Matthew Ockleston: Dentons Kensington Swan public works expert on the proposed changes to the Public Works Act

Landowners could have less room to haggle over land deemed necessary for essential infrastructure work. 

The Government's proposing changes to the Public Works Act to speed up the acquisition of land for major projects. 

There'll be premium payments to private landowners and objections would no longer go through the Environment Court. 

Dentons Kensington Swan public works expert Matthew Ockleston told Mike Hosking additional payments in the current legislation are low. 

He says an increase of up to $150 thousand for an early sale and a recognition payment of $92 thousand will make a difference. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the government's speeding up the way in which admires
land for infrastructure projects will have a premium payment scheme.
You sell quickly, you'll get more objections, will no longer
be heard by the Environment Court. Instead, you'll wander off
to the appropriate ministry or the Council. Public words at
expert and partner at Denton's Kensington's One, Matthew Oucleston's with us,
Matthew morning.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Makes sense.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, I think there's some real game changes in here.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Isn't there a premium already? Like in the government comes
along to me and goes, look, we'll off for you
a million dollars and I'll go, look, make at one
point one and we're done. I mean, that's a premium,
isn't it. Whether you talk about it.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Or not, does a premium In the legislation, it's called
additional compensation and there's two types that they're relatively small amounts.
There's a maximum of fifty thousand dollars if it's your
own house, or twenty five thousand dollars in other situations.
So given a lot of commensation amounts that we're talking,
those don't really amount to much of an incentive. So

(00:55):
I think the proposal to increase those quite significantly up
to one hundred and fifty ninety two thousand, that will
make a difference.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Right, So that's material. What will also make the most
difference that or the lack of environment caught and you're
dealing with the ministry or council.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I think the incentive payments will help a bit. But
some of the big delays that we've seen have been
around the fact that objections go to the Environment Court,
and that's a whole process that courts through a busy
it's a lot of other jurisdiction as well. So if
we can keep these objections out of the Environment Court
and have them dealt with directly by the acquiring authority,

(01:35):
I think that will make a difference. And for some
landowners they've said, look, I want to engage directly with
the Minister or with the council. I want to speak
to that body, and so it sounds like this will
give them a bit more of that direct access. I
think that will make a big difference.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Sure, well, that part's good, but I mean the Environment
Court is used not by those people but by third parties.
Ago we'll hold on as a wetland there and I
need an argument about it.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, we've seen a range of objections. I think the
more challenging ones have been where people have said, I'm
essentially challenging the nature of the project. You know, it
should be a tunnel that should go to the west,
not to the north, and those decisions have often already
been made through the rm A process and so it
is a bit crazy that there's an opportunity to challenge

(02:19):
those again to the ejection process. And that's something else
that the government is looking at changing the.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
How are they going to deal with it? How are
they going to deal with the uniformity on councils. Why
wouldn't one council take a completely different view from another
council Unless you can somehow manage.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
That, that is hard. You know, you've got the government
on the one hand, and then a whole number of
other councils on the other hand, each are able to
influent the legislation themselves, and so you do see some variation,
and that that is part of the issue. People have said,
when I deal with different councils, I get quite different experiences.

(02:57):
I'm not sure we're ever going to be able to
change all of that. But I think as part of
these wider reforms that government is looking at setting out
some more best practice across the entire public works, etc.
But of course the government is only responsible for the
government side of it, not the council side.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Yeah, exactly good and so I appreciate it. Matthew Matthew Augustin,
who's with Denton's Kensington.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
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