The Property Council of Australia has welcomed today’s public exhibition release of the NSW Government’s Infrastructure Contributions Reform Package and has called for the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Infrastructure Contributions) Bill 2021 to be passed through the Legislative Council.
Property Council’s Western Sydney Regional Director Ross Grove said now the infrastructure contributions reforms package had been released, the supporting Contributions Bill should be passed as a matter of priority.
“When the Legislative Council voted to defer passage of the Contributions Bill, it was to facilitate the release of supporting regulations and planning instruments. Now this information is available, the Bill needs to be passed,” Mr Grove said.
“The contributions framework in NSW is an inefficient mess. Contributions are costly, complex, hard to predict and adds time to a process which already makes construction and development a difficult ask.
“The current contributions system is difficult to understand for all parties, and involves a lot of behind-closed-doors negotiation for development approval. The proposed reforms bring contributions into the light so residents, councils and developers can all have confidence and clear understanding of the system.
“To make the most of the post-COVID economic recovery we need to remove as many of the unnecessary bottlenecks in the planning system as possible.
“While today’s announcement is welcomed and the package will be combed over by our members in detail, none of it can be achieved without the passage of the Infrastructure Contributions Bill through the NSW Parliament.”
The community is encouraged to have its say on detailed reforms to build a simple, clear and consistent infrastructure contributions system to unlock up to $12 billion in productivity gains for NSW.
The Infrastructure Contributions Reform Package is on exhibition until 10 December 2021.
