The people of NSW should be seriously concerned about the Minns Government's Housing Delivery Authority.
It's unfathomable that at a time when the Minns Government is banning councils from having confidential briefings - they have given an unelected three-person panel the power to decide on the biggest housing developments in the state in complete secrecy.
Major developments in the state are now bypassing councils and seeking the Housing Delivery Authority to assess their applications.
Today we learn that a Department of Planning Executive paid more than $300,000 per annum has been using AI to assess HDA applications and make recommendations to the panel on whether they should be fast-tracked or not. To add to this, a review of recent HDA meeting minutes shows that on average, the Panel is then spending no more than 3 minutes determining each application, many of which involve major rezonings.
This is a sad reflection of the absolute panic stations that have set in at the Department of Planning - where they now approve homes first, ask questions later.
This mindset has been created by the Premier and the Minister for Planning, as they disregard all planning standards as part of their race to the bottom to achieve the Prime Minister's unattainable housing accord targets.
Housing approvals are not the panacea to the housing crisis when approvals are not progressing to construction. This is so much more complex than simply approving applications that have lots of homes. We have development-ready sites with approvals in place, but developers aren't building when they can instead have a go at obtaining further rezoning and uplift through Government, sometimes for the second and third time in the space of 5 years. The Government has thrown away all the standards that made this city one of the most desirable places in the world to live. Forget your local planning controls. Forget your local infrastructure needs. The only metric that matters to the Government is the number of homes approved.
The fact that the HDA is now enshrined in legislation should be deeply concerning for everyone.
I'm calling on the Minns Government to make all reports to the Housing Delivery Authority fully public - just like councils do, so there can be proper transparency and scrutiny.
The Hills Shire Council has repeatedly highlighted the complete lack of public information regarding decision-making. Now we discover AI has been writing those reports.
If DPHI is not concerned about errors or proper assessment, then why are the reports secret? The Department needs to be held to the same scrutiny it demands of councils. Otherwise, the whole thing stinks.
Mayor of The Hills Shire, Dr Michelle Byrne
