Premier Chris Minns backs push for major reform of state’s broken planning act

NSW Premier Chris Minns has backed calls for major bipartisan reform of the state’s complicated and broken planning act which is sending housing approvals backwards.

A major reform of the state’s core planning laws could be on the table this year after Premier Chris Minns welcomed a bipartisan push to fix the broken 45-year old legislation.

The Premier said on Wednesday he was keen to have conversations with the opposition to create long-lasting reform of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (EP&A) in an effort to tackle the state’s housing crisis.

It comes after The Daily Telegraph revealed this week that a chorus of developers, mayors and the NSW opposition supported modernising the act. The last attempt of such a difficult political feat was the O’Farrell Liberal government in 2013, a move which was scuppered by the Labor opposition at the time.

Mr Minns said he was open to reforming the act, which has become so complicated and was hindering the states ability to build new homes.

Premier Chris Minns has backed in calls to attempt bold reform of the state’s planning act. Picture: NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

“I’m the first to admit that the planning act as it currently is constituted is no where near fit for purpose,” he said.

“To the extent that we can get consensus around reform, move legislation to cement those reforms … and hopefully make sure that it surpasses my time in government and my government’s time in office, that would be the real goal here.”

NSW Opposition leader Mark Speakman wrote to the Premier urging for discussions around the future of the act. Picture: Jeremy Piper

The Premier welcomed offers from Opposition leader Mark Speakman to hold a roundtable this year to discuss how changes to the act could look but flagged it would be difficult road, with many stakeholders having differing opinions on how the act should look.

“There’s some mayors who say we need to reform (the EP&A) so we can have a bigger say to stop development. There are other, I think more sensible people that look at the system and say we need vastly more housing.”

“It’s a big wide open offer to the opposition, if we could sit around and get consensus behind planning reform that would be a fantastic thing for the state and I’m more than happy to share the credit,” he said.

This comes as Sydney mayors from across the political aisle joined calls for the Minns government to modernise the EP&A.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman on Tuesday wrote to Premier Chris Minns expressing his willingness to participate in a roundtable discussion about the future of the act.

Inner West Labor Mayor Darcy Byrne said it was time to reform the act. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Labor Inner West mayor Darcy Byrne agreed the EP&A to be reformed in order to tackle the housing crisis. He said the outdated act was slowing down development application approvals.

“It’s too complicated to deal with, it’s too open to interpretation so people never get a clear idea of what they need to do to get their application approved and that’s the central reason that it takes so long,” he said

“Unless we rewrite the legislation and make it simpler and easier to use … the system will remain clogged up and we won’t actually get the new homes that are needed.”

New Woollahara mayor Sarah Swan said the EP&A was “no longer fit-for-purpose” and needed to be “simplified and consolidated”.

“It is increasingly confusing for members of the community, who feel their voices are being diluted by opaque red tape in relation to what happens in their neighbourhoods,” she said.

Liberal Liverpool mayor Ned Mannoun agreed fears in communities that younger generations could no longer afford a home had reached such a point, the time had never been better to reform the act.

“I think the first thing they need to look at is timelines for assessments, nobody wants to invest in Sydney because no one can give you a timeline in how long it takes to get an answer,” he said.

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