As the Sunshine Coast continues to push towards sustainability, the state government appears to be doing its best to undermine our local community’s efforts. Narelle McCarthy reports.
Our shared vision: To be Australia's most sustainable region - vibrant, green, diverse. Image:greghardwick.com.au
Major amendments to the Integrated Planning Act 1997, carrying implications for local planning powers and the critical assessment of applications, have become yet another hallmark of the Bligh Government’s mantra of growth at all costs.
Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, Stirling Hinchliffe said the Sustainable Planning Bill 2009, approved by Cabinet on June 9, will result in the biggest reform to planning approvals in over a decade.
“It will mean massive reductions in red tape and unnecessary delays which anyone in the building industry will tell you can result in significant extra costs,” Mr Hinchliffe said.
“At the end of the day, this is about creating more efficient processes for construction sites and as a result keeping Queenslanders in jobs.”
Mr Hinchliffe, who was previously research and policy manager with the state branch of the Property Council said developers accessing the more efficient and accountable system would also be able take advantage of the new legislation which will allow certain applications to be deemed to be approved if they are not decided within specified timeframes.
“Deemed approvals are a significant reform,” he said.
While detail of a proposed Bill is ordinarily confidential prior to going to cabinet, the Property Council of Australia was in a position to issue a media release giving unequivocal and glowing support within hours of Cabinet approval.
Brian Raison, the president of the Coolum district community group, Development Watch, expressed concern regarding the tenor of the media release.
“It appears to advantage the developer while making it more difficult for the community to have input into planning decisions”
Property Council Queensland Executive Director, Steve Greenwood was quick to identify the benefits for the vested interests of the industry and the economically unsustainable narrow focus.
“I can’t stress enough just how important the reform of Queensland’s planning and development assessment system is to jobs, the property industry and to the Queensland economy,” said Mr Greenwood.
“The big win for Queensland jobs and industry is the introduction of deemed approvals for development applications that fall victim to unnecessary red tape and delays.
“Deemed approvals will go a long way to ensure that valuable jobs and dollars are not lost whilst applications are ‘lost in transition’ behind agencies’ back counters,” he said.
This dangerous reversal from what was previously a ‘deemed refusal’ heralds the opportunity for sound determination of applications to be overridden by fast tracked timeframes offering inadequate information and planning detail.
While the development industry has long manifested its skewed criticism of local council planning assessment, it has failed to acknowledge that it is often the guilty party. Major development applications have knowingly been lodged with skeletal information triggering the need for Council Development Assessment officers to issue an Information Request within just 10 days of the application being lodged. Under IPA, the applicant then had 12 months grace to supply the requested information and would often apply to have this period extended. Multiply this scenario by the innumerable applications being lodged in a given region, particularly the Sunshine Coast, and it becomes evident that IPA has biased the developer in many instances.
These new amendments indicate that the necessary evaluation of applications that give rise to detailed ecological assessments, sustainability principles and subsequent recommendations, for example, may be circumvented altogether.
Developer advantage is therefore further bolstered with their desired outcome potentially overriding that of the community and what is reflected in the local planning scheme. In an effort to close this avenue, amendments in the new bill call for an overhaul of planning schemes to become a template scheme that facilitates these developer-favoured features.
Can the Minister guarantee that community rights and local government planning powers will not be further eroded under the dubiously named Sustainable Planning Bill 2009? Probably not. And the community will be rightly outraged.
There is a strong mandate by the community now reflected in the recently adopted Sunshine Coast Regional Council Corporate Plan. The corporate plan is the core strategic document of the Council and identifies the priorities for the next five years and beyond. It guides Council’s decision-making, budget operations and resource allocations to achieve the vision: to be Australia’s most sustainable region – vibrant, green, diverse.
However, as the Sunshine Coast Regional Council endeavours to formulate its first planning scheme, these sweeping legislative reforms are set to seriously challenge and undermine the collective efforts of the local community and council.
Narelle McCarthy is the Manager of the Sunshine Coast Environment Council
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[...] Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, Stirling Hinchliffe said the Sustainable Planning Bill 2009, approved by Cabinet on June 9, will result in the biggest reform to planning approvals in over a decade." Sunshine Coast Environment Council Manager, Narelle McCarthy reports. Read the full story. [...]