Victorian Bills Explanatory Memoranda

[Index] [Search] [Download] [Bill] [Help]


Planning and Building Legislation Amendment (Housing Affordability and Other Matters) Bill 2017

  Planning and Building Legislation
Amendment (Housing Affordability and
      Other Matters) Bill 2017

                        Introduction Print


              EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM


                              Clause Notes

                          Part 1--Preliminary
Clause 1   sets out the main purposes of the Planning and Building
           Legislation Amendment (Housing Affordability and Other
           Matters) Bill 2017 (the Bill) which are--
             •       to amend the Planning and Environment Act 1987--
                    •       to facilitate affordable housing supply; and
                    •       to modify the requirements for determining
                           certain applications to amend wind farm permits;
                           and
             •       to make miscellaneous amendments to the Building
                    Act 1993 and the Building Amendment (Enforcement
                    and Other Measures) Act 2017.

Clause 2   provides for the commencement of the Bill. Subclause (1)
           provides that the Bill (except Part 2) comes into operation on the
           day after the Act receives Royal Assent. Subclause (2) provides
           that, subject to subclause (3), Part 2 of the Bill will come into
           operation on a day or days to be proclaimed. Subclause (3)
           provides that if a provision of the Bill does not come into
           operation before 1 June 2018, that provision will come into
           operation on that date.




581443                               1      BILL LA INTRODUCTION 20/6/2017

 


 

Part 2--Amendment of Planning and Environment Act 1987 Division 1--Facilitation of affordable housing supply Division 1 of Part 2 of the Bill implements the policy framework set out in the Victorian Housing Strategy Homes for Victorians--Affordability, access and choice for voluntary arrangements to facilitate the provision of affordable housing through the planning framework. Clause 3 amends section 3(1) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 to insert a definition of affordable housing by reference to the definition to be inserted by clause 4 of this Bill. Clause 4 inserts new sections 3AA and 3AB after section 3 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. New section 3AA(1) defines affordable housing for the purposes of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. The definition clarifies that, for the purposes of that Act, affordable housing is housing that includes social housing that is appropriate for the housing needs of any of the following-- • very low income households; and • low income households; and • moderate income households. New section 3AA(2) provides that for the purposes of determining what housing is appropriate for the housing needs of very low income households, low income households and moderate income households, regard must be had to the matters specified by the Minister by notice published in the Government Gazette. A purpose of this subsection is to enable the Minister to set out matters that a council must have regard to when entering into an agreement under section 173(1A) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 in relation to affordable housing. The matters that may be specified will be those relevant to the planning framework, such as the location of housing in relation to public transport and activity centres, amenity and household size. New section 3AA(3) sets out that the Minister's notice cannot include prices or price ranges for the purchase or rent of housing. This is because those matters are outside the scope of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. 2

 


 

New section 3AA(4) defines terms for the purposes of the section. The terms are low income households, moderate income households, social housing and very low income households. New section 3AB enables the Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister, to make an order published in the Government Gazette which may specify-- • a range of household income as a very low income range; and • a range of household income as a low income range; and • a range of household income as a moderate income range. An Order under this section can specify the income ranges by reference to statistical data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This will enable the household income ranges to be constructed from the ABS data (because the ABS do not currently and are unlikely to in the future publish definitions for particular income groups). Clause 5 inserts a new paragraph (fa) after section 4(1)(f) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 to include a new objective into that Act. The new objective is "to facilitate the provision of affordable housing in Victoria". Clause 6 subclause (1) inserts a new subsection (1A) into section 173 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 which enables a responsible authority to enter into an agreement with an owner of land for the development or provision of land in relation to affordable housing. An agreement entered into pursuant to subsection (1A) will be an agreement for the purposes of section 173 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. Accordingly, Division 2 of Part 9 of that Act will apply to agreements relating to affordable housing. Subclause (2) makes a consequential amendment to section 173(3) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 to include a reference to new subsection (1A). Any agreement entered into under section 173 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 is a voluntary agreement. 3

 


 

Division 2--Applications to amend referred wind energy facility planning permits Division 2 of Part 2 of the Bill amends the Planning and Environment Act 1987 to streamline the processing of amendments to wind farm permits if the permit was issued after being referred to the Minister for decision under Division 6 of Part 4 of that Act. Any objections to specified classes of permits will be exempt from referral to a planning panel. Clause 7 inserts in section 3(1) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 the definitions of referred wind energy facility permit and wind energy facility. Referred wind energy facility permit refers to a permit for the use or development of land as a wind energy facility that has been determined by the Minister after it has been referred to the Minister for decision under Division 6 of Part 4 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. This is commonly described as a "called in permit". An application may be referred to the Minister either because the Minister has "called in" the permit application or a responsible authority has requested the Minister to decide the application. Wind energy facility means an electricity generation facility that generates electricity by converting wind energy into electricity. This definition is consistent with other definitions relating to wind farms in Victorian legislation (for example, the definition of wind energy generation facility set out in section 40F(1) of the Electricity Industry Act 2000). Clause 8 subclause (1) inserts new paragraph (kf) after section 6(2)(ke) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. New paragraph (kf) will enable a planning scheme to specify classes of applications to amend referred wind energy facility permits that are wholly exempted from the requirements under section 97E(1) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 or for which the requirements under section 97E(1) are modified so as to require referral of objections and submissions to an advisory committee established under section 151 of that Act. An application to amend a permit issued by the Minister after being referred to the Minister under Division 6 is subject to section 97E(1) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. Section 97E(1) requires the Minister to refer to a panel any objections and submissions received within time in respect of an 4

