Wish I could say I was surprised

I know right! They’re showing us exactly who they are and yet people still think it’s the heyday of Whitlam’s or Hawke’s Labor

Still waiting (not patiently) for Australian Jazz to catch up. In the meantime I just have to keep seeing London acts when they come to town.

Fits in with the bizarro of opposites in federal parliament, like an environment minister that approves fossil gas developments

Port Kembla is starting to look even more shaky now. You’d have to think BlueScope might be considering moving completely to Kwinana

“Generational reform” Scully, the minister for planning just called it in parliament

I’m thankful the Greens were there to try to make the changes to the Act be more in keeping with protecting the environment and community, but when the government teams up with the opposition, the amendments didn’t stand a chance.

Last night the Greens fought hard to get some amendments made to the legislation, particularly about making sure that the impacts of climate change would not be able to be ignored in development consents, and that the fast track pathway would be reserved for housing (and not coal mines etc).

If these changes are so significant, I have to wonder why there were no opportunities for public submissions. It does not bode well for transparency, especially in relation to the new targeted assessment development pathway. I will be watching to see which projects are placed on this pathway.

Love me some freezepeach

Not sure how it all fits together, but today in parliament, Labor’s Stephen Lawrence said that as the nazis kept to the footpath they didn’t need to seek a Form 1 approval anyway. He said it was possibly so they could use the refusal (which they didn’t get) as publicity (for stopping “free” speech)

Watching Sue Higginson explain each amendment in detail, stating how it aligned to the government’s stated intentions for these reforms, and then seeing Labor, Libs, and Nats vote together against the amendments—every single one of them—is just depressing.

Yeah, totally. The condemnation came from across both houses and all parties, but some just couldn’t resist scoring a political point out of it.

As expected the vote was negative on the Greens’ amendment to restrict the fast track path to low risk residential developments somewhat contradicting the Government’s claim that these planning law reforms are all about housing