPOSED NEW PLANNING LAWS

Many community members and community organisations have  been concerned for months about the NSW Government's proposals for a new planning system for the state.  An earlier CVCC post outlined  some of these problems. ("Open slather for developers in NSW" - CVCC post of 1 June 2013.)

The campaign of those concerned about the NSW Government's proposed new planning system  has been strengthened by admissions from the state's chief planning bureaucrat, Planning and Infrastructure Director-General Sam Haddad.

According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald of 13th August Mr Haddad confessed that the proposed new laws had "gone further than the government intended."

He also conceded department staff may have unintentionally spread ''inaccurate or misleading information'' about the changes, touted as the biggest overhaul of the state's planning system in more than 30 years.

He was responding to a formal complaint from the Better Planning Network community group, which claimed statements by department officials at public forums that the new laws would not reduce ''judicial review rights'' - residents' ability to appeal planning decisions where the law may have been breached - were wrong.  (The Sydney Morning Herald )

The Better Planning Network (BPN) has been campaigning vigorously for many months to have the planning system that replaces the current system made responsive to the needs of the general community rather than just the development industry and the Government.  The Government's Planning White Paper and its Draft Planning Bill, which were on public exhibition until recently, centralised planning in the hands of the planning minister and his agents, favoured the development industry, disempowered the general community and made economic development of over-riding importance, downgrading  local community concerns and impacts on the natural environment.

Now that the Director-General of Planning has conceded that there are problems with the planning proposals, the BPN has called on the Premier of NSW, Barry O'Farrell, to withdraw the bill. 

If you have concerns about the government's proposed planning system, you could sign the BPN's online Petition .

Alternatively, you could email or write to Barry O'Farrell, the Premier of NSW, urging him to withdraw the bill which is likely to come before parliament within three weeks, unless much more pressure is put on the Government to discard the current bill and start again.  The Premier's email address is:

office@premier.nsw.gov.au

His postal address is:  

Hon. Barry O'Farrell

Premier of NSW.

GPO Box 5341
SYDNEY NSW 2001

Lobby Day Earlier This Week           Photo Source:  BPN

 

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.