First rule for any 2022 federal election candidate - don't mislead voters before the election campaign has even begun

This was how National Party candidate for the federal seat of Richmond, Kimberly Hone, presented herself to the media and electorate on 24 March 2022 in Echo online:

Nationals Party

Nationals candidate, Kimberly Hone.

On the Nationals Party ticket is Kingscliff resident Kimberly Hone, who has no online presence, apart from Facebook.

Her earliest video post is from November 2, 2021.

She says on a video that, with her husband, she has been running a fitness coaching practice for 12 years.

‘I stand for families and small businesses’, she says in another video. Ms Hone replaces Tweed Heads’ Hungry Jacks owner, Matthew Fraser, who previously ran multiple times on the Nationals Party ticket.

Intrigued by the very specific claim presumably made by Ms. Hone or the National Party on her behalf - that she only had one social media presence, a Facebook account, with her earliest video post being from November 2021 - I decided to look.

First thing I noticed is that she has an active Instagram account with videos dating back to at least 2019. On this account in October 2021 she announced her official candidature at the next federal election.

Retrieved 27 March 2022

A second look showed she still had one, possibly two, accessible Twitter accounts.

Retrieved 27 March 2022

https://twitter.com/kimberlyhone

Retrieved 27 March 2022

https://mobile.twitter.com/kimberly_hone

Both Twitter accounts contain political comment.

In addition to these social media accounts, the Nationals candidate for Richmond also has an old YouTube video account in her name with one video going back to 2019.

Retrieved 27 March 2022

Then I looked for news reports about the candidate and this article immediately popped up, which might go some way to explaining her reluctance to admit the range of her social media accounts.

Gold Coast Bulletin online, 25 March 2021:

Richmond resident Kimberly Hone is the fresh face on the Nationals ticket in the race to beat Labor MP Justine Elliot who has held the seat since 2004.

Her political rivals have also labelled her a “risk to the community” over her support for radical alternatives to fight Covid including Ivermectin.

The deworming medicine for horses has been touted as a Covid “wonder drug” by ex-US President Donald Trump and billionaire Clive Palmer.

Ms Hone wrote, “China treats their citizens with intravenous Vitamin C” in a thread in which she also endorsed Ivermectin.

In a series of tweets, since deleted, Ms Hone tweeted with links:

* “One way to avoid domestic violence is to marry well. Abusers are exceptional at manipulating …”

* “Imagine if your child’s school secretly started feeding your child transgender hormone tablets.”

* “Ten religious reasons against climate change.”

* “Global thackery: Earth has not warmed for the past 19 years – new study.”

* “Debunked: Hurricanes harvey and Irma were NOT (sic) caused by climate change.”

Video of Ms Hone speaking at a community church in October 2021 also shows her encouraging supporters’ anti-vaccination views.

At one point she states she is “so glad” audience members “no longer trust medical science”.

Richmond MP Justine Elliot has since slammed Ms Hone for her comments, labelling them “repulsive”, “dangerous” and “deeply offensive”.

“Concerned locals alerted me about these extreme views,” she said.

“It’s about transparency. (Her comments) are all extreme and quite disturbing, particularly about domestic violence.

“Victims are never to blame for domestic violence. I was personally offended when those were brought to my attention.

“This is appalling.”

“Voters deserve to know who she is.”

Ms Hone said making her past statements public was “bullying behaviour” and she refused to be “dragged down to a schoolyard cat fight”……

Ms. Hone made a rookie’s mistake when she apparently attempted to direct people towards just one social media source of information about her, without first sometime earlier either closing those Twitter accounts or removing them from public view.

As for that innocuous Instagram account, she would be better off making that a locked account for family & friends until the federal election is over and she has returned to private life once more.

It is hard to see how it could be otherwise for this novice candidate. Because she failed to take the very first fence in the political steeple chase – she was not open and transparent.

As for that risible "bullying" claim.......

BACKGROUND

 

In October 2021 Ms. Hone clearly stated that “the ultimate goal for me, just like my husband and I have done with business, I want to bring God’s kingdom to the political arena and I want God’s kingdom to penetrate the political mountain”. It appears that in this video (commencing at 29:48) she is asserting that all legislation must reflect a Christian worldview and values. 

