Community land schemes are important forms of land title. They create schemes where lot owners in the scheme share the use and maintenance costs of common facilities, be they farm dams or private roads. According to NSW Fair Trading, ‘[i]n…
The Defamation Amendment Act 2020 (Amending Act) commenced operation on 1 July 2021. It represents the first stage of proposed reforms to defamation law. The Amending Act significantly reformed the Defamation Act 2005 (Defamation Act). But how are these changes relevant to…
On 23 July 2021, the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) (‘OS Act‘) received Royal Assent from the Governor-General. The OS Act will commence a day to be fixed by Proclamation or the day after the end of the period of 6…
A draft State Environmental Planning Policy (Housing) 2021 (Housing SEPP), together with a draft Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Housing) Regulation 2021 (Proposed Regulation) and draft Standard Instrument (Local Environmental Plans) Amendment (Miscellaneous) Order 2021 (Proposed Standard Instrument), has been released…
ALERT: Exhibition Draft of the Proposed Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021
On 5 August 2021, the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (‘DPIE’) released for public consultation the draft Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2021 (‘Draft EPA Regulation‘), which is intended to replace the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000 (‘EPA Regulation 2000‘). The…
As part of a suite of reforms introduced with the 2021–22 Budget, the NSW Government introduced the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Infrastructure Contributions) Bill 2021 (‘Bill‘) to the Legislative Assembly on 22 June 2021. The Bill proposes to rewrite the…
ALERT: NSW Heritage Act Review and Discussion Paper
On 7 April 2021, the NSW Government announced a major review of the Heritage Act 1977 (‘the Act‘). This review is the first since 2007. Major reforms to the Act have not been made since 1999.
Discussion Paper – Review of Crown Land Management Act 2016 – Issues for Local Government
Recently, we published an alert (see here) about an opportunity for public input into the independent statutory review of the Crown Land Management Act 2016 (NSW) (‘CLM Act‘), run by the Crown Land Commissioner, Professor Richard Bush (‘the Commissioner‘). The…
The NSW Government recently released for public consultation, a discussion paper entitled “Building Stronger Foundations”. The release of this discussion paper comes in the wake of a number of recent media reports of allegedly shoddy building practices, the failure of…
New Primary Production and Rural Development SEPP
The Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) is currently seeking submissions on proposed changes to the existing planning controls governing primary production and rural development. The proposed changes are set out in the Primary Production and Rural Development – Explanation of…