The Pulse | 01 October 2026

Council Incentives, New Declarations and Central-West Lines: NSW Approvals and Grid Works Advance

This week's reporting measured the NSW planning reforms by how quickly applications move and how many projects reach the state pathway. 

Forty-four councils will share up to $73 million after meeting the 105-day assessment benchmark, with the group averaging 78 days [12]; around 950 council assessment officers are to receive state-funded training on the new planning rules [2]; and the State Significant Development Declaration Order (No 11) 2026 added 15 Housing Delivery Authority projects with capacity for 4,346 homes, lifting the pipeline to 499 proposals [7, 13]. Consents for a $175.3 million Woolworths mixed-use scheme at Gladesville and 120 Landcom affordable apartments at Glenfield were among four State Significant Development determinations reported in the same week [9, 10].

On the ground, the week's project coverage centred on physical progress in energy and transport infrastructure. Crews began stringing the first conductors on the Central-West Orana REZ network, with energisation still targeted from 2028 [3]; six 500 kV shunt reactors reached HumeLink [6]; and 44 Australian-made switchboards are being supplied for the Sydney Metro Western Sydney Airport line [5], while the completed stages of the Aspect Industrial Estate were reported as fully leased [1]. On site conditions, a national survey covered by The Good Builder ranked construction first of all industries for workers facing several hazardous agents at once, ahead of the Workplace Exposure Limits list taking effect on 1 December 2026 [4].

Council Assessment Times Unlock a $73 Million Round and Funded Training for 950 Planners

Planning Minister Paul Scully announced on 29 September 2026 that 44 councils, up from 35 in the first round, will share up to $73 million in Round Two of the Faster Assessments Incentive Program [12]. Eligibility turned on meeting the 105-day benchmark in the Minister's Statement of Expectations across FY 2025-26, and the successful councils averaged 78 days, eight days quicker than the year before. Grants of up to $3 million each are to fund roads, parks, open space and community facilities, with each allocation based on the council's housing target, or on projected dwelling growth where a regional council has no target. The release highlighted Sutherland Shire, where the average fell from 177 to 97 days within 12 months, alongside cuts of 88 days at Willoughby, 59 at Ballina and 55 at Queanbeyan-Palerang. The $200 million program runs for three years and is open to 53 councils whose targets or implied demand exceed 1,000 homes. Mr Scully said "Faster assessments mean more certainty for people wanting to build, renovate or invest, while better performing councils can unlock funding for the infrastructure their growing communities need."

The funding round came five days after Build Australia reported that the state will pay for training for up to half of the council planning workforce [2]. The NSW Planning Practice Program, developed by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure with the Planning Institute of Australia, is designed to reach about 950 development assessment officers across all 128 councils through a half-day course on proportionate assessment under recent changes such as the Low and Mid-Rise Housing policy, Pattern Book and Transport Oriented Development program. Build Australia placed the program after the passage of the Planning System Reforms Act 2025 and the creation of the Housing Delivery Authority and the Development Coordination Authority. Mr Scully characterised the reforms as the biggest set of legislative changes to affect NSW planners in half a century, saying "The intention of the reforms has been to create real, practical changes to get keys in doors faster, and that is what is happening." Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig said councils needed practical support to put major policy shifts into effect, and that good planning judgement still underpins community confidence.

Order No 11 Brings 15 More Housing Projects onto the State Significant Pathway

Mr Scully also announced that 15 further projects, 14 in metropolitan Sydney and one in regional NSW, had been declared State Significant Development on the recommendation of the Housing Delivery Authority, with capacity for 4,346 homes, including affordable housing, if each is lodged and approved [13]. The declarations sit in the State Significant Development Declaration Order (No 11) 2026, which the Minister signed on 28 September 2026 under section 4.36(3) of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and which takes effect when published on the NSW planning portal [7]. The release put the HDA pipeline at 499 declared proposals with potential for more than 154,000 homes. Of those, 24 have been approved for more than 4,400 homes and 11 have started construction, SSD applications are in for a further 75 projects representing around 32,400 homes, and 32 declarations have been revoked where timelines were missed or applicants chose not to proceed [13].

