Planning and development

As Greens MP Sylvia Hale makes clear in the Developers Map to Sydney, the planning system in NSW is heavily biased against the community. While development applications from the big developers are becoming easier to push through, the ability for the community to resist these over-sized and unsustainable developments is diminishing.

NSW under Morris Iemma and his predecessor Bob Carr, has suffered from continually weakened NSW planning laws. New powers passed by the government allow inappropriate development to go ahead and bypass existing environmental protections, even where the community and local Councils oppose the application. Labor, with Coalition support, has allowed developers to choose their own private consultants to decide whether their buildings meet the necessary standards, resulting in sub-standard developments being approved.

Greens MPs have opposed Labors changes to the planning laws and have campaigned against numerous inappropriate developments in rural and urban areas and on the coast. The Greens NSW are campaigning for the NSW government to amend the planning laws to ensure that environmental impact statements are required for all developments that may damage the environment. In December last year, Greens MP Lee Rhiannon uncovered Planning Minister Frank Sartor's attempt to turn down the heat on the controversial Catherine Hill Bay development proposal until after the March election.

"The NSW government has amended planning laws to eradicate the need to consider the environment, heritage, coastal protection, local councils or residents. Clearly the 'call in' powers are designed to give political donors and developers favourable outcomes, regardless of the wishes of the local community, Ms Rhiannon said.

The Greens believe that the urban and regional built environments will continue to be degraded unless there is a complete overhaul of the current laws, codes and practices. This will not be possible until there is a complete ban on developer donations to political parties. The Greens are campaigning to tighten donations disclosure laws and calling for the major parties to disclose their donations immediately so that we don't have to wait for over a year to find out who the big donors are. For more information go to the Greens NSW Donations and Continuous Disclosure page and check out the full story at Democracy4Sale.

The public interest must become the dominant consideration in all planning and development decisions.

The Greens are working for:

• ecologically sustainable development to be the guiding principle that underpins the planning process;

• a ban on developer donations to political parties;

• reform of the Land and Environment Court to protect the rights of the community;

• restricting the Planning Ministers ability to call in and approve developments;

• placing the onus of proof on the developer to establish that the development does not damage local amenity, heritage, environment, transport and infrastructure facilities;

• an end to private certification of buildings;

• mandating the adaptive re-use of heritage buildings, not just keeping faces;

• greater restrictions on coastal developments; and

• greenhouse gas implications to be considered in any proposed development or rezoning.

Follow this link for to read The Greens NSW Planning and Infrastructure Policy or our policy summary.

If you want to see the effect of developer donations on NSW planning and infrastructure policy check out The Developers' Map of Sydney (1.5mb) or for a high resolution copy (13mb) please visit Sylvia Hale's website.