David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sometimes the happenings of New South Wales politics are so deeply dystopian it seems like it couldn't really be that bad. Surely, you'd think, no serious adults could behave like that, but then the curse of Macquarie Street strikes and everybody in New South Wales says: 'Please, not again; let it stop!' A classic case of the Macquarie Street curse is the Design and Place State Environmental Planning Policy. This started as a good news story, announced by then planning minister Rob Stokes in December 2021.

It was that super rare New South Wales case of a proposed planning law done well, one that recognised the importance of climate resilience for new homes. It wasn't revolutionary, but it proposed a few environmentally sustainable reforms that would have done supersensible things, like preventing black-tiled heat-soaking roofs on new developments in Western Sydney, requiring new builds to be more energy efficient to reduce energy costs, and putting a few eves on buildings so that houses are kept cooler in summer. It's simple, positive stuff that's good for the planet and good for anyone moving into a new house. Then along comes the curse.

In 2021, Premier Perrottet put the notoriously anti-environment Anthony Roberts in as the new planning minister. The rest, as they say, is history. A few days after the fateful appointment, billionaire developer Harry Triguboff, the owner of Meriton Group, wrote to the New South Wales government complaining about the design and place SEPP. The developers' lobby, who cemented themselves together as the Urban Taskforce, was also unhappy. They said it might be good for new homeowners and the planet, but it would impact their profits.

Coincidentally, their property industry and Meriton are big donors to the Liberal and National parties. In 2022, the Liberal and National parties took $3.2 million in donations from developers. In New South Wales, Meriton gave the Liberal and National parties at least 200 grand in political donations in 2021 alone. They all just love democracy, it seems. When developers pay and come knocking on government doors, meetings are made available and policy change is on the table. Roberts met with the Urban Taskforce on 15 February and the Property Council on 2 March.

It turns out that he had another critical meeting in April. The Greens used the powers of the New South Wales parliament to force the release of documents about what happened to the CEP, and the findings were grim. The property industry undermined the government architect, undermined good policy and pushed the right buttons. Then, on 5 April 2022, this one bit of decent law reform was scrapped by Minister Roberts. Here's the kicker: it turns out that on that exact same day, the planning minister, Minister Roberts, met with Meriton Group to discuss planning matters, according to his now public ministerial diary.

So who's the real planning minister in New South Wales? It's not Anthony Roberts. He's the tool of the developer industry. Let's acknowledge that the one calling the shots is Harry Triguboff, not his mortgaged puppets sitting in Macquarie Street. Of course, this isn't the only threat to good planning that Mr Triguboff poses. He now has his sights set on beautiful Little Bay in Randwick City Council, planning to override the master plan for that community using the Liberal's appalling Rezoning Pathways program. If his Lane Cove puppet is still planning minister after 25 March, then heaven help Little Bay.

Good governments are not afraid to give people information. Good governments should not be afraid of FOI, because they know that transparency fosters democracy and public engagement and drives good decision-making. It's not a surprise that the former coalition government systematically eroded the FOI scheme, creating a damaging culture of secrecy and cover-up. It certainly wasn't a good government. They did this through systematically starving the agencies, whose job it was to make FOI work, including the Information Commissioner, of the funds they needed.

The Abbott government was particularly blatant about this, when, in its first budget, it abolished both the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Freedom of Information Commissioner--a position that was vacant for seven years. Roll forward to 2023, and well into the first year of the new Albanese government, and the FOI Commissioner has quit just one year into a five-year term. The resignation comes as a result of years of whittling away at information access schemes and his office being starved of the funding needed to do its job. This was a statement of exhaustion and frustration delivered to the new Labor government, and it should trouble anyone who cares about open government. It's a public indictment of the current system, highlighting the urgent need for an immediate funding injection to deal with the problems allowed to build up under the former coalition government. This is a test for the Albanese government--fund FOI, support transparency, support good government.