Vibrant and Sustainable Communities

In a wealthy state like NSW, everyone should have access to green public spaces and free and frequent public transport that connects their homes to their workplaces and leisure spaces, including sports and cultural facilities. People’s homes should be safe and welcoming and offer protection during heatwaves and other weather extremes instead of places that families need to escape from.

Under successive Labor and Liberal-National governments our planning system has been eroded and power given to wealthy developers who just want to make a quick buck at the expense of our communities and environment.

It was because of the Greens hard work over many years that developer donations were finally banned in NSW. But developers still wield too much influence over our democracy. We need to overhaul our planning system to break the corrupt hold of big developers and make it work for people and the planet.

We will make developers pay their fair share for infrastructure and give power back to communities and local councils.

We will ensure our streets and buildings are fit for everyone and are able to withstand hotter days and more frequent and extreme weather events. We will ensure that communities are better prepared to withstand the climate crisis including by supporting communities to develop local sustainable food systems. The Greens plan supports vibrant and sustainable communities by working in harmony with nature, not against it.

Putting Communities First

Our planning system is failing communities and the environment. The Liberal-National Government has done the bidding of its developer mates and stripped planning powers from local councils and communities of their rights to object to massively inappropriate and unsustainable development proposals.

Our planning system is geared towards maximising the profits of a handful of developers and mining companies at the expense of healthy and vibrant communities. The Greens will put power back into the hands of people, so they can be genuinely involved in major projects or development proposals that impact them or their communities.

We will return planning powers to local councils, abolish the failed Local and Regional Planning Panels and ensure that all land-use rezoning decisions are made by councils and communities.

The Greens will strengthen community objection rights, and reform council practices so that residents' views are heard and valued. Finally, council amalgamations will only go ahead if the majority of locals vote for it.

Put power back in the hands of the community by abolishing compulsory planning panels and returning planning powers to councillors.
Give forcefully amalgamated communities the opportunity to vote to de-amalgamate their councils.
Fund community infrastructure with a developer profits tax.
Give local councils financial security through equitable state government funding and an end to cost shifting.
Ensure strong anti-corruption measures for local councils, including prohibiting anyone with developer or real estate interests from running for council or holding office.
Avoid future construction disasters by abolishing the private certification system and reinstating publicly accountable building certifiers employed by local councils.

Read our plan

More Green spaces and places

We’re experiencing more frequent and extreme weather events, including heatwaves. With better planning, we can reduce climate impacts in urban environments and create more livable and safe places to live, work and play now and into the future.

The NSW Government has allowed too many of our green spaces and mature trees to be destroyed for development.

The Greens will stop the destruction of mature trees and the sale of public green spaces for development. We will financially support local councils to plant more trees, require developers to include bigger back yards and retain significant trees on private building sites, and regenerate green corridor connections between parks and bushland. We’ll create new green spaces that build connections between people and support wildlife, including community gardens and family-friendly parks.

By strengthening building codes we will reduce urban heating while ensuring households and businesses use less water and energy. We will end the absurd laws dictating that house roofs in new developments can only be painted dark. We will assist households to more rapidly transition out of gas.

The Greens have a plan to end urban sprawl, establishing guidelines and incentives to increase density, sensibly and sustainably, within existing urban footprints. We will protect the outer-urban Koala Belt bushland - the “lungs” of western Sydney.

Walkable, Rideable Neighbourhoods

In a connected, well-planned suburb or town, you shouldn’t have to own a car to access essential services. Improving our active transport networks will reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality, reduce carbon emissions and improve the overall health of communities.

It will also make our streets more safe, inclusive and accessible.

We want to remove the barriers that stop so many of us walking, wheeling or cycling between our homes and workplaces, shops and cultural places. We will introduce requirements for quality paths to connect urban spaces, including curbs, ramps and platforms, enabling everyone to move through our public spaces safely, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and those with wheeled mobility aids and families with prams.

We will also make it easier to ride to where you need to go, by introducing an extended network of bike lanes and racks, creating end-trip facilities at transport hubs, and improving road safety.

Vibrant communities and culture

Art makes life better - it gives us a sense of voice, place, collective identity and culture. It makes sense of the chaos. We need to support our artists to do this important work.

Most artists in NSW lost the majority of their income during Covid lockdowns, with many unable to access Jobkeeper and other Federal Government support packages. We know that many artists work in the gig economy and in the retail and hospitality sector to supplement their income. We will introduce a living wage for artists - with sick pay - providing them with the income and stability they need to create.

Sydney’s night-time economy still needs help to recover from the pandemic and long years of lockout laws to restore Sydney’s reputation as a fun, vibrant and diverse place to live, work and play in. We’ll support venues, musicians and promoters to keep the doors open and to keep showcasing home-grown talent to small and large audiences in all parts of NSW. We’ll also support them through the hard times by establishing a government-run insurance scheme to cover artists, venues and promoters for cancellations due to extreme weather or (heaven forbid) another pandemic.

