As CEO of Urban Taskforce Australia, I regularly heard feedback from members expressing their exasperation over the political shenanigans surrounding planning reform. 

Everyone would agree that housing affordability was a crisis, but all too often politicians were lured by the attraction of a scare campaign and the cheap votes that come through NIMBY politics. Indeed, for over two decades, opposing planning reform has been good for politics, but bad for housing supply and affordability.

We have led the calls for the “sensible centre” to come together and work constructively to overcome the problem, but there was a long period there when the Liberal Party in NSW were doing everything they could to frustrate housing supply (and the Dutton led Federal Opposition paid the prices for delays to housing initiatives and playing politics with the Greens) – so the prospects for bipartisan reform looked bleak.

This changed in NSW at the end of 2024 and the attitude of Federal Opposition Housing spokesman, Andrew Bragg, is vastly more pro-housing supply than prior to Albanese’s thumping victory.

The media are not always catalysts for positive policy reform, but Ben English, Editor of Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, met with Urban Taskforce members in late 2024 and took a deep dive into what was needed to fix the planning system and drive-up housing supply.

The overwhelming response from our members was the need for a bipartisan approach to planning reform.  The view was clear – if Labor and the Coalition join up and vote together, neither is beholden to amendments or agendas pursued by the Greens, Independents, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers, Animal Justice Party or anyone else.

A joint approach from the sensible centre has a chance of driving policy reforms through the NIMBY objectors and re-write the 40-year-old, cumbersome and complicated Planning Act.

As we entered the new year, the Telegraph ran a powerful campaign calling for a bipartisan approach to fix the planning system and re-write the EP&A Act (1979).  Within days, both Premier Minns and Opposition leader Mark Speakman had agreed. They handed the task to the Minister for Planning, Paul Scully, and the Opposition Spokesman, Scott Farlow.

Well, it’s taken 10 months, but we now have an amendment Bill before the Parliament, and if it wasn’t for the childish filibustering and grandstanding from the Greens, it would have by now passed the Parliament into law.

If ever there was a case use using the guillotine to stop time wasters in the Parliament, it’s when every single Green Party amendment goes down by exactly the same number in repetitive resounding defeat.  A housing crisis demands an urgent response, so politicians from both sides need to stop humouring the Greens.

Planning Minister Paul Scully has worked well with the Opposition to deliver what was promised back in January.  The Bill before the House is not perfect, but in fairness to the Department and the Minister, they have consulted widely since the Bill was tabled and the Government amendments, supported by the Opposition, showed they had listened to constructive feedback.

It may come as a shock to many, but up till now, housing supply (per se’) was not an objective of the Planning Act.  When this Bill passes the Parliament and becomes law, it will be.  This sends a powerful signal to Judges in the Land and Environment Court and all decision makers involved in the planning process.

The Bill will also introduce the commonsense notion of “proportionality” into the assessment process, as well as to any conditions attached to a development application consent.  So, planners will have to balance any negative impacts identified by objectors against the benefits provided by increased housing supply.

A new Development Co-ordination Authority will come into force, to act as a one-stop-shop for all the government agency input into a DA assessment. Again – it seems like common sense, but this will now be law. The proposal will take one of the best features of the Queensland system and apply it in NSW.

This reform Bill drives much needed improvements in the efficiency of the planning system. It removes some of the worst cases of duplication through a new Targeted Assessment process.

Further duplication and delay is removed with the abolition of the Regional Planning Panels, instead leaving decisions up to Local Planning Panels and rezoning reviews go direct to the Department. There will need to be some administrative improvements to the appointment process for the local panels, many of which are dire in their talent, but there is time for that.

Getting to the point of having a planning reform Bill about to pass into law has taken a lot of hard work, and a stack of newspaper print.

The Bill will be back in the Upper House for debate on November 11 when we’ll hopefully see a landmark shift towards a constructive and bipartisan change in planning law in NSW.

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