Fast-tracking destruction: Stop the NSW Government's plan to weaken planning laws

The NSW Government has introduced a bill to Parliament that, if passed, will make it easier for all kinds of development to pass with minimal environmental assessment.

The NSW Planning System Reforms Bill 2025 is being pitched as a way to make the planning system quicker to navigate when building homes, but its current scope opens the door for all developments from coal mines to waste incinerators.

This is the most significant reduction in development controls in 50 years, and it’s being done with zero public consultation. If passed, these reforms will be a giant step backward for environmental ...

The NSW Government has introduced a bill to Parliament that, if passed, will make it easier for all kinds of development to pass with minimal environmental assessment.

The NSW Planning System Reforms Bill 2025 is being pitched as a way to make the planning system quicker to navigate when building homes, but its current scope opens the door for all developments from coal mines to waste incinerators.

This is the most significant reduction in development controls in 50 years, and it’s being done with zero public consultation. If passed, these reforms will be a giant step backward for environmental protections in NSW and significantly undermine the progress we are aiming to achieve.

If passed this Bill will:

Remove mentions of environmental protection and conservation of native species from the objects of the EP&A Act, and shift focus away from community wellbeing and public interest.
Diminish consideration of risk when assessing development applications on bushfire prone land.
Introduce of Targeted Assessment Developments as a new fast-tracked assessment pathway — with no guardrails on what type of development could be fast-tracked with minimal assessment.
Restrict how indirect, cumulative and offsite impacts can be considered by consentauthorities, including scope 3 emissions.

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Email your MP

The NSW Government is trying to rush through the biggest overhaul to our planning laws since they were introduced. Please email your MP asking them to send this Bill to an inquiry so the public can have their say.

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Subject:

I am writing to you out of serious concern for the proposed changes to NSW environmental protections in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Bill 2025.

In its current state, this Bill will:  
- Remove environmental and bushfire safety assessment requirements that could have devastating impacts on nature and the safety of the community. 
- Strip away decision making power from experts and consolidated in a ‘single door’ ripe for corruption.  
- Directly contradict recent court decisions to include off-site impacts in the decision making process, including emissions resulting from fossil fuel projects. This would mean, for example, the NSW Court of Appeal’s recent decision on the Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion that climate change impacts must be considered would not apply.   
- Change the very objects of the Act and remove consideration of native species and the environment and give a free ride to bad developments.

The changes in this Bill would not just affect housing developments, but every development in NSW.

If it passes, we could see climate, nature and community thrown aside in the planning process in favour of big developers and big business.

These are the most significant changes to the planning system since 1979 and cannot be rushed through. As my local representative, I call on you to send this bill to inquiry and delay voting on the bill until the community has a chance to have their input.

I also ask that this bill be amended to ensure that,  
- environmental and community impact considerations aren’t weakened,  
- offsite impacts and emissions are still considered,  
- guardrails are applied to Targeted Assessment Developments in the Act,  
- and bushfire risks are addressed.

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