Dear Editor,

A recent decision by the NT Planning Minister Josh Burgoyne gives me the feeling Trumpism has arrived in the Territory.

In October this year, the minister signed off on an amendment to a rural planning scheme. It’s probably not something most of us would have known about or cared about.

There was no public hearing. It didn’t make a headline in the media. But it had some disturbing consequences.

The owners of a large parcel of land on the Stuart Highway recently decided to apply for approval to subdivide their rural land.

As the land was outside the Coolalinga/Bees Creek district centre or area plan, potentially the land normally would have been subdivided into one and 2 ha blocks, retaining the rural integrity.

But the owners saw an opportunity to subdivide the land into smaller blocks with the potential to double the number of blocks and naturally increase profits.

To do that, the land had to be within the boundaries of the district centre where the zone rural residential allowed blocks of 4000 sq metres.

To help this to be achieved the minister kindly, at the stroke of a pen, not in front of the cameras, moved the boundary by amending the area plan so that the land was no longer part of the rural area but part of the district dentre.

This Trumpism masterpiece shows that a plan for the rural area is hardly worth the paper it is written on.

It shows how the government does not really support the rural integrity or lifestyle of the Litchfield plan by allowing more large suburban blocks also known as ‘pretend rural’ or ‘pretty blocks’ into areas where they were not intended.

I have now no doubt that the owners of the two large blocks neighbouring this block, if they see how easy it is to get a Trumpian-like signature from the minister on a piece of paper, would follow the example.

The government should stick by its plan, not wilt at the drop of a hat for the sake of keeping developers happy.

Gerry Wood, Howard Springs

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