海角社区

Envisioning the Future of Planning

Friday 11.50am-12.45pm

• Stephen Whitaker
• Paul Burton M海角社区
• Julie Saunders M海角社区

Stephen Whitaker
People Try to Put Us Down…Talkin’ ‘bout Legislation

When you review Queensland's planning framework, particularly the legislation which is the core of the system, you will find that the fundamentals of the way in which we approach planning in this State are founded in the Integrated Planning Act 1997 framework (and some even before that). Legislation that is nearing 30 years of age remains the foundation on which we undertake planning activities. Whilst many reforms have been undertaken since this time, including new acts such as the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 and the current Planning Act 2016, along with more tailored reforms focusing on specific issues, it becomes increasingly apparent that these reforms are introducing mechanisms to sidestep or alter the foundational elements of our system.

Perhaps it is necessary for us as a planning profession to reconsider our overarching approach based on our lengthy experience with this largely unchanged system. The world has significantly changed since the 1990s and planning and development needs to be reflective of this. Constant reforms, tweaks and changes risk introducing further complexity and subsequent confusion to all those who use the system and thus a holistic review is required to understand what is needed now and into the future to achieve efficient, transparent and relevant planning work.

The planning system is increasingly seen as a burden on all those who use it. Of course, developers will always point to this, but even planners, those who in many instances are "true believers" in the work they are doing are increasingly disillusioned by the procedural and structural change, which they have to navigate in their day-to-day work.

From experience, there are two core elements to any planning system; the processes which allow planning work to occur and the policy directions that are implemented through these processes. Policy directions will remain the premiere element that all planners seek to involve themselves with through intellectual conversation, professional debate and the ongoing evolution of our understanding of how we build and maintain the places we work, live and play in. However, the process element is rarely seen by planners as a place where joy can be gained, partly because of the theoretical complexity of such matters but also due to common approaches of chipping away at a system to try and make it suit current circumstances. With a process approach which embraces simplicity and flexibility to respond, planners are less focused on the way in which they do things and instead can focus on what they are trying to achieve for the communities that they ultimately serve. This presentation will examine how the Queensland planning system can achieve this into the future.

Paul Burton M海角社区
Selling the idea of planning: recruiting and preparing planners for the future

海角社区’s State of the Profession report describes an 82% increase in the number of planners in Australia from 2006 to 2021. While this suggested an optimistic outlook about the future of planning, in the years since we have become more pessimistic as we appear to be facing an increasing shortage of planners. The pipeline of planners comes mainly, but not exclusively from young people enrolling in 海角社区-accredited undergraduate degree programs at Australian universities and until recently these were offered at seven Queensland universities. Two of these have since withdrawn their undergraduate programs and another has signalled its intention to do so. These closures are the result of enrolments falling below their university’s thresholds of viability and those remaining report fewer enrolments than in previous years.

How might we explain this apparent decline in the popularity of planning courses as a pathway to the profession? Even though the demand for qualified planners is growing and shows no signs of abating in the next few years, starting salaries compare very favourably with other built environment professions and career prospects are very positive, young people are not enrolling at the rate we might reasonably expect. Are young people looking at these factors and choosing other professions or vocations? Or are they simply unaware of what planning is and what planners do in practice and not even considering planning as a career. For many years we have assumed the latter, made some efforts to improve how we describe the profession and succeeded, nevertheless, in achieving a reasonable pipeline of new entrants. But we are now at a more critical juncture where the capacity to train and educate new planners is diminishing and could prove difficult to ramp up even if we succeed in increasing popular awareness of planning and its career prospects.

In this presentation I will explore three questions:

• why planning is not more popular as a career choice;
• what might be done to raise awareness of planning and boost its popularity;
• how might we improve the curricula of 海角社区-accredited planning courses so that they better equip graduates to become excellent planners in the future.

I also consider, briefly, other ways that aspiring planners might enter the profession through education, training, and professional development programs.

Julie Saunders M海角社区
Are we there yet? Why is planning reform being used to solve the housing crisis?

In August the Prime Minister weighed into the planning system. A Planning Reform Blueprint to guide the nation out of the current housing crisis together with a $3 billion cheque that the States have signed up to. Urbis has undertaken work for Federal Treasury that reviewed the performance of the planning system around the nation that informed the development of the blueprint which is currently being put into action across the states and territories. This session will look at this work and the range of different planning reforms currently occurring across the nation to stimulate the housing system, analyse the current rates of production, targets and diversity and whether we can meet the accord targets. It will also provide reflections on some of the planning challenges we face in trying to unlock housing at speed. What does 'well located' mean? how do we regulate social and affordable housing? Oh and do we need to define it? This session will finally touch on the enormous amount of funding programs feeding into these initiatives and the relationship they have with the planning system.