Bradfield Oration 2024: DA tsars to wage war on red tape strangling Sydney

NSW Premier Chris Minns has used his address to The Daily Telegraph’s Bradfield Oration to announce a new three-person authority aimed at fixing the planning mess.

Three development tsars will rule over Sydney’s housing future, plucking major projects out of the planning system to give them a “quick yes” or a “quick no,” in what Premier Chris Minns has labelled the “biggest change” to land use and planning rules in decades.

Mr Minns has used his address to The Daily Telegraph’s Bradfield Oration to announce a new three-person “Housing Development Authority,” which will bypass the snakes and ladders maze bogging development applications down in red tape.

Three of the state’s top public servants will have the power to give the final say on the projects with an average of 100 homes or more. The troika aims to approve as many as 100 projects every year, taking an average of 275 days to deliver a decision.

Councils will be entirely cut out of the process for developments assessed by the authority, in a bid to slash approval times by years and speed up delivery.

The authority, which will be able to rubber stamp or knock back developments worth more than $60 million in Sydney and $30 million in the bush, will include Premier’s Department Secretary Simon Draper, Planning boss Kiersten Fishburn, and Infrastructure NSW CEO Tom Gellibrand.

Capio Property Group's Blossom Carlingford development, of 91 apartments across two buildings.

The authority will be able to “reach in” to the planning system and pluck out major projects, assessing - at the same time - rezoning proposals and development applications, Mr Minns said.

Proposals will be selected via an expression of interest scheme.

Meanwhile, a new planning pathway will also be created for “selected projects” that which would deliver “significant housing uplift” but require significant rezoning. That will also cut out councils.

Mr Minns told the Telegraph that the authority would bypass up to six layers of red tape.

Developers will be able to apply directly to the state’s planning tsars asking for their project to be approved.

“Those developers can go to the NSW government and say, ‘I want to build new housing, how can I get it done quickly?’ And hopefully we can get quick yeses,” Mr Minns told the Telegraph.

NSW Premier Chris Minns. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

“If we don’t get a quick yes, maybe a quick no, and the capital can reorganise itself and invest somewhere else.”

“What I am announcing is the largest change to Land Use and Planning in decades in New South Wales, and I believe it will reap results,” he said.

The high-powered panel was a brain child of the Premier, proposed specifically to bypass the convoluted mess of a planning system revealed by the Telegraph on Wednesday.

Mr Minns told the Telegraph that the authority will let developers avoid “the rigmarole of your local council, your local council’s planning department, your local councils local area assessment panel … (and) the Land and Environment Court”.

Aqualand's build-to-rent development in North Sydney, which will deliver 390 rental dwellings.

“What I’m announcing today and through the Bradfield Oration, will make a major difference.

“This is the kind of breakthrough that Sydney and New South Wales have needed for over 10 years,” he said.

Projects that would have potentially been eligible for consideration by the authority include Aqualand’s 390-home build to rent development in North Sydney, and Capio Property Group’s $102 million “Blossom Carlingford” development of 91 apartments.

Backing... NSW Property Council executive director Katie Stevenson. Photo Jeremy Piper

The announcement was welcomed by developers as a common sense measure to fast-track Sydney’s biggest prokects.

“These well-targeted measures will make a significant impact where it is needed most,” Property Council of Australia NSW Executive Director Katie Stevenson said.

“Industry stands ready to partner with the new Authority to make sure it achieves its bold ambition.”

Urban Taskforce CEO Tom Forrest said the policy is “the bold reform we have been waiting for”.

“The Government, led by Premier Minns and Planning Minister Scully, has taken big steps to overcome a broken planning system.”

The new announcement will drag some local councils kicking and screaming to meet their housing targets.

Moments after the Premier announced the new three-person authority Local Government NSW President Darriea Turley called the move “a Christmas gift for developers”.

“Councils are in shock and are bitterly disappointed,” she said.

“We know full well there is a housing crisis, and we honestly thought we were working with the State Government in good faith to address it.

“Instead, without any warning, the Premier has moved the goalposts and dropped this bombshell.”

Originally published as Bradfield Oration 2024: DA tsars to wage war on red tape strangling Sydney