We are pleased to announce we have confirmed the speaker for our next meeting. Andrew Williams, General Manager – Industrial Lands Authority, DevelopmentWA, will present an overview of the recently released 10-year Industrial Land Strategy. The strategy will highlight the role industrial land plays in delivering jobs and economic growth across WA. With major projects like Westport and Oakajee contemplated, the strategy will influence funding priorities for key infrastructure requirements for industrial land state-wide. Marzia Zamir, General Manager at Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation will also be joining the presentation.
If your company does not have representation on our Infrastructure Committee, please reach out to Linh Nguyen, Policy Adviser Industry Competitiveness (L.Nguyen@cmewa.com) to request a guest invite.
Major reforms to streamline the WA planning system
The second phase of planning reforms to increase consistency across local governments has commenced. While the focus will be on slashing red tape for small businesses and homeowners, it is important industry provides input to ensure existing and future industrial land uses are properly protected from urban encroachment.
Some of the relevant reform areas put forward are summarised below. If you have specific examples of impost or ideas for specific reforms within these areas, please provide feedback to L.Nguyen@cmewa.com:
- Establishing a State referral coordination process for agencies, utilities and department referrals for significant development applications on matters such as heritage and environment
- Establishing a single planning portal for communities, industry and local governments to track applications
- Expanding government-led structure planning for areas of key strategic importance with fragmented land ownership
- Introduce a new system for reviewing State Planning Policies.
As part of improving planning decision-making processes in local governments, the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage is also releasing a toolkit for best practice engagement. For strategic and statutory plan-making processes, local governments are encouraged to work directly or partner with the public via workshops and advisory committees.