The Order identifies each site by EOI application number and lot. The newly declared sites are in Alexandria (two on Bourke Road), Eastgardens, Campbelltown, Five Dock, Parramatta, Rosebery, Pymble, Mosman, Mona Vale, Randwick, Sutherland, Chatswood (one on Victoria Avenue and one on the Pacific Highway) and Wollongong, each proposed as shop top housing or a residential flat building incorporating affordable housing [7]. Schedules 2 to 5 of the Order omit four earlier declarations, made under Orders No 10 and No 16 of 2025 and Orders No 6 and No 8 of 2026, for sites at Five Dock, Randwick, Chatswood and Mona Vale; each of those locations is declared again in Order No 11 under a later EOI with an altered site description, and the Five Dock and Randwick entries no longer refer to a place of public worship and co-living housing respectively. Schedule 1 revises the land description for a Concord West site declared under Order No 8 of 2026 [7].

Delivery on the Ground: Transmission, Metro Switchboards, the Aspect Estate and Worker Exposure

A press release published by pv magazine Australia, carrying comments from EnergyCo and ACEREZ, reported that crews had started stringing high-voltage conductors between towers on the Central-West Orana REZ transmission network, with 64 towers now standing on the line between Elong Elong and Barigan Creek via Merotherie [3]. According to the release, the project is still on schedule for energisation from 2028 and, once complete, will open up enough renewable generation and storage to supply as many as 2.7 million homes in peak periods. It also said the REZ is directing $128 million to the region through its Community and Employment Benefit Program, with more than $72 million allocated so far to 75 local projects. ACEREZ Chief Executive Officer Steve Masters said "This is complex, highly coordinated work, and our crews have delivered it with precision."

On HumeLink, Energy Magazine reported that Hitachi Energy has delivered six 500 kV shunt reactors for Transgrid's 365 km transmission link, each heavier than 120 tonnes and destined for the Maragle, Bannaby and Gugaa substations [6]. The units were manufactured at Hitachi Energy's Chongqing plant, landed at Port Kembla and trucked about 480 km by heavy-haul convoy, and the reporting described them as among the first three-phase 500 kV reactors used in Australia. Hitachi Energy's service team and Australian subcontractors are carrying out on-site assembly, installation and testing, as well as supplying and installing 28 high-voltage circuit breakers, with final commissioning expected before the end of 2026. Bernard Norton, managing director of Hitachi Energy Australia, said "These are critical pieces of electrical infrastructure. They are the silent guardians of the power system."

On the Metro, Australian Manufacturing reported that the Parklife Metro Consortium, whose members include Webuild and Siemens, engaged Fuji SMBE Macquarie to supply 44 Australian-made low-voltage switchboards, with main boards rated up to 5000A [5]. The boards serve six new stations on the Western Sydney Airport metro line, together with its administration and maintenance facilities. The boards were designed and verified to AS/NZS 61439 plus additional rail standards, factory tested against simulated building management and control interfaces, and delivered in stages across active sites. Jason Karakira, a senior project engineer with Parklife Metro, said "This phased approach meant that we could align with construction programs and optimise subcontractor resources." Nearby, MHD Supply Chain News reported that Mirvac and Australian Retirement Trust had marked the opening of IVE Group's 42,000 sqm facility at the Aspect Industrial Estate in the Mamre Road corridor, with more than 200,000 sqm across Aspect North and Aspect South now complete and fully let [1]. Aspect Central, the estate's last stage, is moving through State Significant Development assessment, and construction has recently begun on the partners' $2 billion SEED precinct in the Western Sydney Aerotropolis, which the partners expect to sustain over 3,000 jobs across two stages [1].

On site conditions, The Good Builder reported on Safe Work Australia's 2026 Australian Worker Exposure Survey, which found that 68.2 per cent of people working in construction were likely to face five or more hazardous agents concurrently, compared with 60.1 per cent in agriculture, forestry and fishing and 60.0 per cent in mining [4]. Construction had the highest rates of any industry for silica (71.8 per cent) and lead (19.9 per cent), and ranked first on three of the nine agents reported at high level, including wood dust at 22.7 per cent against a national figure of 5.2 per cent. The survey drew on 6,617 respondents, 517 of them in construction, and inferred likely exposure from the tasks workers described rather than from air monitoring. The Good Builder linked the results to the national move from the Workplace Exposure Standards list to the Workplace Exposure Limits list on 1 December 2026: silica is among nine substances excluded from that update while further impact analysis takes place, leaving its 0.05 mg/m3 limit in place, whereas the wood dust limit is being revised. The publication noted the change has been confirmed by state regulators, SafeWork NSW among them [4].

