Posted on November 12, 2025 by Liam Mulligan and Sinead Macauley 6

ALERT: Planning System Reforms Bill passes both Houses of Parliament

Yesterday, the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Bill 2025 (Bill) was passed by the New South Wales Parliament.

Since the first text of the Bill was released, a number of amendments have been made to the text of the Bills. Of those amendments, we consider that several in particular are worth highlighting:

• Objects of the Act
  • Some minor further changes have been made to the objects of the Act, notably that objective (a) is now to ‘promote the social and economic welfare of the community and a better environment by the proper management, development and conservation of the state’s natural and other resources‘.
  • Objective (g) has also been amended to include the ‘protection of the health and safety of the occupants of buildings‘ as an object of the Act.
• Expedited amendments of environmental planning instruments
  • The proposed amendment to s 3.22 of the Act has been tweaked slightly. The original Bill would have permitted the making of an expedited amendment to an environmental planning instruments to deal with matters that the Housing Delivery Authority considered ‘necessary or convenient’. This has been moderated slightly to ‘reasonably necessary’ which suggests that there must be some element of necessity to the use of the expedited pathway, rather than simply convenience.
• Repeal of existing bushfire provisions in the EPA Act
  • The Bill no longer proposes the complete omission of s 4.14 as originally proposed. Instead, amendments are proposed to subsections (1) and (1A) only.
  • Section 4.14(1) currently requires a consent authority to be satisfied that certain development on bushfire prone land conforms to Planning for Bushfire Protection , and for a NSW Rural Fire Certificate to be issued to attest to that conformity.
  • The replacement provision requires only that the guideline be considered during the assessment of a development (by s (1)). By s 1A, the requirement in s 4.14(1) will not apply to development for subdivision of land that could lawfully be used for residential or rural residential purposes, and for development for a special fire protection purpose.
  • The previous subsection (1A) which allows the consent authority to grant its consent to non-conforming developments on which consultation with the RFS about measures to protect persons, property and the environment from dangers arising from bush fire risks, has been deleted.
  • The balance of s4.14 remains, and it is no longer proposed to omit s 10.3 from the EPA Act.
• Targeted assessment development
  • The so-called TAD provisions were one of the most controversial aspects of the Bill. Some minor tweaks have been made to the provisions in that:
    • a 28 period for written submissions from the public has been legislated, before a SEPP can be made that declares development (or a class of development) as TAD; and
    • subsection 4.20A(5) provides that development that is designated development cannot be declared TAD (nor can development that would be designated development if it were not state significant development under s 4.10(2)).
• Revocations of development consents 
  • The Bill proposed to augment or expand s 4.57 of the Act, which deals with the circumstances in which a consent authority can revoke or modify an existing consent.
  • The provisions in the Bill have been amended in two main ways:
    •  s 4.57(1)(a) – the Bill had originally proposed to allow the Planning Secretary to revoke or modify a consent based on the provisions of a proposed or existing EPI. The reference to an existing EPI was a development from the current position under the EPA Act. In the Bill as passed, the reference to an existing EPI has been maintained but can only be used in respect to a consent granted ‘at least the prescribed period‘ before the Secretary proposes to exercise a function under the section. The prescribed period has been set at 25 years (proposed s 116A of the Regulation).
    • s 4.57(1)(b) – in respect to local councils, the reference to an ‘existing’ LEP has been deleted. Therefore Councils will remain limited to the provisions of proposed LEPs when considering whether to exercise functions under the section.
• Regular reviews of amendments about Housing Delivery Authority
  • A Joint Select Committee will undertake regular (3 yearly) reviews of the amendments to the Act made relating to the Housing Delivery Authority. The purpose of the reviews will be to ensure that the policy objective of the HDA remains valid and that the provisions of the Act are appropriate and effective (i.e. that the HDA has in fact improved housing supply, timeliness and affordability.

The full text of the Bill is available here: Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Planning System Reforms) Bill 2025.

Our assessment of the significant changes contemplated by the Bill are in our previous In Focus article, here: UPDATE – Significant reforms proposed to the EPA Act | Lindsay Taylor Lawyers.

If you have any questions regarding this article, please leave a comment below or contact Liam Mulligan on 02 8235 9715.