Ms. Hone has a "business slash ministry" with her husband, Kingdom Business. This appears to be a business networking vehicle for Christian business owners.

Ahead of the week's Budget 2022-23 announcements, a brief look at how the federal government remains afloat

Budget Papers 2022-23 are expected to be presented to the Australian Parliament this sitting week.

This budget - like all other Morrison budgets since 2016 - comes with a background of increasing public debt. This fourth Morrison-Frydenberg budget can be no different, whatever clever accounting tricks are employed.

Financial Review, excerpt, 9 February 2022:

Commonwealth budgets and mid-year reviews have been ramping up spending, right up to the last mid-year review in December. As a result, spending in 2023/24 is estimated to be $41 billion higher than when it was first estimated in 2020. This increase has little to do with the pandemic.

The fiscal outlook is further clouded by the approach of a federal election. In recent weeks, the Prime Minister has been out and about sprinkling more fiscal largesse, which sits uneasily with his Treasurer’s “lines in the sand”.

Australian Office of Financial Management, Annual Report 2020-21 Financial Statements excerpt, 25 October 2021:

The cost and risk of the debt portfolio is managed through debt issuance and (where appropriate) investment activities. Since early 2009, budget deficits have required debt issuance volumes that have exceeded those necessary to maintain liquidity in Treasury Bond and Treasury Bond futures markets, affording the AOFM with a greater level of flexibility in setting its issuance program. In recent years the AOFM has lengthened the duration of its Treasury Bond portfolio through longer term issuance as a means of reducing refinancing risk and the variability of debt servicing costs over time.

Australian Office of Financial Management, 2021-22 Issuance Program, 7 January 2022:

This notice provides updated details of planned issuance of Australian Government Securities by the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) for the remainder of 2021-22.

At MYEFO the AOFM indicated planned Treasury Bond issuance of around $105 billion (of which $44.3 billion has been completed). Two tenders will be conducted most weeks. A new November 2033 Treasury Bond will be issued by syndication in the final quarter of 2021-22 (subject to market conditions).

Planned issuance of Treasury Indexed Bonds is $5-5.5 billion (of which $4.1 billion has been completed). Two tenders will be held most months.

Regular issuance of Treasury Notes will continue. Weekly issuance volumes will depend on the timing and size of government receipts and outlays and the AOFM’s assessment of its cash portfolio requirements.

Details of weekly transactions will be announced at midday on the preceding Friday.

As at 28 February 2022 the total of Commonwealth borrowings liability was $859,702,529,974 (calculated in Australian dollars). That is an eyewatering amount of billions in anyone's language.

Two Treasury Bond tenders and a Treasury Note tender with a combined value of $2.8 billion were announced on Friday, 25 March 2022.

The next tender for the issue of Treasury Indexed Bonds is planned to be held on Tuesday, 12 April 2022.

Commonwealth gross debt has been rising since the Global Financial Crisis, but in the last three and a half years as the country lurched though mega bushfires, pandemic, catastrophic flooding and a significant loss of export market share in China, the Morrison Government budget papers have been exercises in hopeful fiction. Next Tuesday night's budget papers might possibly be accompanied by glittering unicorns.

Cartoons of the Week

Cathy Wilcox

Alan Moir

John Shakespeare

There is political madness in the air as barely hidden agendas make a mockery of the ongoing trauma in communities hit by NSW Floods February-March 2022

 

Desperate to eliminate all discussion of climate change from the public debate ahead of the federal election campaign, the Morrison Government has given the nod for the CSIRO to be granted est. $10 million dollars via the federal National Recovery and Resilience Agency (NRRA) to study how to manage floodwater within the Wilson and Richmond river catchments with definitely no mention of funding for national, state or regional mitigation measures to tackle for the root cause of extreme flooding events - climate change. 

The Coordinator General of the NRRA, Shane Stone, is reported as stating that flood management study is expected to take up to two years.

According to one National Party member of the Morrison Government, Page MP Kevin Hogan (middle with Steven Krieg on his left), the results of this study are a done deal: "For too long, previous councils have debated the merits of flood mitigation. Today that debate is done. For everyone who is against engineering solutions to flood mitigation, the debate is over."   

