12th November 2025
The Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales (NCC), the state's leading environmental organisation, is alarmed at the passage of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Bill 2025, which will set environmental protection in NSW back decades.
"This is a deeply regressive step. NSW is facing an extinction crisis and worsening climate disasters, yet the government's response is to make it easier to destroy nature faster," said NCC CEO Jacqui Mumford.
The Bill passed through Parliament last night with some amendments by independents, opposition and the government, including;
- The objects of the Act were reinstated, they still include promoting 'the social and economic welfare of the community and a better environment by the proper management, development and conservation of the State's natural and other resources', and other mentions of protecting the environment were retained in the objects.
- A Joint Select Committee of Parliament is to be established to give oversight to the new Housing Delivery Authority.
- Protections and consent requirements for bushfire prone land were reinstated.
- Limited guardrails were placed on Targeted Assessment Developments (TADs) so that a development that is/would be a designated development cannot be declared a TAD.
These amendments were a welcome improvement to the Bill. However, the Bill still contains significant changes to the planning system that will have lasting detrimental impacts on our environment and communities.
Legal experts warn that the reforms heighten corruption risks, erode transparency, and allow environmental and climate impacts to be sidelined.
Under the new TAD pathway, the Minister or Department can declare classes of development eligible for streamlined approval, that would prohibit consideration of environmental impacts, public interest or site suitability.
Despite assurances the changes were about speeding up housing delivery, Premier Chris Minns has admitted the mining and energy projects will also be given faster approvals.
Premier Minns told an audience at the Sydney Investment Summit, "We are in the process of making NSW the quickest, the easiest, the most direct state to develop and realise big projects in."
"Being the quickest state to approve harmful projects is nothing to be proud of," Ms Mumford said.
"This Bill is a gift to Minns' developer and mining mates and is now a new front in the fight for environmental protection, as the impacts of this bill roll out.
"This is going to set environmental protection in planning decisions back decades. The latest state of the environment report was a stark warning about the decline of nature in this state, and this Bill will only worsen the destruction.
"NSW needs a planning system that protects our environment, not one that cuts it out of the equation. These changes prioritise developer profits over the health of our land, water and wildlife."
NCC is calling on the government to consult broadly on the regulations and planning policies that will give effect to the Bill.
