Joint Regional Planning Panels

Councils throughout the state have been asked to nominate Councillors to serve on Joint Regional Planning Panels (JRPPs) which are to be operational in July this year.  The Panels will determine Development Applications (DAs) valued over $10M, all eco-tourism developments over $5M and Council applications over $5M or where the Council has a perceived conflict of interest.  In its last term, Lake Macquarie dealt with around thirty within those categories.  The vast majority were approved and some were approved with modification to address community or council concern. 

The panels will have 5 members, 3 appointed by the Minister, and 2 nominated by the relevant Council and appointed by the Minister. Almost universally, Councils across NSW have opposed this process which is widely seen as having been a victory for the development industry  - a victory which is unlikely to satisfy them until all consent powers are removed from Councils.

While there will be Councillors willing to serve on these panels, they will be in an invidious position.  The Council nominee will not be representing the Council, that is explicit under the regulations establishing the Panels. It is very conceivable that they will frequently be at odds with the view of local residents, council officers or their fellow councillors who may from time to time make a submission on a DA.  The current system will frequently see a Council decision that goes against the views of at least some members of the community and occasionally against staff recommendations.  At least in that instance, the decision is shared by a majority of Councillors who would not have lightly taken that position, particularly when they are so close to and directly accountable to their electorate.

Will the JRPPs work?  I'm sure they will speed up decisions in some Councils, but not necessarily with better outcomes.  Are they democratic and accountable? Absolutely not!  We have moved a very long way to the right in our political and bureaucratic processes in recent times, and all through changes championed by the development industry and embraced by the NSW Labor Party.  Removing decision making by the inappropriate use of Part 3A, SEPP 71 (Coastal Development) and now JRPPs have all been unnecessary to get better outcomes for the development industry and the community.  I have no doubt that the State Government could have developed and negotiated much better outcomes that would have seen them as supporting local decision making.  Unfortunately, there remains an adversarial relationship between the state and local government in too many areas.

A meeting of the  Board of Hunter Councils, representing 11 Local Government Areas, last week recommended constituent Councils decline to nominate representatives until amongst other things, the Government addresses very real concerns about JRPPs raised in a submission by the Local Government and Shires Assoc. to the Department of Planning.