While Wollongong City Council seemed to be leading the way in NSW in terms of ‘what not to do’ in local government its recently appointed Administrators have already made some important and popular decisions such as saving the old Town Hall from demolition.
But it is in the area of town planning, post ICAC, that the most significant changes are occurring and which may ultimately impact local bodies throughout the state – the following article from our sister publication WollongongOnline explains why:
For the Iemma Government to attempt to push through contentious zonings and major changes to approval processes, which directly effect all community members, without their consultation or support of any kind beggars belief.
There are extremely few community issues in Australia which have the potential to galvanise, the usually lay back, Mr. Joe Average into grass roots democratic action than unilaterally changing the rules governing land usage.
Some observers believe this grab for power in Macquarie Street, aided by the introduction of non-representative planning panels at the local council level, is an attempt to distance elected councillors from town planning processes, since they may be improperly influenced by developers and other lobby groups – read ALP donors.
Given the explosive ICAC findings in Wollongong these types of concerns may well have provided the basis if not plausible excuse to implement these significant, and bound to be unpopular, new policies - however there were other important lessons to be learned from the hearings and which the ALP State Government would be well advised to take heed.
For example, and probably most importantly, many of the ‘irregularities’ exposed were a direct result of a lack of citizen input into the local council/planning department intent on implementing its own or its favoured crony’s wishes – legally or otherwise.
In fact, the originally ALP inspired Neighbourhood Committees were unilaterally disbanded by the Wollongong Council’s now ex-CEO Rod Oxley, because they too strenuously objected to many, if not all, of the types of town planning breaches subsequently revealed by the ICAC investigators.
It seems hard to refute: the notion of trying to achieve better town planning outcomes by disenfranchising the very ratepayers directly affected by those decisions is fundamentally flawed.
However the recent decision in Wollongong by Council Administrators to re-introduce a newer version of Neighbourhood Committees with the ability to input into the State appointed town planning panel may well be a step in the right direction and could even be the start of a much needed new approach which can hopefully capture the best of both (town planning) worlds.
Time will tell; but a complete stop to all political donations by developers would certainly add some much needed credibility to the government’s intentions.
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