OVER the past 70 years WA and the other states have developed complex and detailed laws and decision making processes to resolve this very difficult arena with its ever-present potential for human conflict.

The recent decision by premier McGowan and planning minister Saffioti to ‘go nuclear’ and provide the most powerful developers with a guaranteed pathway to success, while small private home owners lag behind, is a recipe for disaster. 

This dual system, one based on economic potential, the other on proper considerations of land use and impacts, is wrong, destructive for broader communities and disrespectful to the vast majority of private property owners in this state.

Just look at the ham-fisted introduction of the revised Aboriginal Heritage Act, now withdrawn by new premier Roger Cook. Was this another botch-up by an exhausted premier and an unwary minister?

Premier McGowan and planning minister Saffioti shouldn’t be saddled with all the blame for the emerging land wars that will scar our landscape and leave communities shell-shocked, but they should wear most of it. 

They were only picking up on the equally ham-fisted battle former Liberal premier Colin Barnett had with some powerful developers and former political backers and party donors in his time. 

As a sop to the antagonists it was Barnett who struck the first blow to orderly planning by kowtowing to the painful bleating of the ever-greedy development lobby to curtail the political power of local governments and the legitimate interests of all affected property owners. By the stroke of this pen, Barnett set up the so-called Joint Development Application Panels (JDAPS) about 10 years ago.