North Sydney mayor says Minns government overriding planning protections like a ‘totalitarian’ regime

Zoë Baker hits back after premier accuses Sydney councils of employing ‘strategies to stop all development’

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A Sydney mayor has accused the New South Wales premier Chris Minns of forming planning laws “in the way totalitarian regimes do it”, as councils hit back at moves to override heritage protections to allow for greater housing density in the city.

On Monday morning, Minns suggested Sydney councils had been using heritage preservation listings as a tactic to hide a Nimbyist (not in my backyard) motivation against greater development, as he defended his government’s major housing policy to upzone the areas around metro and train stations for medium- and high-density housing.

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