White paper is far from one-party government

While agreeing with Mark Ellis, Kay Williams and Keith Whitfield that there are many disagreeable features of the new planning legislation, I think Keith Whitfield rather overstates his case if he sees the current situation as being in any way comparable to Nazi Germany or other totalitarian regimes.

It is worth recalling that there was no planning legislation in Australia, and hence, no right of community involvement in development decisions prior to the 1950s and that, in fact, the planning legislation itself did not incorporate any community involvement until even later than that.

However, it would be exaggerating to maintain that we were living in a fascist state until then.

The system that was proposed in the White Paper did provide for community involvement, except that the involvement was at an earlier stage of procedure than the community has become accustomed to.

This is not exactly riding roughshod over the will of the people.

The problem is, first, that the actual legislation seems to fall somewhat short of the promise of the White Paper and, secondly, that the concept of community involvement set out in the White Paper was more a theoretical construct than a practical method of allowing concerned individuals to be involved in planning decisions.

However, this is still some distance from establishing a one-party government.

Email, 23 Jul 2013

Bruce Hyland, Daleys Point