Raw Aus Pol

Simple Wins / Australian Red Tape Every step, every clock, every authority -- written down.

New South Wales

state pop. 8,339,000official site

Development assessment is governed by the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, with a fast-track complying development pathway assessed by council or a registered private certifier.

NSW is the most useful state to map first, because it runs two pathways side by side for the same physical outcome: a merit-assessed development application to council, and a code-assessed complying development certificate that a private certifier can issue against a fixed set of standards.

That is a natural experiment sitting in plain sight. The same house, built to the same code, reaches approval through two very different amounts of process depending only on whether it fits inside the code. Quantifying that difference honestly -- including the cases where the fast path produces worse outcomes -- is one of the highest-value things this database can do.

Key legislation

Processes in this jurisdiction

ProcessStepsElapsedScheduling
Build and open a residential aged care home — New South Wales12 1581d5%
Build a multi storey apartment building via the Housing Delivery Authority — New South Wales17 1048d18%
Build a multi storey apartment building — New South Wales19 870d34%
Buy land and build a single storey house — New South Wales21 305d4%
Open a long day care centre — New South Wales16 1000d10%
Household affected by a declared disaster obtains assistance and rebuilds9 751d0%
Get a car driver licence — New South Wales10 1513d3%
Build a single house — NSW, complying development certificate7 79d6%
Build a single house — NSW, merit-assessed development application14 140d18%
Household receives energy bill relief and concession rebates — New South Wales9 113d36%
Person leaving family violence obtains protection, income and housing8 180d17%
Deliver a new public hospital — New South Wales11 2975d11%
Person with a legal problem seeks assistance8 130d0%
Person released from prison re-establishes income, identity, health care and housing10 135d22%
Adult concession card holder seeks public dental care6 665d83%
Household applies for social housing and is allocated a home9 612d77%
A social housing tenant reports a repair9 63d92%
Build a block of townhouses — New South Wales16 480d38%
A water entitlement is traded6 96d0%
Child refused police bail is held, brought to court, and released on bail9 5d100%

Bodies

Councils and sub-jurisdictions