By Max Maddison
A bipartisan bid to reform the state’s controversial Environmental Planning and Assessment Act is gaining momentum, with NSW Premier Chris Minns hoping to push the changes through within months even as Liberals are wary of a political ambush.
The reforms, which could be introduced to parliament as early as the August sitting, would enshrine the transport-oriented development zones and the Housing Delivery Authority, help address the housing crisis, and come after the government’s audacious Rosehill racecourse proposal was shot down by Australian Turf Club members.
Planning Minister Paul Scully and Liberal counterpart Scott Farlow have been meeting since the premier signalled in January he was open to bipartisan reform of the 46-year-old, 327-page EP&A act.
Bipartisan reforms of the Environmental Protection and Assessment Act are taking shape.Credit: Steven Siewert
The act has been criticised by developers, governments and councils for being overly complex, allowing anti-development councils to undermine housing supply while creating a field day for consultants.
Senior Liberal sources privy to discussions said changes to the Complying Development Certificates process, allowing for low-impact development and code-based assessments, were under consideration. This would involve removing councils’ ability to assess on subjective merit.
CDCs provide low-impact projects that meet a specific set of criteria to have simultaneous planning and construction approval. Under code-based assessments, proposals are assessed against a prescriptive set of rules rather than on merit.
Other proposals under consideration included legislating the Housing Delivery Authority, the three-person committee to accelerate large-scale developments by bypassing councils, along with installing pro-housing objectives in the act, a move favoured by both sides.
Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest has publicly backed the idea, and independent upper house MP Mark Latham proposed these amendments during earlier reforms of the act in March. While shot down, both Farlow and Labor indicated they would be supportive of the move later on.
After the vote on Rosehill racecourse on Tuesday evening, Minns signalled he wanted to codify the transport-oriented development zones, what he described as “the heart of” his planning reform, as legislation.
The proposal could prove a sticking point, a Liberal source said, given there didn’t appear to be any obvious reason for codifying the policy and consequently appeared like an effort to wedge the caucus.
Attempts to legislate the Housing Delivery Authority as a single, state-significant development pathway could pose problems for the Liberals, one source said. A senior Liberal said there was likely to be issues with providing unelected bureaucrats primacy for development decisions.
Labor Inner West mayor Darcy Byrne called on the government to completely rewrite the Planning Act, saying “the fact that it is so complex and arcane is a central cause of the housing crisis”.
“Lengthening or expanding the act instead of rewriting it to make it focused on housing supply could make the housing crisis even worse, instead of fixing it,” he said.
Planning Minister Paul Scully said further reforms were in train and could be “legislative and non-legislative”.
“We have met with the opposition, and the conversations have reflected their commitment to bipartisanship, and I hope that continues all the way to consideration in the parliament,” he said.
Urban Development Institute of Australia chief executive Stuart Ayres said the failure of the Rosehill vote meant the planning reforms were more urgent. He called for greater emphasis on strategic planning, along with more code and complying pathways to fast-track proposals.
Forrest said reform of code-based assessments needed to be comprehensive, saying the current legislation made housing in NSW the “slowest and expensive and risky” in the country.
A senior Labor source said there was optimism about bipartisan reform and a desire to get the amendments through this year. Liberal fears about being wedged on these reforms were “well-founded”, they said.
“This is politics,” said the Labor source, noting the gap between the lofty, pro-housing rhetoric of Liberals in caucus or shadow cabinet versus when they returned to their communities.
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