Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields—Minister for Better Regulation and Fair Trading, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Minister for Building, and Minister for Corrections) (19:36): I contribute to debate on the Environment Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Bill 2025. As Gough, my political hero—and the hero of all members on this side of the House—would say, the path of reform is always difficult. That is why the work of the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces and the Minns Labor Government is required to deliver the biggest reform in 50 years to suit the times we are experiencing. My colleagues on both sides of the House have gone through the detail of the bill, and I do not need to repeat that. But it is important to understand that our communities and our challenges have changed, and those changes are significant.
The aim of this planning bill is not just to build more homes but to build a better community and economy for the future. We cannot have a New South Wales economy that is held back by a planning system that has not been reformed. New South Wales has lost 30,000 to 40,000 young people over the past few years. I ask members to think about the impact of that many young people leaving New South Wales who are in the prime of their working lives, starting families and contributing to the economy. They have been lost from the areas where they have grown up and that they have known. Economically, we have lost a significant part of our workforce. The people who look after our kids in childcare centres, teach our kids in schools, look after us at hospitals and keep us safe and healthy make up an important workforce.
This planning reform is about housing, but it is also about building a stronger economy for the future. As part of that, we must think about the social fabric that we are trying to create. Families can no longer afford to live near each other. Grandparents are not able to see their grandkids, except maybe once a year at Christmas. Surely, we can and must do better for them so that they can establish roots—join the local football club and volunteer in local community groups. They cannot do that if they cannot afford to live in certain areas, and they cannot afford to live in certain areas if we do not build enough houses for them.
The planning system is outdated. Every incremental reform is another Sara Lee approach to add a layer to an already complex process. The time is now for us to do significant reform, not incremental reform. We cannot wait any longer. The work of the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces has tipped the system upside down, shaken it and thrown out the bits that no longer work and are no longer relevant. We must have a modernised system for the modern challenges in the New South Wales economy.
We cannot continue to be the second most expensive city in the world while the 800th densest city. No international city is ranked 800th in density. We cannot have that. That is why we are modernising the system and ensuring that we build around significant public transport infrastructure through the TOD development. The public and the taxpayers have poured in billions to build a wonderful transport infrastructure system. We must create a system to induce people to actually use it, and we must get people off the roads to where they want to go in a much more consistent time frame. Housing is a part of building the economy and ensuring that we reduce the impost on taxpayers as we continue to subsidise public transport—as we should; by its very nature, public transport is subsidised. But it is important to ensure that we create a demand model that allows public transport to work efficiently and at the lowest cost to the taxpayer.
The times have changed. Many people may not be aware of the fact that the household size in New South Wales and Australia has decreased. It has gone from about 2.6 persons per household to about just under 2.5 persons. Now, that is not a big decimal point. Members might say, "What difference does 0.1 make?" It makes a huge difference. In a State of eight million people, an average household size of 2.6 persons equates to just over 3.076 million dwellings, but with an average household size of 2.5 persons, we are talking 3.2 million. Over 100,000 dwellings have been sucked out of the system because there is a reduced average household size.
There are also a range of changes to people's housing preferences, including, for example, working from home. People's working patterns have changed. Therefore, we need to have more dwellings because people want that extra room for that extra office that they will need to work from home. That 0.1 of a decimal change equates to 100,000 dwellings, and those are not growing on trees. They need to be built, and they need to be built quicker. We cannot build houses if the system is prohibitive, prolongs delay and inevitably costs the consumer, only enriching those with vested interests who continue to write reports that are no longer relevant. The social and economic impacts on the people of New South Wales are significant.
I was disappointed to hear the contribution from the member for Newtown. The Greens, the supposed party of young people, are denying the very thing that young people want the most: a place to live and call home that is near their local community and near their mum and dad. The Greens are denying them all for the sake of some frivolous argument about nimbyism and about this reform lacking control and oversight. I thought I was hearing a summary of Ezra Klein's Abundance from the member. We cannot continue to have a system that is not working. That is fundamentally why the reforms are being introduced and why they are so important.
The current system is not working. You can see that in the evidence. People cannot afford to live in this State. They cannot afford to live close to their local communities. We have to reform the system—and not by tinkering around the edges. We have to drive a truck through the issue, because the system is not helping the very people we have been elected to advocate for and deliver a better future for. The themes of the reforms include modernising the system and, obviously, making sure that we take a risk‑based approach. There is no use spending the same amount of time on a small development as a large development. That does not make sense. It is wasted time and effort, and causes delays. Delays mean money and greater costs, especially for those who want to get into a home.
We cannot wait any longer. The work of the Government in the housing space has been a holistic reduction of red tape, because you cannot build a house if you cannot get it approved. It should be approved quickly and built quickly and to a high building standard, which is the work of the Building Commission. The Government is also addressing how people live in their homes through rental reform and strata reform. Those things are working together. That is what the Minns Labor Government is doing. I commend the work of the Minister for Planning and Public Spaces. It is not minor reform; it is structural and cultural. It is a mindset change that the people of New South Wales need because we cannot continue to do things the way we have been doing them. I commend the bill to the House.
