E-planning System

1433 The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (24 September 2019). In last year's budget estimates committee, you claimed that councils would begin financing the development of the e-planning system in 2018-19 because they would start to realise some of the benefits of the system in that year. The e-planning system was not operational in 2018-19, was it fair that councils made financial contributions in that year to the system's development?

The Hon. S.K. KNOLL (Schubert—Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Local Government, Minister for Planning): I have been advised the following—

Significant progress has been made in relation to the development of the e-planning solution. The e-planning solution will be operational for rural councils by April 2020 and July 2020 for urban councils. The new system will be digital by default, allow for applicants to lodge and monitor their application on-line, reduce paperwork, improve reporting and strategic decision making and replace a range of existing systems currently maintained by councils. In recognition that the benefits will increase over time, a 50 per cent discount was applied in the first year (2018-19) increasing to the full contribution in subsequent years.

The cost recovery model introduced a contribution based on development value as summarised below. This new model better aligns the contribution with the expected benefit derived from the e-planning solution. Importantly, a number of rural councils fall into group D and will not be required to contribute to the e-planning solution.