Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016

There must be a charter to be called the Community

The

The following principles must be taken into account in relation to the preparation (or amendment) of the charter:

members of the community should have reasonable, timely, meaningful and ongoing opportunities to gain access to information about proposals to introduce or change planning policies and to participate in relevant planning processes;

community engagement should be weighted towards engagement at an early stage and scaled back when dealing with settled or advanced policy;

information about planning issues should be in plain language, readily accessible and in a form that facilitates community participation;

participation methods should seek to foster and encourage constructive dialogue, discussion and debate in relation to the development of relevant policies and strategies;

participation methods should be appropriate having regard to the significance and likely impact of relevant policies and strategies;

insofar as is reasonable, communities should be provided with reasons for decisions associated with the development of planning policy (including how community views have been taken into account).

The charter—

will relate to—

public participation with respect to the preparation or amendment of any statutory instrument where compliance with the charter is contemplated by this Act; and

without limiting subparagraph (i), any other circumstance where compliance with the charter is contemplated by this Act; and

may relate to any other circumstances determined by the Minister, acting on the advice of the Commission.

The charter may—

establish categories of statutory processes to which various parts of the charter will apply; and

in relation to each category established under paragraph (a)—

specify mandatory requirements; and

set out principles and performance outcomes that are to apply to the extent that mandatory requirements are not imposed; and

in relation to performance outcomes under paragraph (b)(ii)—

provide guidance on specific measures or techniques by which the outcomes may be achieved; and

set out measures to help evaluate whether, and to what degree, the outcomes have been achieved.

The charter must, in relation to any proposal to prepare or amend a designated instrument under Part 5

if the proposal is specifically relevant to a particular council or councils—that council or those councils (unless the proposal has been initiated by the council, or those councils); or

if the proposal is generally relevant to councils—the LGA.

The charter must comply with any requirements prescribed by the regulations.

Despite a preceding subsection, the charter must not relate to the assessment of applications for development authorisations under this Act in addition to the other provisions of this Act that apply in relation to such assessments.

An entity to which the charter applies must—

comply with any mandatory requirement that applies in a relevant case; and

to the extent that paragraph (a) does not apply, have regard to, and seek to achieve, any principles or performance outcomes that apply in a relevant case.

The

Despite a preceding subsection, the charter does not give rise to substantive rights or liabilities (and a failure to comply with the charter does not give rise to a right of action or invalidate any decision or process under this Act unless the failure is under a provision that requires compliance with the charter for the purposes of consultation in relation to a particular matter).

If, in the opinion of the Commission, an entity fails to comply with the charter—

the

if the direction is not complied with within a period prescribed by the regulations—the Commission may take any action required by its direction and recover the reasonable costs and expenses of so doing as a debt from the entity that failed to comply with the direction.