Predictably, National Party-supported Lismore Mayor Steven Krieg blindly echoes this pre-empting of the CSIRO's study report while on the same breath assuring the region that is not what he is doing.

This bold pre-emptive statement hides a multitude of misconceptions about the function of a dam, because the primary function of a dam can be water sustainability/storage or flood mitigation.

Water sustainability/storage requires a dam to be constantly around 90 per cent capacity to fully meet its primary function and to justify the many millions spent on its construction and ongoing maintenance.

Flood mitigation requires a dam to always be almost empty and every time its water level rises significantly that water needs to be released back into the river system that feeds it in order to maintain flood mitigation capacity.

Trying to combine both functions in the same dam on a floodplain would require an enormous, over-designed dam built at prohibitive financial and environmental cost. A constant looming presence in the landscape likely to give downstream farmers and homeowners more than a few troubled nights.

And let's face it, there is actual income to be made out of water storage dams not empty dams, so the temptation for a gradual shift in purpose from flood mitigation to water sustainability/storage would be there from the very beginning - with the potential for lethal consequences during mega floods or a multiple flood year in the catchment when there is insufficient capacity remaining to retain all the floodwater reaching such a repurposed dam.

There is already renewed talk of damming and diverting water from NSW coastal rivers inland or across the NSW-Qld border and it appears that nothing would please the Perrottet Government more than finding an excuse for inter-catchment water transfer to satisfy the needs of rapacious councils, property developers and irrigators outside of the Northern Rivers region, as well as the wants of that unhealthy coterie of political donors/dodgy water traders. 

This motley collection of National Party ideologues and mindless political agitators need to stop acting as a wrecking ball and build on local knowledge and expertise in order to genuinely assess all the solutions being offered up Lismore and the Northern Rivers region.

BACKGROUND 

There are thirty-six signatories to this document sponsored by the Climate Council of Australia. 

MARCH 2022 Statement From A... by clarencegirl

https://www.scribd.com/document/566391016/MARCH-2022-Statement-From-Australian-Mayors-And-Councillors-Extreme-weather-is-hurting-Australia-and-our-communities-are-paying-the-price

Council Magazine, 7 March 2022:

The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) has called for a targeted $200 million per year disaster mitigation fund, for local governments to address the impacts of climate change and help increase Australia’s resiliency.

ALGA President, Linda Scott, said the Association is seeking the disaster mitigation fund as well as an extra $200 million over four years for a Local Government Climate Response Partnership Fund.

“In 2014, the Productivity Commission recommended increased investment in disaster mitigation, but currently less than five per cent of disaster funding in Australia goes towards mitigation and community resilience measures,” Cr Scott said.

“We appreciate the support that has quickly been provided by states and the Commonwealth to households and communities impacted by these devastating floods in Queensland and New South Wales.

“However, we need greater investment in disaster mitigation and climate change adaptation to reduce the severity and impact of future natural disasters.

“The current legislation allows for $200 million per year to be spent from the Federal Government’s $4.8 billion Emergency Management Fund.

“However, since 2019 the Government has only committed $150 million in total from this fund.

“This month’s Federal Budget is an opportunity for the Commonwealth to provide additional assistance that will help protect our communities from increasing disaster events.

“Investing in mitigation makes economic sense, and significantly reduces the costs governments incur during recovery.”

Cr Scott said ALGA is also advocating for a Local Government Climate Response Partnership Fund of $200 million over four years to help councils address the impacts of climate change in their communities.

“Across our nation, we are seeing floods and fires that are more severe, and more destructive,” Cr Scott said.

“Providing our councils with funding to address the impacts of climate change in our communities will help us increase our resilience to future natural disasters.”

The Guardian, 23 March 2022:

Lismore council has been gripped by in-fighting over whether it should make references to “climate change” following the flood disaster and a decision to pause its work on flood mitigation despite warnings the “optics” of doing so were “not good”.

The disaster-ravaged town is still in the early stages of recovering from an unprecedented 14.4-metre flood, which wiped out thousands of homes and businesses and brought Lismore to its knees.

On Tuesday, in a late-night sitting, Lismore council proposed a message of thanks to volunteers and the community for their efforts in the immediate response and clean-up effort.

