Corruption concerns for Minns’ Planning Reform Laws
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has confirmed that they were not consulted on the final Planning System Reform Bill currently before the NSW Parliament and were not asked about the controversial Targeted Assessment Development pathway at all. Minister for Planning Paul Scully has been asked to release written advice from the ICAC about the bill before it is debated this week.
Quotes attributable to Greens MP and spokesperson for planning Sue Higginson:
“This Bill has been sold as housing reform, but what it really does is winds back environmental protections, applies to all development and hands extraordinary power to the Minister and a new bureaucracy, which is essentially the Planning Secretary, with no independent oversight. That is exactly the kind of structure that has enabled corruption in NSW planning before, and it is happening again,”
“The Government has told the Parliament that ICAC helped shape these reforms, but ICAC has confirmed that it was never asked to review or comment on the Bill. This is a serious integrity failure. I have written to the Planning Minister asking him to explain and release what advice the Government has received. They can’t claim anti-corruption credentials while refusing to release ICAC’s advice,”
“ICAC has given clear warnings over many years about the need for independent and separate impact assessment and decision-making, to manage lobbying risks, and to maintain transparency. This Bill does the opposite. It concentrates power, removes scrutiny, and creates new pathways for political influence,”
“The new Development Coordination Authority and the Targeted Assessment Development path both put massive discretionary power in the hands of the Minister. There are no clear mandatory criteria to guide the exercise of that power, transparency measures are weakened and there is no mandatory reporting requirement. That is not a modern planning system, it is an invitation to corruption,”
“This Parliament has a duty to make sure the laws we pass cannot be used for private gain or political favour. There is a lot of ‘trust us to do the right thing’ written all over the Bill, but time has shown the public are right to not want to have to trust Ministers and Executives, they are right to demand a system that they can trust, and that is one that has strong anti-corruption safeguards. The only responsible next step is to refer this Bill to ICAC for formal advice and to a parliamentary inquiry for full public scrutiny,” Ms Higginson said.