Project Tracker: State Significant Development at 30 September 2026

We have been following a number of State Significant Development projects through recent editions as they move from announcement toward delivery, and here is where each of them stands as of this edition.

Final Thoughts

Two patterns run through the week's coverage. On planning, the reporting measured reform by throughput: the Minister's release tied council funding directly to assessment days [12], the training program was framed around helping council staff apply the recent reforms in practice [2], and the HDA figures tracked how many declared proposals have moved on to lodgement, approval and construction [13]. The four consents reported by Urban Digest [8, 9, 10, 11] covered private, government and aged care proponents, with the Gladesville approval arriving alongside a concurrent HDA rezoning, so the week's reporting showed the state pathway at both ends: new declarations going in and determinations coming out.

On delivery, the energy and transport stories reported this week turned on physical milestones and the supply chains behind them, from conductor stringing across 64 standing towers in the Central-West [3] to imported shunt reactors and locally made switchboards [5, 6], with industrial floor space in the Mamre Road corridor reported as fully let [1]. Alongside that activity, the exposure survey placed construction workers at the top of the national table for several concurrent hazards, with the revised national exposure limits list scheduled to take effect on 1 December 2026 [4].

1.  MHD Supply Chain News | by Phillip Hazell (23 September 2026). IVE opens 42,000 sqm Western Sydney supersite. https://mhdsupplychain.com.au/2026/09/24/ive-opens-42000-sqm-western-sydney-supersite/

2.  Build Australia | by Ranina Sanglap (24 September 2026). NSW to fund council planner training to speed up housing approvals. https://www.buildaustralia.com.au/news_article/nsw-to-fund-council-planner-training-to-speed-up-housing-approvals/

3.  pv magazine Australia | Press Release (24 September 2026). Renewable power to 2.7 million NSW homes on track as first transmission lines strung in Central-West. https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/press-releases/renewable-power-to-2-7-million-nsw-homes-on-track-as-firsttransmission-lines-strung-in-central-west/

4.  The Good Builder | by TGB Editorial (27 September 2026). Construction Is Australia's Most Exposed Industry in the New National Survey. Silica Tops the List. https://thegoodbuilder.com.au/construction-is-australias-most-exposed-industry-in-the-new-national-survey-silica-tops-the-list/
   

5.  Australian Manufacturing | by Kate B. (28 September 2026). Fuji SMBE Macquarie supplies Australian-made switchboards for Sydney Metro project. https://www.australianmanufacturing.com.au/fuji-smbe-macquarie-supplies-australian-made-switchboards-for-sydney-metro-project/
   

6.  Energy Magazine | by Tom Parker (28 September 2026). Six 'giant' shunt reactors arrive at HumeLink. https://www.energymagazine.com.au/six-giant-shunt-reactors-arrive-at-humelink/
   

7.  NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure (28 September 2026). State Significant Development Declaration Order (No 11) 2026. https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/the-planning-system/ministerial-orders
   

8.  Urban Digest | by Stephanie (28 September 2026). $154m Lindfield Apartments Approved. https://urbandigest.com.au/ssd-82548708-154m-lindfield-apartments-approved/

9.  Urban Digest | by Stephanie (28 September 2026). $175m Woolworths Gladesville Development Approved. https://urbandigest.com.au/ssd-82225458-175m-woolworths-gladesville-development-approved/

10.  Urban Digest | by Stephanie (28 September 2026). $75.6m Landcom Housing Approved in Glenfield. https://urbandigest.com.au/ssd-100271209-75-6m-landcom-housing-approved-in-glenfield/

11.  Urban Digest | by Stephanie (28 September 2026). $89m Bayview Aged Care Facility Approved. https://urbandigest.com.au/ssd-77240466-89m-bayview-aged-care-facility-approved/

12.  Paul Scully MP, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces (29 September 2026). Faster housing approvals unlocks $73 million for local infrastructure. https://paulscullymp.com.au/news/media-releases/faster-housing-approvals-unlocks-73-million-for-local-infrastructure/

13.  Paul Scully MP, Minister for Planning and Public Spaces (29 September 2026). More than 4,300 homes declared State Significant. https://paulscullymp.com.au/news/media-releases/more-than-4-300-homes-declared-state-significant/