Greens oppose Planning Bills
ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey will today oppose all three Government Planning Bills, as the Government is so intent on cutting red tape that it has also slashed the community’s ability to have meaningful input into future planning decisions.
“The Government has dramatically cut back opportunities for public consultation and participation in the planning process. There will now only be a 15 day consultation period, irrespective of the size of a development or the extent of change of use” Dr Foskey said today.
“The Bills also largely exclude consideration of the natural environment, as though we can build our suburbs and town centres without thinking of their impact on biodiversity and climate change.”
“I am greatly concerned that third party appeal rights have been removed in a lot of places, especially given the ridiculously high level of power and discretion that the Planning Minister and ACTPLA have under this legislation. I do not trust the Planning Minister and ACTPLA to have all the social and environmental expertise required to do the job competently and fairly.”
“The Liberals want to disenfranchise the community even further. Their amendments would take away the limited capacity community organisations have to appeal planning decisions when they impact on the very reasons that the organisations exist. An example of this would be a schools P&C Association having to ask the Minister to approve their appeal against inappropriate developments next door to their school.”
“The model on which this planning system is based was driven by the Howard Government and rejected by the Australian Local Government Association. It is not best practice. It is untested. I wonder to what extent the developer-friendly bias in this legislation is pay back for the large proportion of political donations received by the major parties at a local and federal level.”
“While the legislation will make it easier for many home builders and renovators, which I welcome, the real winners from this planning legislation are large developers. The community and the environment lose out” said Dr Foskey.