It included a line saying the council “acknowledges we are likely to experience further disasters of this nature as climate change continues to escalate”.

The words “climate change” prompted a reaction from four councillors, led by independent councillor Big Rob, who attempted to have the reference removed and replaced with a line saying “we are definitely going to experience further disasters of this nature”.

Rob – who says he does not deny climate change but likes to “stir up lefties” – said he did not think a message of community support was the right place to make “political” statements about climate change.

“That motion was about thanking people, not being political about climate change,” he said…….

The effort to delete the reference to climate change failed. But it rankled other councillors, including Greens councillor Adam Guise, who first proposed the climate change reference be added.

“They tried to couch it as not politicising it,” Guise said . “But this is the whole thing about climate change, it’s not political, it’s science.”

The dispute came amid further divisions within council over a decision to halt the work of a key committee working to improve flood mitigation measures in Lismore.

That occurred despite councillors acknowledging the “optics” of pausing the flood mitigation committee so soon after a disaster were “not good”.

The council has also sacked members of the Lismore community who were on a community reference group advising council on flood mitigation.

On Tuesday, at 11pm, the council decided to pause the work of the floodplain committee to wait for more information from CSIRO, which has been given $10m to explore flood mitigation measures in the region.

Lismore council decided it should hold off doing any further work on flood mitigation of its own until it understood what CSIRO was doing.

But councillor Vanessa Ekins, who chairs the committee, warned that could take months. She said pausing the committee was “very dangerous ground” and would not look good to Lismore residents.

“We have just been through a big flood, we are still experiencing that and for us to send a message out there that we are pausing work that we have been working really hard on for years until we hear what the CSIRO are doing … they might take six months to tell us what they’re doing,” she said.

“This could take a really, really long time and meanwhile our community has no guidance from us, we’re not doing anything, we’ve paused the consultation we’re currently engaged in until someone else tells us what they’re doing.”

She said the decision was “absolutely outrageous”.

“It’s really important that our flood plain committee continues the work that it’s been doing for the last five years on mitigating the impacts of flooding on the CBD and residences,” she said. “We were in the middle of a consultation process with members of the community about various options.”

Others were furious that community members had been sacked from the committee so soon after the floods.

“We had community members on that committee with five years’ experience and expertise in understanding the mitigation options that were before us,” councillor Elly Bird said. “To throw all of that experience away, I don’t support it.”

The Kitching saga is one stoush an increasingly belligerent Morrison should have avoided

The Sydney Morning Herald, 24 March 2022, excerpts from article by Niki Savva, political commentator, author, former staffer to past prime minister John Howard and past treasurer Peter Costello:

Scott Morrison is kidding himself if he thinks the South Australian election was decided only on state issues, that his standing had no bearing on the vote, and that what happened last weekend can’t be replicated federally.

The Morrison factor was definitely there, and it was big enough to unsettle even more Liberals about their prospects with him at the helm. The result has increased the muttering about regime change.

“He is definitely on the nose here,” one South Australian Liberal said, adding Morrison was a drag on their ticket. Sure Steven Marshall was up against an articulate, charismatic young leader who ran a clever campaign. It still doesn’t explain the extent of the swings in Liberal seats, an omen perhaps for inner urban federal Liberals under threat from independents or Labor.

It’s no good Morrison saying Anthony Albanese is no Mark McGowan and no Peter Malinauskas. Nor is he.

The Prime Minister needed clear air before and after that morale-destroying result to set the scene for the federal budget, which remains the government’s last hope to recover ground. Instead, the focus has been the sordid campaign following the untimely death of Kimberley Kitching.

With so many other issues demanding his attention, including sorting the cost-of-living package in the budget, flood reparations, additional help for Ukraine, uncompleted Liberal NSW preselections, not to mention the bullying accusations levelled against him, Morrison should have kept his distance……

As well as being smart and ambitious, Kitching was a tough player who revelled in political intrigue, making enemies as easily as she made friends. She loved the nickname “Mata Hari” bestowed on her by a Labor MP, a mate, who admired her for not toeing the line, who also warned her to be careful she did not cross that line.