We’ll invest a greater share of the arts budget on regional and rural arts and on First Nations art and ensure that First Nations arts and culture is protected and promoted. We will establish a First Nations Cultural Centre in Sydney after the failure of the NSW Government to do so at Barangaroo.

Finally, the ridiculously heavy presence of police and sniffer dogs outside and inside bars, nightclubs and music festivals is literally turning people off going out. Stories abound of people getting strip searched just for walking into a pub to have a drink with a friend. It’s outrageous and discriminatory and it’s got to stop. The Greens will end the use of sniffer dogs and strip searching and reinvest this money into health and social support services.

Solving the Waste Crisis

The waste crisis in NSW is out of control with huge increases in the amount of waste we’re producing each year. Sydney has almost run out of landfill space and is looking to regional communities to take their waste, instead of We need to rapidly transition to a sustainable circular economy that reduces, reuses and recycles materials.

The Greens will tackle waste in our homes, businesses and in construction. By 2025, we will end all single-use plastics and plastic waste, get food waste out of landfill, and massively increase the use of recycled materials in manufacturing, roads and infrastructure.

We will make sure that the waste levy, which waste facilities have to pay for each tonne of waste diverted to landfill and was originally intended to go towards reducing waste to landfill, is actually spent on tackling the waste crisis. At the moment, almost two-thirds of it goes into general revenue which our waste crisis deepens.

We also stand with communities in opposing toxic waste to energy incinerators being built in their suburbs or near their farms, homes and schools. The Greens don’t support burning waste for energy because of the toxic pollutants the process emits, but also because it incentivises the production of more waste, not less and runs counter to the goals of a circular economy.

Securing our Water

Climate change means droughts are becoming longer and more severe. The most recent drought left regional towns across NSW without water while Greater Sydney’s water reservoirs dropped at the fastest rate on record, putting Australia's largest urban population at risk.

Decades of state government mismanagement have left NSW poorly prepared for a hotter and drier future with investment in alternative water infrastructure lagging while billions have been committed to large scale dam projects that will do nothing to improve water security.

The Greens will ensure water security for NSW by investing in alternative water infrastructure like purified water recycling, storm water recycling and desalination alongside programs to encourage consumers to move towards more efficient white goods and water improved demand management.

NSW Sustainable Food System

How we feed ourselves is at the core of who we are and what kind of world we want to create. Food shapes the environment, our health, and our social lives. And with your support, the Greens will create a sustainable food system.

Last year, flooding across NSW showed us just how much the climate crisis is threatening our food supply. Food prices have skyrocketed and will continue to rise as extreme weather events like drought and flooding become more frequent and destroy our precious soil and flood our arable land.

To reduce food prices, the Greens will ensure our farmland is resilient to climate change, build a circular food economy and urban agriculture industry, embrace new agrotechnology, regulate supermarkets to limit food waste, and empower future generations by bringing food production education into our schools.

The Greens will also invest in urban agriculture, including household edible gardens, vertical farms, urban orchards and a food waste and circular food network. This will reduce transport emissions, increase food security, and promote community connection and healthy eating habits to tackle our health crisis.

BUILDING A CLIMATE SMART WESTERN SYDNEY

The climate crisis means we will see more frequent and extreme floods, bushfires and heat waves. Western Sydney is one of the regions most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as we have seen with the increase in extreme flooding and heatwaves.

Western Sydney is suffering hot and getting hotter, and seemingly endless urban sprawl is destroying communities, the quality of life and the environment. One day in 2020 Penrith was officially the hottest place on earth with a temperature of 48.9 degrees!

Floods are also getting more extreme. In 2022 the Hawkesbury-Nepean experienced two major floods that exceeded historical records and caused widespread damage and disruption to thousands of residents. Instead of acting to end housing development on Western Sydney floodplains the NSW Government is trying to raise the Warragamba dam wall to facilitate even more urban sprawl.

The Greens have a plan to mitigate the impacts of climate change in Western Sydney, reduce the impacts of floods and end development on our floodplains and keep Western Sydney's towns and streets cooler in the summer.

EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES BY SUPPORTING PLACE-BASED AND COMMUNITY-LED SERVICES

The social services sector provides essential care and support to more than a million people across NSW every year, including those impacted by poverty, homelessness, domestic violence, mental health challenges, disability and other complex issues. Despite the crucial role that the sector plays in the wellbeing of the state however, successive governments have denied the sector the funding and stability it requires.

In recent years, health, financial and social pressures caused by or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly increased demand on the sector, but without commensurate funding, workforce issues in the women-dominated sector have increased too.

The Greens will ensure that the social and community services sector is resourced with sustainable and secure funding, and its essential workforce receives the investment it needs and deserves.