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Matthew Sullivan
The Council of Australia Government's (COAG) claim that statutory planning systems have significantly improved in each state and territory has been labelled as “nonsense” by Urban Taskforce.
Urban Taskforce chief executive Aaron Gadiel said these claims have no substance, as some state planning structures are getting worse, not better.
"Australia's housing shortfall is at 200,000 homes, with a projection for it to grow to 308,000 by 2014,” Mr Gadiel said.
Mr Gadiel believes COAG has failed to take any real action in relation to the Productivity Commission report on zoning and development assessment, which was finalised in May this year.
"The Productivity Commission's report identified key leading practices which could, if adopted across the nation, dramatically improve the efficiency and responsiveness of the state planning systems,” he said.
"There is no sign that state governments have taken any note of the Productivity Commission's report, and clearly, the Commonwealth hasn't insisted that they should.”
However, in a statement released earlier this week, COAG said “work [is] already underway [on] housing supply and affordability reform…each state and territory is continuing to improve significantly its statutory planning systems.”
Mr Gadiel has called on COAG to show signs of evidence that “significant” change is underway.
"Key reports proposing reforms to Australia's housing bottlenecks have not been completed - or at least have been kept secret.
"Every day that passes is another day that these key reports - if they even exist - gather dust.”
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