Shadow Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Scott Farlow, has called on the Minns Labor Government to work with the community on planning and housing matters.
“So far we’ve seen the Labor Government tell communities to ‘get out of the way’, and a reluctance to stand up to Canberra, meaning vital infrastructure projects necessary for growing communities are under threat from Labor cuts,” Mr Farlow said.
“New South Wales needs to build more homes, but we need to ensure we bring communities with us on this journey, providing the necessary health, education and transport infrastructure while preserving public space and local amenity.”
“Minister Jackson said she is ‘very motivated to just push through’ with medium and high-density developments, which shows Labor aren’t prepared to hear the views and concerns of residents in communities right across NSW.”
“Labor’s plans to drop more development into Sydney, without addressing congestion, green space and other infrastructure needs, while ignoring genuine concerns and abandoning community consultation, is just wrong.”
Mr Farlow stressed the importance of infrastructure planning, service delivery and maintaining and enhancing public spaces as priorities in any new push to address housing supply.
“The Premier has ordered his ministers to urgently find vacant blocks of public land to rezone for housing. Given comment from his Housing Minister, telling communities to ‘get out of the way’, the government needs to be upfront with what land they’re targeting, and have a plan to address legitimate community concerns such as access to transport and services,” Mr Farlow said.
“It’s hard to plan for a growing city when you have a government hell bent on cancelling vital infrastructure projects, like the Sydney Metro.”
