Planning Minister John Day says he is considering an amendment to further strengthen local government input into his plan to introduce a redevelopment authority to oversee the entire metropolitan area.
Minister Day was responding to concerns raised by the City of Perth today, which called the proposal “divisive” and “damaging”.
A report by the City of Perth Planning Committee last night expressed extreme disappointment regarding a lack of local government representation and consultation on the proposed planning changes.
Perth City Council also raised concerns the bill would remove it from decision making processes for major developments within its boundaries.
"It is considered that the Bill is divisive and its implications for local government and ratepayers are likely to be damaging," the report said.
"The lack of consultation that has been undertaken in preparation of the MRA bill is of great concern.
"The Bill has substantial implications for the City, removing the City's involvement in decision making on major development projects within its boundaries and enabling the potential erosion of the City's role and powers in relation to future development and infrastructure planning provision."
Mr Day fired back at those claims, saying the state government had consulted widely and taken into account a range of different views when drafting the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority Bill.
“Although individual local governments were not directly consulted in relation to the Bill, the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) was personally briefed by officers of the Department of Planning,” Mr Day told WA Business News.
“WALGA provided written comments on 10 March 2011, indicating its general support for the Bill. As a result of those comments, some changes were made to the Bill.
“Among these was an amendment to require one Board and one Land Redevelopment Committee member to have a local government background; prior to that, the Bill had included local government expertise in the categories of “relevant qualifications”, so that there was the potential for local government representation, but no strict requirement.”
Mr Day said the department had also consulted with the relevant redevelopment authorities already overseeing redevelopments in Perth, the Department of Treasury and Finance, the Public Sector Commission, Landcorp and Landgate.
“All agencies supported the bill,” Mr Day said.
Mr Day also said there was nothing in the Bill to prevent the local government member on the board from also being a representative of the City.
"I am currently considering an amendment to further strengthen the local government input into the authority,” he said.
“It is certainly my intention that a representative of the City of Perth, most likely the Lord Mayor if she wished, would be appointed to the relevant Land Redevelopment Committee.”
The Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority Bill, which would abolish the East Perth, Midland, Subiaco and Armadale Authorities, was being debated in Parliament this week.
It proposes the authority would plan, undertake, promote and coordinate development of land in redevelopment areas across the metropolitan area.
Opposition spokesperson for planning John Hyde said the City of Perth was the local council most affected by the proposal, and it was rightly upset it was not consulted further over its introduction.
“The Bill centralises a huge amount of planning decisions with the Planning Minister and Treasurer,” he said.
Mr Hyde said Labor MPs had proposed amendments that would bring greater transparency to the bill and protect the rights of local governments and workers.
The City of Perth said it would request an urgent meeting with Planning Minister John Day to discuss its issues associated with the bill, prior to it proceeding further through state parliament.
