Queensland's SARA wins top planning award

Queensland’s new planning assessment system has won the top award at the

Planning Institute Australia’s 2013 Queensland awards.

State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) was launched on 1 July 2013 to take action on the promises made by the Newman Government of cutting red tape and delivering better planning.

To date, more than 1100 applications have been lodged using the SARA’s MyDAS online lodgement system.

SARA also received the 2013 Improving Planning Processes and Practices Award before additionally claiming the overall award.

Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Jeff Seeney has explained that with the implementation of SARA, excessive paperwork and approval from several agencies will no longer be necessary of councils and businesses. Instead, such companies will only have to obtain the approval from one agency, SARA.

Planning Institute Australia’s State President Kate Isles said that SARA will improve the time and cost inefficiencies that were previously caused by multiple referrals for development applications.

She explained, “SARA represents a significant step forward in centralising state referrals and provides more certainty, transparency and consistency in relation to the assessment of applications referred to the state.”