You can want to have good planning to accommodate a growing population, but what you get is a toxic scab grab.
We see it in lobbying in Canberra. We see it in infrastructure debacles in Sydney and Melbourne. We see it in local planning decisions.
IBAC:
In closing, I’d just like to say [former] councillors at the City of Casey were elected to make decisions in the public interest. Our investigation found that to the contrary, some of their planning decisions were influenced by very significant undisclosed payments and benefits from property developers who stood to gain from their decisions. It was done through elaborate financial arrangements that were designed to conceal the nature and source of those [payments]. Councillors who received the funds manipulated council processes in favor of these interests.
Never fear, Dictator Dan is here to save the day:
“The IBAC report’s 34 recommendations will be given appropriate consideration, but it is the clear position of the government that the role of local councils in significant planning decisions should be reduced and we will have more to say on this matter.”
Two references to Premier Daniel Andrews in the Victorian corruption watchdog’s draft Operation Sandon report – flagging concerns about political donors and lobbyists buying “privileged access” to senior politicians – were cut from the final findings.
The Australian can reveal the final paragraph in the section covering the Premier’s secret evidence to the five-year investigation was watered down between IBAC’s draft and final reports to remove any specific mention of the Premier.
The investigation centred on the schmoozing of the developer John Woodman. Whoops:
Property developer John Woodman gained repeated “privileged access” to Daniel Andrews and his most senior ministers through donations to the Labor Party, Victoria’s corruption watchdog has found.
So, one Woodman crony will reform another as the relentless temptations of a force-fed development sector wreak havoc on public probity.
There is nothing that mass immigration is not distorting, ruining or wrecking across the political economy.
Our institutions are not up to the pressure that population growth is placing upon them.
