NSW Planning Bills 2013

Geoff at Aussiebushtreks writes, "This is very urgent. Please watch Corine Fisher's video. [Inside article]" Then Email upper house pollies without delay. There is still a chance to stop O`Farrells dreadful destructive Planning Law. If you go to http://betterplanningnetwork.good.do/nsw/email-upper-house-mps/ your email will automatically go to Upper House Parliamentarians. Don't dilly dally!

(Video URL is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJfrSqxpmYY#t=37)

The film tells about the Better Planning Network, which has 115 groups involved, with their numbers rising.

Unlike in the Lower House of Parliament, the NSW Government does not have the majority in the Upper House. Therefore, to ensure that its Planning Bills get through the Upper House, the Government needs the vote of either: Labor; and/or the Greens; and/or the Christian Democrats and the Shooters and Fishers.

The Upper House debate of the Planning Bills could occur as soon as 12 November. It is therefore vital to email Upper House MPs NOW and voice your concerns about the Government's Disgraceful, corrupt and Destructive Planning Bills.

Please write an email in your own words. Some key points you may wish to make are:

The Government's Planning Bills go against its election promise to return planning powers to the local community.
The Government's Planning Bills will not deliver certainty or transparency for communities.
The principle of Ecologically Sustainable Development must be the overarching driver of the legislation.
The ease with which developers will be able to override local councils' planning controls to get their rezoning requests approved by the State, by the issuing of Strategic Compatibility Certificates (a green light to a spot rezoning) goes against the very concept of strategic planning. These provisions must be removed from the Bill.
The restriction of code-assessable development to 'nominated growth areas' will create 2 classes of residents: the first, in low-density suburbs, will have the right to comment on most developments in their neighbourhood; the second, in growth areas, will not.
The Government's Planning Bills do not provide any simpler or more user-friendly a system that the one we already have.
There is no evidence that the Government's Planning Bills will improve housing affordability simply by increasing housing supply. This is because the drivers of housing affordability are complex and include tax (eg. negative gearing) and welfare policies which the Planning Bills will not address.[1]
No amount of tweaking can fix the Bills and it's best to scrap the Bills and work with all stakeholders to draft new legislation.

NOTES

[1] Candobetter Ed.: Less complex but poorly known by the general public is that State governments in Australia drive population growth upward to benefit developers. They do this by encouraging business immigration and family reunion via State websites inviting immigrants. Australia's federal government is in charge of setting a ceiling on total immigration but, since 2009, Australia's population growth has come 60 per cent from extremely high mass immigration. We are talking hundreds of thousands here. See http://candobetter.net/?q=taxonomy/term/5149