The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.
THE State Government plans to give its agencies and councils power to compulsorily acquire private land to re-sell to developers at a profit - or, if they choose, at a reduced price so the developers make even more money.
Legal authorities describe as "quite remarkable" a section of new planning laws flagged by the Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, to acquire land by force to onsell to private developers.
"A man's home may no longer be his castle, but it could well end up being somebody else's castle," said Anthony Whealy, a planning expert with Gadens Lawyers. "It will certainly be welcome news to many in the development game.
"Under the current law, the minister is not able to re-sell land which has been acquired or transfer it to another person. The new scheme expressly allows that, and makes it clear that it may be done as part of a profitable proposal by a private developer."
The last time New South Wales was perceived to be so thoroughly in the hands of big business interests (not all of these of spotless corporate character) was in the 1970s and 80s.
Some of the development companies operating in this state right now were unfavourably mentioned during government inquiries, royal commissions and even one coroner's inquest during that period.
Quite a few of the most generous political donors have business interests on the NSW North Coast.
Planning Minister Frank Sartor and the rest of the Iemma Government may protest about media beat ups, but they have done nothing to dispel the idea that NSW Labor is blatantly 'on the take' and just as susceptible to brown paper bag deliveries as that not so long ago Coalition Askin Government.
1 comment:
I couldn't believe my eyes when I read this story. Mainly because of the timing- that the Iemma government can feel confident of pulling something like this off at a time when they're mired in scandals relating to corruption ('perception' of corruption) says something about the total shambles that the NSW Liberal party must be in at the moment. Iemma obviously thinks that they're going to be unable to capitalise on something that would have any other government thrown out on its arse in a place where there was a viable opposition. NSW is in a bad way.
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