Ms CHARISHMA KALIYANDA (Liverpool) (16:18): I am pleased to make a brief contribution to debate on the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment Bill 2025, which makes necessary amendments to further streamline the planning system, support the delivery of housing and provide certainty to the construction industry, local communities and other stakeholders. As we know, the housing challenge in New South Wales demands action. The Minns Labor Government has already introduced a range of measures to address that challenge, which I have spoken about in this place multiple times because residents of the Liverpool electorate face issues across both the rental and private housing markets. Part of the reason for that is the failure of strategic planning—and I use that term pretty loosely—of previous regimes to deliver what they promised to do. I note the member for Kellyville's comments around the five years of planning approaches after the Six Cities model. Under the previous Government, approaches to strategic planning changed as often as its members changed their clothes. Residents in Warwick Farm waited 10 years for movement on new housing. They were constantly waiting for each new approach to strategic planning to be implemented, having to go through the process time and time again.
The challenge of addressing the housing crisis in our State has no magic solution. It requires fresh thinking, continual examination of assessment processes with fresh eyes, and a strong commitment to cutting through unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape, which has too often in the past slowed progress. We know this because families are struggling to find affordable homes. Young people are being priced out of the housing market and renters are facing unprecedented pressures. This is resulting in many people seeking greener pastures in communities in other States, with New South Wales experiencing a brain drain because of the difficulties in the housing market.
Over the past 12 years the New South Wales planning system has been a bottleneck, delaying critical housing supply and frustrating those who seek to invest, build and live in the communities they have chosen. The objective of this Labor Government is to change the legacy left by the previous Government. Uncertainty in the planning system has impacted on the delivery of new homes and the simple modification of a development consent. It has held back progress at a time when New South Wales clearly needs efficient, effective and streamlined planning processes.
The bill continues the Government's pragmatic and functional reforms of the planning system, specifically reforms to development assessment and determination. It responds to decisions from three separate challenges in the New South Wales courts to restore certainty in planning assessment decisions. Unfortunately, two of those decisions, in the Court of Appeal and the Land and Environment Court, caused considerable uncertainty. In a third case, the decision established a positive planning outcome, but the pathway used to reach that conclusion was not without doubt, so it is clarified in the bill. That will hopefully alleviate concerns and confusion for stakeholders.
The bill also aims to further support housing delivery and streamline the planning system by removing the statutory requirement for the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces to obtain and publish advice from the Independent Planning Commission before declaring certain types of residential development to be State significant developments, in accordance with the powers vested in the Minister. The bill modernises requirements for affordable housing contributions to better align with current needs and expectations across New South Wales and removes outdated references to the Six Cities Region under division 3.1, thereby establishing a more cohesive strategic planning framework for the State. Those measures reflect the Government's commitment to cutting red tape and bureaucracy, improving the efficiency of our planning system, and continuing to tackle the housing challenge. It is essential that the rules establishing a consent authority for State significant development applications are clear. The amendment in the bill makes clear that only submissions lodged within the public exhibition period will be counted when determining the consent authority.
The bill amends the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 to provide less formal meeting arrangements for the Housing Delivery Authority [HDA], which is important for the following reasons: Firstly, the HDA will perform an advisory role; and, secondly, the public hearing-style forums typically used for planning functions, such as determining development applications or hearing evidence, are less relevant. It is anticipated that the HDA will meet monthly and at short notice, when required. This more agile approach will reduce lead times and associated administration to deliver high-quality advice to government more quickly. Furthermore, it will consider the ways our communities would like to provide feedback or respond to applications and developments within our community. Having previously served on a council, I know that very few people in our communities refresh the department of planning's website to check what it is doing or what a particular application looks like on any given day.
Mr Paul Scully: I do.
Ms CHARISHMA KALIYANDA: Save for the Minister, of course, and probably rightly so. But for many members of the community, particularly those in the communities that will be most impacted by the housing crisis who will benefit most from the changes outlined in the legislation, that is not the way they will look at changes to the planning system. For those people, having a more agile and flexible way to respond to consultation will provide some benefit. The department will publish a record of each Housing Delivery Authority meeting, including high-level information about expression of interest submissions, the HDA recommendations, advice and reasons. This will provide transparency, accountability and insight into the process for those who are, like the Minister, watching the website with bated breath and refreshing that information.
Finally, as was mentioned by other members, the bill seeks to tackle and do more on the affordable housing crisis we find ourselves in today. As a government, it is a clear statement of our values of fairness, opportunity and progress that we deliver more quality and well-located homes that are closer to jobs and near public infrastructure investments. That is particularly the case for young people, families and local key workers who for too long have been priced out of the market and forced to travel long distances and experience long commutes, taking them away from their families and limiting their time for pleasure and alternative things in their lives, purely so they can make it to their jobs. The bill is a recognition that the challenges that New South Wales residents face demand new solutions and that we cannot afford to keep pushing this issue down the line, waiting for someone else to solve it, as happened under the previous Government.
The reforms proposed in the bill will support the delivery of more homes faster and more efficiently through the planning system. They will make the planning system more transparent, flexible and focused on the outcomes that we all want to see: the delivery of more homes and more jobs. The reforms will make sure that New South Wales remains a place where everyone can live, work and thrive in the communities they choose in a place they can call home. They will also hopefully stop the brain drain that I mentioned before so that young people in particular do not choose other States or other places to call home purely because they are more affordable and the processes there are better equipped. I commend the bill to the House and ask that all members support the proposed reforms to the planning assessment system.
