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Planning reform will add $5.7b to economy: PCA

The Property Council of Australia is urging the various state and territory governments to implement at least one of the ‘quick win’ reforms in their new Planning to Prosper report.

They claim if each state and territory adopts a minimum of one ‘quick win’ reform, the Australian economy could be injected with a $5.7 billion per annum boost, adding 39,200 additional jobs.

The Planning to Prosper report suggests five planning reform priorities for each state and territory, laying out the jobs and money each would result in.

“Now more than ever, streamlining planning processes will increase efficiency and help generate much-needed economic activity, accelerating the contribution of the private sector to our recovery, at no cost to government,” Residential Development Council president, Andrew Whitson explained.

Property Council of Australia Chief Executive Ken Morrison said high impact reforms of the type proposed in Planning to Prosper could be deployed quickly and at very low cost to the public purse to support economic stimulus.

“Each state and territory needs to act on just one ‘quick win’ reform in their jurisdiction to start creating significant new jobs and add value for their economy,” Mr Morrison said.

“As a country we need to find more effective ways to tackle these issues and we encourage National Cabinet to consider National Competition Policy style incentives to help make it happen.”

The recommendations in Planning to Prosper are based on stakeholder workshops held during 2019 in each state and territory.

Industry experts, development firms, local and state government officials, think tanks and consulting firms were all represented at the workshops.

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Nathan Jolly

Nathan Jolly was an in-house journalist with Elite Agent. He worked with the company from July 2020 to December 2020.