Sick of councils being blamed for the housing shortage?
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- Published: Monday, 17 November 2025 13:06
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The debate about the housing shortage has been driven by developers demanding a deregulated approach, looking to get shoddy flats up as quickly as possible while worrying about the quality later. What else could be the result of latest steps of the NSW Government?
Last month depaNews revealed some bad news about industrial disputes at Waverley, Richmond Valley, and Tamworth but some good news that the Committee of Management had been working on a position paper for depa about where we stood on the housing shortage and planning in NSW. The Committee’s document is suitably professional and put together by highly experienced and qualified depa members. I wrote the next four paragraphs and I’m none of those things.
Governments only make bad decisions about planning. Politics and vested interests get in the way of decisions that should be focused on quality planning, building liveable and high amenity housing for towns and cities. Fundamental principles like infrastructure before building housing, construction from the perspective of owners and renters with an interest in quality-of-life, green spaces, amenity and liveability, come second.
The NSW Government doesn’t understand planning – the Planning Act in 1998 removed building regulation from councils and forever lost the concept of a BA handled locally, assisting applicants across the counter and providing local solutions.
At the same time, they introduced private certification – ignoring or somehow unaware of the conflict of interest inherent in developers and builders paying for their own certifiers, then failing to regulate the system when introduced, layers of subsequent regulation have haphazardly tried to remove the shonkies, the get-rich-quick, and the corrupt.
Finally, in 2010, and opposed by everyone in local government, they introduced the accreditation of council staff, who were already better regulated and managed as employees, and had no pecuniary interests as regulators, and were able to demonstrate the highly uncorrupted nature of the process. Unlike private certification.
Governments never learn.
Here is the Committee’s depa Position on the Housing Crisis and Local Government Planning in NSW.