This speech was delivered on 26/3/2014 in the NSW Upper House. You can read the full debate online here.
Mr DAVID SHOEBRIDGE [11.45 a.m.]: I move:
- (1) That, under Standing Order 52, there be laid upon the table of the House within 21 days of the date of passing of this resolution the following documents created since 1 January 2012 in the possession, custody or control of the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, including his office and staff and/or the Department of Planning and Infrastructure relating to the reform of planning laws in New South Wales:
- (a) any assessment of, memorandum regarding, or response to the independent review of the New South Wales planning system led by the Hon. Tim Moore and the Hon. Ron Dyer,
- (b) any document which records, relates or refers to meetings or any other communication between the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure or the Department of Planning and Infrastructure and the following:
- (i) any mining or property development business, any organisation representing all or part of the mining or property development industry, any person who has signed a general meeting request disclosure form acting on behalf of any of these organisations or businesses, this includes, without limitation, the Urban Taskforce, the Property Council of Australia, both New South Wales and Federal bodies; the Urban Development Institute of Australia, both New South Wales and Federal bodies; and the NSW Minerals Council,
- (ii) any not-for–profit, non-governmental organisations or any person who has signed a general meeting request disclosure form acting on behalf of any of these organisations,
- (iii) any lobbyist on the New South Wales Government Register of Lobbyists, and
- (iv) Local Government NSW,
- (c) any document which relates, records or refers to meetings or any other communication between the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, or the Department of Planning and Infrastructure with the New South Wales Government Parliamentary Counsel’s Office [PCO] regarding planning legislation which was created within the office of the Minister for Planning and Infrastructure or the Department of Planning and Infrastructure or forwarded by that office to the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office, but excluding any documents that originated in the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office, and
- (d) any document which records or refers to the production of documents as a result of this order of the House.
- (2) That any document captured by this order of the House which is also a document that:
- (a) is publicly available on the Planning and Infrastructure New South Wales website at the time of the passing of this resolution, or
- (b) is a document relating solely to the look and feel of policy documents or “glossy brochures”, or
- (c) is a document relating to administrative arrangements for meetings such as hall bookings, is exempt from this order.
I am grateful that the House agreed to consider this motion today. Having established that the motion is urgent, I shall indicate its importance. This motion will shine some light on key issues about the planning law reform process that planning Minister Brad Hazzard so spectacularly failed to deliver in this State over the past three years.
The Hon. Matthew Mason-Cox: Thanks to you.
Mr DAVID SHOEBRIDGE: I note the interjection. I am more than happy to take credit for a small part in an extraordinary community campaign. The credit in pointing out the holes in this Government’s planning reform lies not in this Chamber—though good work was done by a number of Legislative Council members—but in the community. The Better Planning Network and the hundreds of conservation, resident and heritage groups around the State came together and said this Government has spectacularly failed to meet its commitment to return planning powers to the community. The Government said one thing to the public to get its vote and then did the complete opposite. The planning Minister has behaved appallingly in the past few months using the worst parts of Labor’s planning laws—parts from which Labor has moved away saying they are undemocratic and should never have existed. Far from fixing the planning system, the Minister is rummaging in the ugliest and darkest parts of Labor’s previous planning Act to override communities with his Orwellian urban activation precincts, growth corridors and gateway procedures.
It is business as usual for planning in New South Wales with the planning Minister having enormous discretion overriding the say of local communities to their local councils. This planning Minister with the stroke of a pen using these planning powers is imposing unwanted development through the WestConnex corridor—the heart of Sydney. This Minister is rezoning 100 square kilometres of Sydney under the State environmental planning policy. Communities in Randwick, Epping, Ryde, around Sydney and the State want to know what went so wrong. How did the Minister and the Government burn off so much goodwill in just three short years? The success of this motion seeking documents under Standing Order 52 of this House will help us understand that process because we will find out with whom the Minister met—the big developers and miners—and when and what were the outcomes. We will find out how the planning department dug a big hole in its backyard and buried a truly world-class report from Tim Moore and Ron Dyer. What was said? What was the real internal Government response to the Moore and Dyer report?
This Minister has made repeated statements that the drafting of his offensive planning bill did not live up to his intentions. Whenever there was a problem, an obvious gross overstep in the powers, whether it was the removal of appeal rights, the imposition of code assessable development or the removal of other community rights, the Minister always said, “Oh that wasn’t my intention. That’s not what I asked. It was a drafting error from Parliamentary Counsel.” Let us find out what this Government actually asked the Parliamentary Counsel. I commend the motion to the House.