 


 

application for a planning permit that has been called in by the Minister. Subsection (5) however provides that the Minister is not required to refer submissions to a panel if no objections are received in respect of the called in permit application. If an application to amend a referred wind energy facility permit falls within the class specified in the planning scheme, any objections received within time will not be required to be referred to a planning panel appointed under Part 8 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. For those amendment applications that are exempt, the Minister will still be required to consider any objections lodged in relation to the application as part of the Minister's decision-making process under section 97J of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (noting that section 97J requires consideration of any matters to be considered under section 60 of that Act which includes section 60(1)(c): "all objections and other submissions which it has received and which have not been withdrawn"). In addition, the Minister will still be required to give notice of the decision on the amendment of the permit to any person who made objections or submissions in respect of the amendment to that permit in accordance with section 97K(1)(c) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. The planning scheme may also specify classes of applications to amend referred wind energy facility permits for which the requirements under section 97E(1) are modified so as to require referral of objections and submissions to an advisory committee established under section 151 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. If an amendment application falls within that class specified in the planning scheme, any objections to those applications will instead be referred to a standing advisory committee (established under Part 7 (section 151) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987) for consideration and advice to the Minister, instead of to a panel. A standing advisory committee must operate in accordance with terms of reference approved by the Minister. It is expected that this will enable the Minister to streamline the process for amendment applications in the specified class that are not exempt from section 97E(1) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. Subclause (2) also inserts a new subsection (2A) after section 6(2) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. This will enable a class of application to amend a referred wind energy facility permit for the purposes of new subsection (2)(kf) 5

 


 

of that Act to be specified by reference to any of the characteristics of a wind energy facility listed below-- • the total number of turbines; • the maximum height of turbines; • the location of turbines. If an amendment application falls outside the specified class then any objections to that application will need to be processed through section 97E(1) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and referred to a planning panel. Example A planning scheme specifies that applications to amend referred wind energy facility permits to-- (a) reduce the number of turbines are a class of application which are wholly exempt from section 97E(1) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987; and (b) increase the number of turbines are a class of application for which the requirements under section 97E(1) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 are modified so as to require referral of objections and submissions to an advisory committee established under section 151 of that Act. Any objections to an amendment application to increase the number of turbines would be referred to a standing advisory committee. In contrast, an amendment application relating to the blade length of the turbines for a particular facility does not fall within the specified class. Any objections to that amendment application would be dealt with under section 97E(1) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the Minister would be required to refer those objections to a planning panel. Clause 9 inserts a new subsection (3) after section 97I(2) of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. This provides that a reference in section 97E of that Act to a panel is to be treated as if it were a reference to the advisory committee if an application for an amendment to a referred wind energy permit is of a class of application specified in the planning scheme for which objections and submissions must to referred to an advisory committee. 6

 


 

Part 3--Amendment of Building Act 1993 Clause 10 substitutes the note at the foot of section 88(1) of the Building Act 1993. The note clarifies information on the right to appeal to the Building Appeals Board. Clause 11 substitutes in section 180(a) of the Building Act 1993, for the words "insolvent under administration" (where secondly occurring) with the words "subject to external administration within the meaning of section 5-5 of Schedule 2 to the Corporations Act" meaning the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth. The current provision did not allow for an officer of a body corporate that is subject to external administration within the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001 of the Commonwealth to be immediately suspended. The amendment is intended to resolve the matter. Clause 12 inserts a new subsection (1B) before section 212(2) of the Building Act 1993. This new subsection provides that a council is not responsible for enforcing an indictable offence under that Act. Section 212 provides that a council is responsible for the enforcement of specified parts of the Building Act 1993 and the building regulations in its municipal district. The amendment is in recognition that councils are not well equipped to investigate and prosecute indictable offences. Clause 13 substitutes the word "offence" with the words "summary offence" in section 241(1) of the Building Act 1993. This provides that a council and prescribed persons may only bring proceedings for a summary offence against Part 3, 4, 5, 7, or 8 of that Act or the building regulations within a municipal district. This supports clause 12 of this Bill which provides that the council is not responsible for prosecuting indictable offences under the Building Act 1993. 7

 


 

Part 4--Amendment of Building Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Act 2017 Clause 14 amends section 6 of the Building Amendment (Enforcement and Other Measures) Act 2017 which inserts new section 80A into the Building Act 1993. The final subsection in section 80A is numbered "( )". The amendment substitutes "( )" with "(4)". The number of the paragraph was inadvertently omitted. Part 5--Repeal of amending Act Clause 15 provides for the automatic repeal of this amending Act on 1 June 2019. The repeal of this Act does not affect in any way the continuing operation of the amendments made by this Act (see section 15(1) of the Interpretation of Legislation Act 1984). 8

 


 

 


[Index] [Search] [Download] [Bill] [Help]