Wollongong City Council will welcome proposed changes to the NSW EPA act. Photo: Wollongong City Council.
A push to castigate the NSW Labor Government over planning system reforms has turned into a letter of congratulations.
Before it landed in the council chambers controversy sprang up about Greens’ councillor Deidre Stuart’s motion for Wollongong City Council to write to the NSW Premier, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces and Member for Wollongong, and the members for Heathcote and Keira to highlight concerns about the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment Bill 2025.
Labor Councillor Dan Hayes said it was a “copy/paste” motion that was “anti-housing” and part of a concerted effort by the NSW Greens to block the bill.
Cr Stuart hit back and said a political party working together on a common goal was hardly a conspiracy.
The heat hadn’t gone out of their spat by the time the council meeting rolled around.
Cr Stuart said she wanted to see more affordable housing for residents, but was concerned that many of the proposed reforms applied to all developments, not just housing.
“There are amendments to the Dam Safety Act of 2015 proposed in this suite of changes,” she said.
“That’s got no relevance to housing.
“These are the largest changes proposed in decades and there has been no community consultation.”
Cr Hayes’ response was scathing.
He likened The Green’s pushback against the reforms at all levels of government to “a snake eating itself”.
He said he wasn’t comfortable with the council putting its name to a letter that was not authored by an individual councillor, or attributed to a single author.
“This is anti-housing, it’s for the status quo, a system that is onerous, expensive and slow,” he said.
“There are no new ideas or solutions, just a wall of ‘no’.
“When it comes to the fixing housing crisis we have to do lots of things, and it’s great to see the government doing that.”
Labor councillor David Brown proposed an amendment, that the council write to the NSW Government in support of the reforms.
He said the criticisms “turned molehills into mountains”.
“If the State Government didn’t act to address the housing crisis that would be negligent,” he said.
“This will address the problem of so-called ‘zombie DAs’ around the state and help keep councils out of court.
“I propose the council writes that it welcomes the State Government’s reforms to modernise the EPA act, urge the State Government to adequately resource the development consent authority and request the community be given the opportunity to engage.”
The amended motion was carried with the support of all Labor councillors.
Greens councillors Deidre Stuart, Jess Whittaker and Kit Docker, alongside independent councillors Andrew Anthony and Ryan Morris all voted against it.
