 Urban Democracy & Environment movement stops rotten DACs law
 By: Brian Read, secretary, Southbank residents Group
The day after the "Restore Residents Rights" rally at
parliament house on June 10, which was attended by 600
people, Victoria's upper house rejected changes to the
Planning and Environment Act that would have introduced
Development Assessment Committees [DACs] to the State.
Initially proposed for a limited number of metropolitan
areas, the government's aim is to have this system of
decision-making apply more broadly. The DAC system takes
planning powers off Councils and hands them to majority
government-appointed committees which then make
planning decisions in Council's place, while Councils and
community carry the financial costs of having DACs make
the decisions for them.
Lack of transparency key concern for democracy
Key concerns with DACs include a lack of clarity about
accountability and transparency mechanisms, the breach of
fundamental democratic principles and the community's
right to know, and the potential for planning decisions to be
driven by party politics, and implementing specific
development agendas without any obvious ability by the
community to express their views to the decision-makers.
In their present proposed form, DACs are vulnerable to
being 'stacked' politically, while cutting off Councils and
communities from decisions that affect them. Another
concern is the inadequacy of the current planning system to
produce outcomes that the community, as opposed to the
developer, wants.
DAC Ideology
The whole DACs ideology captures and builds on a belief
held at governmental level that all it takes to make a "good"
planning decision is some 'tick boxes' and for applicants and
decision-makers to settle it between themselves - no such
thing as "no", just "whatever it takes". You get to know about
it when it happens. So much for community ownership of
decisions that affect the community! And they wonder why
we are all getting peed off!
© Southbank Info 2010 |
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