He reckons she never complained to him about her treatment, except that she wanted to be restored to Labor’s Senate tactics committee, from which she had been dismissed. “She was tough, she didn’t want people holding her hand,” he said. “She didn’t ask anyone to feel sorry for her.”

Kitching lost the trust of many on her own side. She was suspected of leaking and undermining colleagues, not only by briefing media – so far Chris Uhlmann and Andrew Bolt have publicly revealed Kitching told them she was concerned Wong would be weak on China – but Coalition MPs, former Liberal Party officials and even senior staff in the Prime Minister’s office.

Politicians leak. And they do have friends across the aisle. But the breadth and depth of hers fed the distrust. The crunch came in June last year when then defence minister Linda Reynolds said in Senate estimates she had been forewarned by a Labor senator she would face questioning over the alleged rape of former staffer Brittany Higgins.

In private meetings later, to prove she was not making it up, Reynolds went so far as to produce for Wong, Gallagher and Keneally, video footage from the Senate chamber showing Kitching approaching her months before in early February before prayers. Reynolds told them this was when Kitching first told her the tactics committee had discussed it and planned to weaponise the alleged rape.

Reynolds also showed them subsequent text messages she had received from Kitching effectively confirming their initial conversation.

The matter had not been discussed in tactics, something Reynolds later accepted, so Kitching’s leak was actually not true. This was a sackable offence in anyone’s language. Kitching was dropped from tactics. Fearing ongoing leaks to their opponents or media, it was no wonder they restricted her access and contact with her……

The final words on this belong to Liberal backbencher Russell Broadbent, first elected to Parliament in 1990, who lost in 1993, was re-elected in 1996, defeated again in 1998, then came back in 2004.

He knows how brutal politics can be, particularly for those like himself who go against the leader or the party line on issues, in his case, on refugees. Broadbent knew and liked Kitching, but has been dismayed such odious insinuations and allegations have flowed from her death.

“Politics breaks people’s hearts. It doesn’t stop their hearts from beating,” he said.

“Questions remain for Albanese and Labor despite his insistence that there was no complaint from Kitching about bullying, however, there is still something unseemly about a prime minister facing so many critical issues getting embroiled in a brutal fight ignited by the death of an opposition politician, particularly as one of his cabinet ministers was a central figure in Kitching’s dismissal from the tactics committee.

Less than 50 days out from a federal general election Roy Morgan Research reveals that by March 2022 "government leaders dominate the Net Distrust Score rankings: Prime Minister Scott Morrison is the most distrusted politician in Australia, with Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce the second and third most distrusted sitting politicians across the country"

Roy Morgan Research, 22 March 2022:

Since March 2019 government trust & distrust have fluctuated but 2021 ended with soaring levels of distrust

March 22 2022 Finding No. 8933 Topic: Press Release Country: Australia

Roy Morgan surveys on ‘Trust’ and ‘Distrust’ of government and government services show distrust levels soared in the second half of 2021 while trust in government fell after sexual assault allegations in Parliament house emerged in early 2021 and were followed by further allegations against Government MPs Christian Porter, Alan Tudge and Andrew Laming.

A look at trust and distrust during the term of the current government shows distrust in government and Government services has consistently far exceeded the level of trust leading to a consistently negative ‘Net Trust Score’ since early 2019.

During the early stages of the pandemic there was a clear increase in trust in Government and government services, however this higher than usual level of trust peaked at the end of 2020 and early in 2021 before the sexual assault allegations from Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins emerged.

The sexual assault allegations surrounding the Morrison Government have lingered over the past year and from June 2021 the emergence of the ‘Delta variant’ laid bare the Government’s lack of preparedness for another outbreak of COVID-19.

The extended lockdowns in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra in the second half of 2021 along with the failure to procure enough vaccines and ‘Rapid Antigen Tests’ later in the year when the ‘Omicron variant’ emerged have seen distrust levels in government increase to record levels.

Government & Government services: Trust, Distrust and Net Trust (March 2019 – Dec. 2021)

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia). Risk Monitor. Base: Australians 14+, Latest 12 months average n=21,314; Latest 12 months average for industry n=700. Includes ABS, ACCC, AEC, ASIC, ATO, Centrelink, Comcare, CSIRO, Defence Force, Education Department, Federal Government, Government (unspecified), Local Government, Medicare, My Health Record, NDIS, Queensland Health, State Government, VicHealth.

