Speaking to the Hunter Environmental Institute at the University of Newcastle yesterday, Rob Stokes, the Liberal Member for Pittwater and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Planning, said that a Coalition government would not return local planning decisions to elected councillors as part of its program of planning reforms.
He said that the Coalition would repeal Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act before their planned two year review of the Act, and that the replacement system would retain the call-in power of the Minister under a tighter definition of “state significant development”. All ministerial call-ins would be referred to the Planning Assessment Commission.
He said the Coalition believed that there was a strong case to remove many of the planning assessment entities established under Labor, but that they would leave planning decisions to professionals, not elected representatives.
