Labor Ads - Is Kristina Believable?

Give credit to NSW Labor for putting together a slick advertising campaign. The "Presidential" style campaign run by Maurice Iemma worked against all odds - Kristina Keneally's new ads which were run back to back were high on style, low on substance.
How can she be believed? The arrogance of a campaign that totally ignores the betrayal perpetrated on NSW by the Labor Government over the last four years is breathtaking. For Kristina Keneally to introduce a fear campaign about the privatization of Hunter Water and Sydney Water is the height of hypocrisy after her Government's incompetent and highly unpopular disposal of publicly owned energy assets. How can we believe anything they say when State Labor also sold off the highly lucrative NSW Lotteries?
These policies weren't part of Labor's policy platform going into the 2007 election and there is no reason to believe that Labor is listening to the people now but rather that they are saying whatever they believe they need to say to cling to power.

Development Policy

A real concern for residents of NSW is the changes that have occurred to development matters.  With an increasing attack on local planning decisions it should be remembered that the form of our communities has mostly been delivered by local decisions from councillors elected by and answerable to their communities.  Most residents agree that we live an enviable lifestyle in one of the best areas in NSW - the arguments against local decision making just don't stack up yet the NSW Labor Government have been ruthless in transferring decisions to unaccountable and unrepresentative bodies.

Development Planning and Approval

I have a long record of supporting appropriate development in Lake Macquarie – balancing the demands of population growth, job creation, community development, and the environment is a complex task that has overall been well delivered in Lake Macquarie.  Many of the most controversial proposals and approved developments have been taken from local decision makers at Lake Macquarie City Council as the NSW Labor government has increasingly been influenced by the development industry in their attack on local government across NSW.  The NSW Labor government has introduced a variety of ways to centralise decisions away from local communities.  This trend must be reversed.

Part 3A

It is rare that many people would know the name of a particular section of any legislation let alone the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act (EP&A Act). Part 3A of the EP&A Act may not be well read but its name is well known and the overwhelming reason for that is that communities across NSW resent the way in which it has been used and abused by a state government increasingly inclined to remove local decision making. Part 3A of the EP&A Act has become so abused it must be removed.

Part 3A was created to deal with development that was truly of State significance.  Things such as water and gas pipelines, power stations, mines, port facilities and other major regional infrastructure are appropriately dealt with at this level.  The use of these powers for residential subdivisions, shopping centres and the like has removed the decisions on too many matters from local representatives elected by community. 

Part 3A must be repealed and replaced with a mechanism that restores decision making on local matters to the local community while allowing the State to refer truly state significant matters to an appropriate forum such as the Planning and Assessment Commission.

Joint Regional Planning Panels (JRPPs)

JRPPs were established by former Planning Minister Frank Sartor following a sustained campaign by many in the Development Industry to remove decision making from Councils.  Minister Sartor set a value threshold of $40 million and above for matters to be referred to JRPPS but this was quickly changed to $10 million by his replacement, Kristina Keneally.

Joint Regional Planning Panels have five members of whom only two are nominated by a council.  The members are appointed by the Minister and make use of the local council’s resources to assess Development Proposals.

Councils have generally dealt very well with development in their local areas. Councillors are members of the local community and are contactable by and answerable to their local residents. The use of JRPPs to determine applications is inappropriate and says more about the influence the development lobby has wielded with the current state government than it does about the councils that have lost these powers.

Councils cannot be excused from any responsibility to address legitimate concerns about their performance; these need to be addressed in a positive way, not by the process of continual removal of local representatives from decisions about their community. Joint Regional Planning Panels should be disbanded or their role changed to one of an advisory nature.

Local Government Planning Consent Powers

There are times when a particular council is identified as not performing appropriately or well in considering planning matters. A current method of dealing with this is to remove Planning Consent powers from that Council for a period of time and for those decisions to be dealt with by a Planning Panel appointed by the Minister. Current examples include councils at Wagga Wagga and Cessnock.

This process removes responsibility for decision making from elected representatives and further distances local residents from the decision making process – the panel members are not as accessible to residents as Councillors and they are not accountable to the community.

While the appointment of Planning Panels may clear backlogs of Development Applications and associated decisions, their appointment does nothing to improve the originally identified problem with the Council.  That is why I have put before the Parliament a Bill which addresses the original concerns and at the same time strengthens the administrative and decision making process within the particular council.

The ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT AMENDMENT (MAINTENANCE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT DEVELOPMENT CONSENT POWERS) BILL 2010 would enable legislation that strengthens local decision making and is aimed at identifying and remedying problems in a positive way rather than using a method seen as punitive to the Council and alienating to residents.  The Bill allows for quick action to be taken on the original concerns yet is positive in building the capacity of local decision makers. The text of my introductory speech on the Bill can be read at: http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/hansart.nsf/V3Key/LA20101203007