Friday 7 August 2026

Ms Scruby slams Liberal’s ‘nothing burger’ for Mona Vale - highlighting councils can already develop alternative plans for low and mid rise

The Liberal Party’s announcement that councils could develop alternative plans to meet housing targets instead of being forced to accept the bipartisan Low and Mid Rise (LMR) planning controls is a non-announcement given this is already being undertaken by other councils and is an option open to Northern Beaches Council already.

Ms Scruby says “Whilst the announcement is a ‘nothing burger’, the fact one was made at all shows that the community pressure is working and I encourage everyone to continue to rally against the reforms.”

"We do not need the Liberals to announce options that exist already – we need them to withdraw support for Labor and backflip on their bipartisan support for developer led reforms.”

Unless the Liberal Party can explain how this announcement is any different to what councils like Inner West and Mosman are doing - it is simply misleading our community.”

Ms Scruby noted that SOS Mona Vale has recently been told directly by the government that councils can develop alternative plans and that other councils are already successfully doing just that. The Liberal announcement merely mirrors that position.

"Mosman Council has invested $500k developing an alternative planning approach to concentrate housing growth in appropriate locations rather than applying a blunt, one-size-fits-all model across its community. Inner West Council has their 'Fairer Future Plan' as an alternative to the LMR and Ku-ring-gai Council also has an alternative housing solution”, said Ms Scruby.

"The reality is a few months ago the Liberal Party voted in Labor’s developer-led reforms with gusto referring to themselves as the “party of YIMBYs” and reaffirmed their support for their plans a few weeks ago when voting against legislation to stop projects like Lizard Rock going ahead in bushfire prone areas.”

“It’s not good enough – we need a stance that will actually protect Mona Vale from State Significant Development housing pathways and the Housing Delivery Authority (HDA) mechanism, or at the very least exclude it from low to mid rise completely.

"This announcement ignores the biggest risk we have which is state significant developments. This announcement does nothing to stop the current situation where a developer can effectively acquire a small number of properties, assemble a site and seek to use the HDA pathway for a development for 8 storeys or more.”  

"My position is clear I voted against these reforms and maintain that Mona Vale should be exempt from both the Low and Mid Rise reforms and State Significant Development housing pathways. Only last week I gave notice of a motion in parliament to have the matter debated.”

5062 - BIPARTISAN DEVELOPER-LED HOUSING REFORMS – 4 August 2026

Notice text

That this House:

(1) Notes growing community protests against bipartisan developer-led housing reforms.

(2) Notes the perverse outcomes of these reforms, where the demolition of existing apartments for luxury redevelopments risks a net loss of overall dwellings and will fail to deliver actual affordable housing.

(3) Recognises that some Low and Mid-Rise town centres like Mona Vale face acute geographical constrains, bushfire risks and infrastructure limitations.

(4) Calls on the Government to review and implement place-based exemptions.

"Mona Vale is not a blank canvas. It has particular infrastructure, environmental, traffic, transport and community constraints that need to be properly considered before additional density is imposed. The answer is not to simply move the same state-imposed targets around on a map."

Ms Scruby confirmed she has called on Council, as has SOS Mona Vale, to develop alternative plans, which have so far been resisted.

“Northern Beaches Council should provide an alternative planning framework for Mona Vale's LMR and is calling on Counsellors to move a motion at the next council meeting.”

If other councils have developed alternatives, then Northern Beaches Council should be under pressure to produce one for Mona Vale.” 

ENDS