Mr. Brian Moran:

I will respond as a developer who needs certainty in this process and employs large teams of architects, planners and engineers to put together extremely complex planning applications, while responding to development plans, Government guidelines and many different and often conflicting agendas. We do our best to find the right balance and make that submission. We then have to trust that the people on the other side, in the city council and, in turn, potentially an inspector and the board, will look at that and, on balance, navigate an outcome between many conflicting agendas.

The opening statement of the Bill, and it is one of its essential elements, outlines the establishment of a balance between social, economic and environmental considerations to deliver sustainable development. The reality is, from experience, and I have a lot of scars on my back from it, there is no way a planning application can be put together without having slight conflicts between one policy and another, whether it concerns local or national objectives. We have to trust the city planner, in the first instance, and then potentially the inspector and the board, to make a call on behalf of society as to what the outcome should be on balance. The words used in the Bill are: "in the interests of the common good". If we do not allow that to happen, we will not see any planning permissions being issued for substantial, complex projects.