According to Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine: “If we take a much longer view and go back to 2007, we see that during the Labor disunity of the Rudd / Gillard years distrust in the Australian government was very high while simultaneously any belief that the government was doing a good job was really low.

“That pattern remained pretty constant through the Abbott, Turnbull and early Morrison governments.

“Then in 2019 when Scott Morrison won the ‘unwinnable’ election things changed - more people believed the government was doing a good job and fewer people distrusted the government.

“But by June 2021 it all went into reverse - Black Summer bushfires, the end of JobKeeper, parliamentary sex scandals, COVID vaccination delays – all sent trust plummeting and distrust climbing.”

Government distrust (red) vs. Government doing a good job running the country (green)

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia). Base: Australians 14+; quarterly average.

“By March 2022 this pattern was being mirrored in the trust and distrust of our political leaders.”

From a snap SMS survey conducted in early March, Roy Morgan can reveal that government leaders dominate the Net Distrust Score rankings: Prime Minister Scott Morrison is the most distrusted politician in Australia, with Defence Minister Peter Dutton and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce the second and third most distrusted sitting politicians across the country.

Source: Roy Morgan Snap SMS survey conducted on February 28 – March 1, 2022. Base: Australians aged 14+. n=1,409.

Clive Palmer (not in parliament and therefore not in the rankings) has the highest Net Distrust Score (net scores are calculated by subtracting distrust scores from trust scores). Taking distrust on its own however Scott Morrison is more distrusted than Clive Palmer.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has improved his Net Distrust Score ranking to be in 9th position (from 4th place in March 2020).

“With Peter Dutton the second most distrusted politician in Australia and Josh Frydenberg almost out of the top ten, this may well become crucial if the Coalition loses the May election and there’s a leadership battle between Frydenberg & Dutton,” said Ms. Levine.

“Australian political contests are no longer purely won on trust, they are lost on distrust.”

The March survey reveals the political reverse when it comes to the most trusted political leaders in the country. The ALP dominates the Net Trust Score rankings with Penny Wong in the #1 position.

Source: Roy Morgan Snap SMS survey conducted on February 28 – March 1, 2022. Base: Australians aged 14+. n=1,409.

Anthony Albanese has improved his Net Trust Score ranking to move from 8th position in March 2020 to 2nd place by March 2022. Looking solely at trust, the Opposition Leader is the most trusted politician in Australia.

According to Michele Levine, “The Labor Party is the big winner in this survey with Anthony Albanese the most trusted sitting politician, followed by Penny Wong, Tanya Plibersek and WA Premier Mark McGowan.

“My take-out from the significant win for Mark McGowan in last year’s WA election and the big swing away from the increasingly distrusted Coalition in Saturday’s South Australian election is that the upcoming federal election will be won or lost on how distrusted a party’s leaders are.

“And a final word on the SA election, my view is not so much that the various polls got it right but that respondents to the pre-election polls did on election day what they said they were going to do.” 

“The definition of stupidity is doing something again and again, and expecting another result”. Coincidentally, this has become the primary definition of any Liberal-Nationals Coalition government formed anywhere in Australia within living memory

 

Robert Stokes first became NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces on 2 April 2019 and retained that ministry after Liberal MLA for Epping Dominic Perrottet became NSW Premier in October 2021.

In December 2021 Stokes by way of ministerial directive initiated nine guiding principles of planning reform which he broadly believed would assist government to deliver all the new homes forecast to be required by 2036.

According to Lindsay Taylor Lawyers, 3 December 2021:

On 2 December 2021, the NSW Government published 11 new thematic State Environmental Planning Policies (SEPPs) as part of a consolidation process to simplify the State’s planning policies. All 11 consolidated SEPPs will commence on 1 March 2022.

The consolidated SEPPs are aligned to the Minister’s Planning Principles also released by the Minister for Planning on the same day¹.

