Tag: chris-johnson

By Paul Hemsley Australia’s property development lobby has resumed hostilities with state and local governments over what they claim are “exorbitant charges” imposed on new building projects through collective schemes…

By Julian Bajkowski Powerful property development industry group Urban Taskforce Australia has thrown down the gauntlet to New South Wales  Premier Barry O’Farrell over  local government reforms, saying that Sydney’s…

By Julian Bajkowski Australia’s peak planning body, the Planning Institute of Australia, has thrown its weight behind an ambitious bid to establish a new “Urban Infrastructure Fund” that aims to…

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski A push by the Independent Local Government Review Panel to the New South Wales government to encourage “voluntary amalgamations” of councils has sparked widely…

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski Extensive changes to planning and development laws proposed by the New South Wales government have produced widely divergent positions among key stakeholders in the…

By Julian Bajkowski Property development industry group Urban Taskforce has taken the highly controversial step of throwing open its doors to allow local governments to formally become “associate members” of…

By Chris Johnson* With council elections in NSW complete and submissions to a government review of the viability of local government submitted in September, now is the time to rethink…

By Paul Hemsley The head of property development lobby group Urban Taskforce Australia, Chris Johnson, has weighed in behind the O’Farrell government’s push for more planning powers and panels and…