Reading RoomA new telecommunications code of conduct (Code) for the deployment of mobile phone infrastructure has been submitted by the Communications Alliance to the Australian Communications and Media Authority. If it is ratified by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), it will take effect on 1 July 2012. This is the first revision of the Code in eight years.
The Local Government Amendment Bill 2011 was introduced to the Legislative Assembly on 12 October 2011 by the Minister for Local Government, Donald Page MP. The Bill (with substantial amendments) was passed on 29 March 2012, and has now received Royal assent by the Governor.
On 19 April 2012 the Victorian Court of Appeal handed down its decision in the case of Harvey v Mutsaers and Manningham City Council [2012] VSCA 69 resolving the question as to the lawfulness of the Tribunal considering a review of a council's refusal to extend a permit made more than three months after the expiry of the permit (and therefore made when the council cannot grant the extension). …
The power of councils to require cash in lieu of car parking is set to change, under amendments to the VPPs prepared by the Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD). DPCD's draft new VPP provisions have been prepared in response to the 2008 final report, 'Review of Parking Provisions in the Victoria Planning Provisions' by the 2007 advisory committee.
To …
Last month, Member Philip Martin resolved a dispute between a restaurant proprietor in the popular tourist town of Daylesford and the local council. The restaurateur sought a declaration that a condition imposed on a use permit issued last year by Hepburn Shire Council was invalid and voice.
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The NSW Government this month released a new ‘gateway process’ for mining and coal seam gas projects in close proximity to strategic agricultural lands. This new policy is designed to protect strategic agricultural land in NSW from the potential impacts of mining and coal seam gas projects and to provide greater certainty to proponents of projects. However, the process has already been met with a mixed response.
The decision of Preston CJ in Brown v Randwick City Council (No 2) [2012] NSWLEC 28 is an important case in relation to costs for councils and beneficiaries of development consents who are defending, or considering defending, Class 4 proceedings.
On Friday, 20 January 2012, the federal government released a report prepared by Maddocks for the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.
The report – "The Role of Regulation in Facilitating or Constraining Adaptation to Climate Change for Australian Infrastructure" – examines the regulatory frameworks affecting some of Australia's most important …
The interpretation of clause 52.29 and what works constitute an alteration to an access to a road in a Road Zone Category 1 has been the subject of some tension between VicRoads, developers and local councils.
In Grant & Ors v Darebin City Council [2011] VCAT 2364, the Tribunal considered a preliminary question as to whether a permit was triggered under clause 52.29. Specifically, …
In a recent decision the Tribunal again confirmed the principle that, where a planning scheme amendment occurs, at some time between the making of the application and the final decision of the Tribunal (following an appeal or appeals), in the absence of any accrued right to do otherwise, the Tribunal is required to apply the law that exists at the time it makes its final decision...