The Planning Principles were grouped into the following nine key themes to guide planning and development in New South Wales:

Planning systems — A strategic and inclusive planning system for the community and the environment;

Design and place — Delivering well-designed places that enhance quality of life, the environment and the economy;

Biodiversity and conservation — Preserving, conserving and managing NSW’s natural environment and heritage;

Resilience and hazards — Managing risks and building resilience in the face of hazards;

Transport and infrastructure — Providing well-designed and located transport and infrastructure integrated with land use;

Housing — Delivering a sufficient supply of safe, diverse and affordable housing;

Industry and employment — Growing a competitive and resilient economy that is adaptive, innovative and delivers jobs;

Resources and energy — Promoting the sustainable use of NSW’s resources and transitioning to renewable energy;

Primary production — Protecting and supporting agricultural lands and opportunities for primary production.

On 19 December 2021 Premier Perrottet announced a reshuffling his Cabinet.

NSW Liberal MLA for Pittwater with a PhD in Planning Law Robert Stokes ceased being Minister for Planning and Public Spaces and on 21 December became Minister for Infrastructure, Minister for Cities, Minister for Active Transport.

At the same time Liberal MP for Lane Cove with a Master of Arts (Organisational Communication) Anthony Roberts ceased being the Minister for Counter Terrorism and Corrections and on 21 December became Minister for Planning, Minister for Homes, whose planning duties were formerly within the now defunct Ministry for Planning and Public Spaces.

Thus 2021 NSW leadership rival Stokes seemingly disliked by the Premier, big developers and councils alike for his reform agenda had been well and truly replaced by a minister who is clearly in the Perrottet pro-development at any price camp. There was a faint hint of revenge floating through the air at the time.

What could possibly go wrong? Well this……...

The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 March 2022:

NSW Planning Minister Anthony Roberts scrapped a requirement to consider the risks of floods and fires before building new homes only two weeks after it came into effect and while the state was reeling from a deadly environmental disaster.

Mr Roberts last week revoked a ministerial directive by his predecessor Robert Stokes outlining nine principles for sustainable development, including managing the risks of climate change, a decision top architects have branded “short-sighted” and hard to understand.

But a spokesperson for Mr Roberts said the minister had been “given a clear set of priorities to deliver a pipeline of new housing supply and act on housing affordability” by Premier Dominic Perrottet.

The president of the NSW chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects, Laura Cockburn, said the decision was difficult to understand “after the recent devastating floods and with bushfires still scorched in our memory”.

The revoked directives had sought to address “risk-management and resilience-building in the face of such disasters”, Ms Cockburn said.

“In the midst of our current flood and housing crises, why would a government choose to remove planning principles aimed at disaster resilience, and delivering affordable housing?” she said. “This is a short-sighted decision that could have enduring negative impacts.”

Mr Roberts’ spokesperson said: “The minister did not consider that the planning principles due to take effect on March 1 would assist in delivering his priorities so discontinued the principles and issued a new ministerial direction to that effect.”

Mr Roberts’ move coincides with expectations the government will also scrap or substantially change the new Design and Place State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) under consideration for apartments and homes. The policy stresses sustainability, quality and liveability by requiring, for example, better ventilation.

Mr Stokes’ directive on sustainable development, issued on December 2 but in effect from March 1, was designed to simplify the planning system, cut red tape and put people first. It said housing should meet the needs of the present “without compromising those of the future”. It was scrapped on March 14.

These principles are also reflected in the new design policy developed by the office of the State Architect. It is being reviewed.

Mr Stokes directed the planning department, developers and councils to also consult Indigenous landowners, consider the risk of climate change, and provide the public with information about the risks of natural disasters where they developed, lived or worked.

“Land use should be compatible with the level of risk of an area, such as open space or playing fields in flood-prone locations,” Mr Stokes’ statement of principles said.

Many in the property industry expect Mr Roberts will abandon plans for the new Design and Place SEPP……

Stephen Albin, an analyst and principal of consultants Urbanised, advised Mr Stokes on the scotched principles.

He was disappointed to see Mr Stokes’ principles abandoned when NSW’s planning system needed reform. “The definition of stupidity is doing something again and again, and expecting another result,” he said. “We wanted a modern planning system that was inclusive.”…..

NOTES

1. All copies of the Stokes version of Minister’s Planning Principles have been removed from NSW Government websites and replaced by Robert’s new version.