Time to prune costly planning policy

Time to prune costly planning policyThe State’s largest private sector industry has today condemned moves to force businesses and homeowners to pay for reports when trying to cut down trees.The Property Council of Australia said it did not support any push that would result in households and businesses needing to obtain costly reports from arborists to secure Council approval to prune or remove diseased trees on their own property.”Like with any piece of reformist legislation, the Planning, Infrastructure & Development Bill is a mixed blessing,” said SA Executive Director Daniel Gannon”Any moves by Parliamentarians to impose expensive or unnecessary planning hurdles should be opposed as they’re exactly the types of reform the initial planning review was aimed at tackling and resolving.”To support these moves would be to take a chain saw to progress and sensible development opportunities across South Australia.”This is one of the countless reasons that our state’s local government-based planning system faces regular accusations of lethargy and obstructionism.”Let’s get serious about driving jobs growth in this state and stop entangling residents and businesses in new levels of red- or green-tape.”The Property Council has made it abundantly clear from the outset that we welcome much of the reform proposed in the Bill, but that detail has to be right for the sector to flourish.”At a time when our state’s jobless rate is at 7.3 per cent, we need to get serious about driving jobs growth through the property sector.”Mr Gannon said South Australia’s property sector employs more than 168,000 people, represents almost 11 per cent of GSP, and accounts for 56.6 per cent of state and local taxation revenue.