Bill to fast-track planning approvals debated

The Planning Amendment (Better Decisions Made Faster) Bill 2025 passed with amendments and will now return to the Legislative Assembly for further consideration.  

In her second reading speech treasurer Jaclyn Symes said the changes were necessary to keep pace with Victoria’s increasing population.  

‘With Victoria’s population expected to grow from 7.2 million residents in 2025 to 10.3 million residents by 2050 we must plan for more homes and other developments to support that population growth whilst maintaining Victoria’s enviable liveability,’ she said.  

She said delays in planning decisions cost the Victorian economy more than $1 billion a year, adding that ‘the average processing time of approximately 140 days – more than double the statutory time period – hides the true extent of the problem. Applications that receive at least one or more objections or submissions take an average of just over 300 days to reach a final outcome’. 

“ ‘The only way to make housing fairer for younger Victorians is to build more homes faster.' ”

Ryan Batchelor, Member for Southern Metropolitan

The changes aim to cut red tape and reduce delays in planning approvals by introducing a three-tiered permit system tailored to the complexity and impact of developments. This approach will set timeframes of10, 30, or 60 business days for different types of applications, with aim of ensuring faster decisions and greater certainty for developers and communities.

Ryan Batchelor, Member for Southern Metropolitan, said the Bill was critical to meeting Victoria’s housing targets.

‘The only way to make housing fairer for younger Victorians is to build more homes faster, and that is why we are introducing in this Bill some of the biggest reforms to our planning laws in decades, cutting red tape, speeding up approval, helping more homes to get built near transport, jobs, services, schools, infrastructure and, most importantly, our families’ he said.

“ ‘They put at risk the quality of life and they put at risk the livability of our state.’   ”

David Davis, Member for Southern Metropolitan

David Davis, Member for Southern Metropolitan, said the opposition would ‘seek to defeat this Bill’.

'This Bill actually makes a change in our planning system that removes protections and removes many of the controls that have built a livable and enjoyable community in Victoria – the very things that have made people traditionally want to move here, the very things that people have wanted to be part of in our state,’ he said.
  
‘They put at risk the quality of life and they put at risk the livability of our state.’  
  
Member for Western Victoria Sarah Mansfield acknowledged the need for planning reform but criticised the Bill for failing to tackle affordability and climate challenges.  
  
She warned the Bill reduces environmental considerations and erodes democratic safeguards by removing Parliament’s power to disallow planning amendments.   
  
‘Planning authorities, including the state and local governments, currently lack the legislative power to be able to require developers to provide a proportion of affordable or social housing in any new development, she said.   
  
She moved amendments ‘that seeks to create heads of power within the act that would enable councils and the state government, when creating a planning scheme amendment, to require a specific proportion of land or dwellings to be affordable or social housing’.    

The full debate is available to read in Hansard.