Perth Voice Interactive

Opinion by ANDREW SMITH, former mayor East Fremantle and democratic town planning expert

WHEN former WA premier Mark McGowan retired without notice in May, he left a ‘landmine’ behind in WA’s town planning landscape. 

This scrap of ordinance guarantees full-scale war in Perth and Fremantle ‘burbs, and while it’s the pollies who laid this trap to cause local conflict, hardship and despair, it is they who will suffer the deepest wounds.

Just before heading into the sunset declaring himself exhausted, the premier and his powerful planning minister Rita Saffioti quietly and without much fuss enshrined the provisions of the 2021 Covid economic recovery legislation into WA’s town planning regime, despite it originally being a temporary fix. 

In doing so, the government created a monster that is a developer’s wildest dream, but the worst possible nightmare for just about every other property owner threatened by the prospect of a no-holds barred high-density and/or high-rise development goldrush in the ‘burbs. 

WA now has a three-tiered ‘planning’ system where the top two favour the richest, most powerful developers – read fast track for high density and/or high rise and bugger the rules. Those developers are now cosily parading alongside the WA government and its bureaucrats, while neighbouring land owners are left to watch glumly from the sidelines. 

The rest of us are herded into the third tier, forced to follow the old democratic ‘please-respect-your-neighbours’ planning rules.

90 storeys

Aportent of what’s to come is Brisbane City Council paving the way for 90-storey high-rise apartments in the Kurilpa Precinct in South Brisbane, where residents currently “grow tomatoes and mangoes and vegetables in their backyard”, according to an planning expert who’s recommended they drop their “selfish” nimby opposition.

Brisbane plans to do it with WA-style fast-track planning controls, pegged only by aviation flight thresholds and with no hint of impact on local residents. 

This could soon be coming to a suburb near you.

The original intention of this pandemic recovery legislation, which was to expire recently, was in part to sideline local governments (who’ve long been central and important democratic moderators of excessive planning and development) and their residents. The premier wanted fast-track, large-scale land and property development to provide, in his own words, “jobs, jobs, jobs”. 

As premier McGowan made this defining call, we at the Chook raised our eyebrows. While we understand the economics of his call, where was the championing of orderly, measured town planning and development? That’s always been much more about keeping neighbourhood peace over land-use decisions.  

Why? Because every war in history – every one – has been about land, whether between nations or neighbours. 

With suburban land skirmishes across Perth’s western and southern suburbs, the pages of local papers like ours have endless fodder. These disputes, minor and major have always been about who owns the land, who wants to own it and what they want to do with it. 

Gone nuclear

OVER the past 70 years WA and the other states have developed complex and detailed laws and decision making processes to resolve this very difficult arena with its ever-present potential for human conflict.

The recent decision by premier McGowan and planning minister Saffioti to ‘go nuclear’ and provide the most powerful developers with a guaranteed pathway to success, while small private home owners lag behind, is a recipe for disaster. 

This dual system, one based on economic potential, the other on proper considerations of land use and impacts, is wrong, destructive for broader communities and disrespectful to the majority of private owners in this state.

Just look at the ham-fisted introduction of the revised Aboriginal Heritage Act, now withdrawn by new premier Roger Cook. Was this another botch-up by an exhausted premier and an unwary minister?

Premier McGowan and planning minister Saffioti shouldn’t be saddled with all the blame for the emerging land wars that will scar our landscape and leave communities shell-shocked, but they should wear most of it. 

They were only picking up on the equally ham-fisted battle former Liberal premier Colin Barnett had with some powerful developers and former political backers and party donors in his time. 

As a sop to the antagonists it was Barnett who struck the first blow to orderly planning by kowtowing to the painful bleating of the ever-greedy development lobby to curtail the political power of local governments and the legitimate interests of all affected property owners. By the stroke of this pen, Barnryy set up the so-called Joint Development Application Panels (JDAPS) about 10 years ago.

Skirmishes

JDAPS were a game changer. While they seemed to be planning instruments for planning decisions they were in fact ‘political’ bodies to make political decisions under the direct control of the WA planning minister, removing decisions for developments over a certain value from local governments. 

Like cluster bombs on a battlefield, they gave one side an overwhelming advantage.

Dominated by planning bureaucrats and industry ‘experts’ – that is, pro-industry insiders such as town planners or architects – their minority town councillors were ordered to  not to represent their own council or their residents. How democratic is that?

The big problem with this structure was that the panels worked out of the office of the minister, who also authorised all their sitting fees; that makes it political. This has changed a little with moves to make the panels part of the WA Planning Commission, but they’ll remain dominated by hand-picked appointments by the government.

In one fell swoop, then-premier Barnett turned the open, democratic, council-moderated planning process – which was subject to appeal to the State Administrative Tribunal – into largely WA government political decisions. There’s no surprise that by all news accounts it’s largely favoured powerful developers.

The ensuing land skirmishes that have consumed councils and residents especially in Perth’s richest western and southern suburbs are testimony to the land wars that are about to escalate. 

Up-coming council elections in October may well see a resurgence of local political acivity as residents and land owners discriminated against in the three-tier planning system rise up to redress the balance.

Then again, new premier Roger Cook, who days ago withdrew the controversial Aboriginal Heritage Act that has almost certainly finished off the upcoming First Nations Voice Referendum in West Australia at least, may just be moved to sit down with new planning minister and former Vincent mayor John Carey to have a quiet chat over how to avoid the coming suburban land wars.

With the popularity of the Cook government still very fluid we feel it better for the current government to restore a democratic planning process than be reflecting on the reasons for their return to the Opposition benches sooner than they would like.