Planning to shape our future

Wentworth Federal Greens candidate Matthew Robertson has called for action to be taken against proposed changes to NSW planning laws, arguing they will significantly affect local democracy.

Mr Robertson, a Woollahra Councillor, said the changes proposed in the State Government’s White Paper reforms will diminish the power of communities to have a say on local development applications (DAs) and the preservation of local heritage. The reforms propose to reduce public consultation at the latter stage of the planning process, focusing on an integration of economic, environmental and social considerations.

“We believe very strongly that Barry O’Farrell should honour his election commitment to return planning powers to local communities,” he said. “We believe in grassroots democracy so we support the continuation of local governments having a say about development within their own areas.

“As the only Greens Councillor on Woollahra Council, I take seriously my duty to my community to advocate for real policy alternatives to the Liberals’ pro-development agenda.”

Mr Robertson said the two greatest challenges that local councils face are changes to the planning law system and the proposed amalgamation of councils.

“Those two are coupled, because once you take the power to make planning decisions away from local councils, you’re really stripping them of a lot of the bulk of the work they do and the community’s recognition of that,” he said.

Waverley Mayor Sally Betts from the Liberal Party said the proposed changes attempt to streamline the categories of development.

“The [State] Government is trying to speed up the development application process [for] 80 per cent of applications,” she said. “We have exempt and complying legislation applying today, but only a very small portion of our DAs go through that process.

“We have just appointed our Waverley Development Assessment Panel, so we think that this will speed up the process anyway.”

Labor’s Waverley Councillor John Wakefield expressed concerns over the introduction of the Waverley Development Assessment Panel, arguing it allowed the State Government to advance towards a model for amalgamating local councils.

“Seven weeks ago, the Liberals voted that no DA of any sort will ever come before councillors again – that an ‘independent’ body of architects and planners who work for developers and with developers has been set up to approve all DAs,” he said.

“The whole process of looking at DAs … allowed us to have a degree of interaction with Council officers that was significant as we spent a lot of time talking to them … about regulations and controls. Councillors have no involvement whatsoever in DAs now.”

Ms Betts said Waverley Council had made a submission to the State Government for NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell to consider a series of alterations to the proposed planning laws.

“We have been writing to the government about the heritage provisions [as] there is some concern that keeping heritage areas have not been included in the White Paper,” she said.

“One of the things I was very concerned about was the legislation does not seem to deal with our environmental issues along the coastline as it should.”

Ms Betts said Waverley was moving in the right direction, but communication with the community was necessary to establish correct planning controls.

“When you set the controls, you should be more comfortable with any application that happens,” she said. “Currently, certain controls need to be more fine-tuned, and we need to sit down and work with our residents to see what they want in our area.”

Mr Robertson said the State Government needed to ensure an emphasis on ecologically sustainable development was maintained under the new planning laws.

“The Coalition’s plans to hand federal environmental protection powers back to the states – at a time when the NSW Government is intent on stripping our planning law system of any focus on ecologically sustainable development and biodiversity protection – poses a real threat to Bondi’s natural and built environment,” he said.

Campaigning for the September 7 election, Mr Robertson wants greater consideration to be taken for Bondi and its heritage significance.

“Bondi is an iconic precinct loved by all Australians,” he said. “The Greens know that the local community here is passionate about protecting Bondi’s unique built and natural environment for future generations of Australians to enjoy and celebrate.”