Key Facts:
- CCAA welcomes new Draft Sydney Plan and related planning documents aimed at improving coordination and recognising the construction materials industry's role in NSW
- Industry faces critical challenges, including sand supply exhaustion at Kurnell Peninsula by 2030, while NSW targets 377,000 new homes
- The reforms aim to protect industrial lands and strengthen strategic planning for freight corridors and essential construction materials
- CCAA advocates for a dedicated Heavy Construction Materials Plan to ensure long-term supply security and efficient materials delivery
- Reforms recognise need for long-term planning certainty for capital-intensive operations like quarries and concrete plants
Cement Concrete & Aggregates Australia (CCAA) welcomes the release of the Draft Sydney Plan, the Statewide Policy for Industrial Lands and the New Approach to Strategic Planning Discussion Paper. Together, these documents mark important progress toward a clearer, more coordinated planning system that recognises the essential role of the heavy construction materials industry in building New South Wales.
As the backbone of the State's construction supply chain, our industry depends on long-term certainty around industrial land, zoning, freight access and buffer protection. Strengthening the strategic framework is critical to safeguarding the precincts and freight corridors that enable reliable delivery of the materials needed for housing, infrastructure and economic growth.
These reforms come as NSW faces materials pressures, including the looming exhaustion of sand on the Kurnell Peninsula by 2030, highlighting the need for secure, diversified supply. Addressing these constraints is essential to meeting the State's target of 377,000 new homes and improving housing affordability.
"CCAA has long called for stronger protection of Sydney's industrial lands, raising the urgency of this issue with the Premier in 2024. It is pleasing to see the Government taking steps to reinforce the strategic importance of these precincts to housing delivery and freight-dependent industries," CCAA CEO Michael Kilgariff said.
"A stable, predictable planning system is vital for facilities such as quarries, concrete batching plants, cement import terminals and distribution hubs, which require long investment horizons, capital-intensive operations and secure access to market.
"These reforms recognise the importance of certainty. Our industry operates on timeframes measured in decades, not years, and decisions about land use today will determine whether New South Wales can build the homes, infrastructure and renewable energy projects its communities rely on.
"Strengthening protections for industrial lands and promoting a more coordinated approach between land use, infrastructure and freight is essential for ensuring concrete, cement and aggregates can continue to be produced and delivered efficiently to growing communities across Sydney and regional NSW."
CCAA has again highlighted the need for a dedicated Heavy Construction Materials Plan within the strategic planning framework. Such a plan would provide explicit recognition of the essential nature of materials supply, the locational constraints of quarries and batching plants, the importance of proximity to market, and the need to retain and service industrial land for high-intensity freight and manufacturing uses.
"Secure access to essential heavy construction materials and addressing supply challenges like those on the Kurnell Peninsula, must be a priority for the State in meeting its housing and affordability goals," Mr Kilgariff said.
"A Heavy Construction Materials Plan would give government, councils and industry a shared roadmap for securing the raw materials that underpin every home, road, rail line, hospital and renewable energy project in this State.
"It would complement the reforms announced today by locking in long-term supply certainty and ensuring that planning decisions don't inadvertently constrain the very materials needed to build NSW, especially at a time when the State is seeking to deliver 377,000 new homes while tackling housing affordability head-on."
About us:
About CCAA CCAA is the voice of Australia's heavy construction materials industry, an industry that generates over $15 billion annually and directly employs 30,000 Australians, with a further 80,000 employed indirectly. CCAA members produce most of Australia's cement, concrete, and aggregates, which are essential to the nation's building and construction sectors.
