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Planning & building

Victoria’s planning and building systems should promote safe, healthy, and vibrant communities for all Victorians. Councils have a vital role in this. Councils are responsible for developing local planning policy, assessing the vast majority of planning permit applications, and have key responsibilities in enforcing both the planning and building systems.

Latest advocacy: The Planning Reform Campaign

MAV has most recently focussed our planning advocacy on Building Victoria's Housing Future, the Right Way.

With significant planning system reform underway in Victoria, MAV has positioned for reform as a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and we need to ensure we get it right because:

  • Big change needs public trust
  • Planning reform alone won't deliver
  • New homes need to be affordable
  • All homes must be ready for the extremes to come
  • Partnership delivers better outcomes.

We prepared the Local Government Position Paper (PDF - 2.6MB) on the Planning Amendment (Better Decisions Made Faster) Bill 2025. This position aligns with MAV’s proactive submission on planning system reform submitted to government in April 2025: Reforming Victoria’s Planning System (PDF - 1.9MB)

The Bill was significantly amended, and passed both Houses of Parliament in February 2026.

Our advocacy has delivered:

  • The creation of a new head of power to require affordable housing contributions as part of new development, with any funds collected in lieu of a physical contribution to be spent on new affordable housing in the same municipality. This is something councils have been seeking for decades.
  • The retention of the power of either House of Parliament to disallow planning scheme amendments: an important democratic check and balance on the Government of the day.
  • Retaining “ecological processes” in the objectives of the Act. Ecological processes like the natural flow of water over land are essential considerations for flood-resilient land use and development planning.

The Bill’s various provisions will commence between now and October 2027.

Councils support more homes. We don't support reforms that sacrifice both delivery and quality.

Victorians deserve a planning system that that meets today’s needs and our future challenges.

Our planning reform advocacy emphasises the readiness of the sector to facilitate change to support thriving, resilient, and inclusive communities and has support from metropolitan, rural, and regional local councils.

We know that the key challenges currently impacting the effectiveness and efficiency of the Victorian planning system is a lack of collaboration and co-design between local and state government, and we propose a planning reform model that integrates system designers in state government with system administrators in local government.

Current priorities

We lead in capacity-building reform projects, and we represent councils in numerous State-led reviews and reforms in the planning and building spaces.

Our advocacy priorities in planning and building include:

  • Ensuring an effective Victorian planning system, which has local decision making at the centre
  • Acknowledging the need for planning and building systems to contribute to climate change mitigation as well as promote resilience and adaptation
  • Reforming Victoria’s building regulatory system to ensure Victorian families are protected from defective building work.
  • Working with councils, the Victorian Government, and non-government stakeholders to meet Victoria’s current and future housing needs.

We proudly host the Council Alliance for a Sustainable Built Environment.

Submissions and briefs

On behalf of the local government sector, we prepare submissions on a range of planning and building related topics.

Our public submissions are available on the MAV submissions page.

Resources

Engage with us

James McLean
Planning & Sustainable Development Lead
Contact: jmclean@mav.asn.au

Rohan Leppert
Senior Policy Advisor - Planning & Sustainable Development

Emlyn Breese
Co‐ordinator Research and Policy (please contact for building policy)
Contact: ebreese@mav.asn.au

Email: planning@mav.asn.au