Sydney apartment block the first approved under planning fast track

A $110 million proposal to build more than 100 apartments in an eight-storey complex on Sydney’s upper north shore has become the first project to win development approval after it was sent on a faster route to construction by the Minns government’s powerful three-person housing authority.

The green light for the controversial Gordon unit block comes as an independent review of the NSW Housing Delivery Authority’s use of an unauthorised AI tool to assess major residential proposals found “no obvious errors or inaccuracies” in dozens of reports produced by the software system.

The apartment complex in Gordon is the first project assessed by the Housing Delivery Authority to be approved.Credit: NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure

The authority, which started taking expressions of interest from developers for large residential developments in January, comprises Premier’s Department secretary Simon Draper, Planning Department secretary Kiersten Fishburn and Infrastructure NSW chief executive Tom Gellibrand.

Its assessment processes faced scrutiny after planning official Aoife Wynter, who was the authority’s executive director of panels and housing delivery, was placed on forced leave in November for allowing AI software developed by her engineer husband to be used on assessments.

The government insisted the unauthorised software was used only to collate information contained in expression of interest (EOI) documents, but it appointed Infrastructure NSW board member and respected former public servant Peter Duncan to review multiple assessments.

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Duncan’s report, published on Wednesday, recommends the Planning Department strengthen its AI policies and says a previously proposed review of the HDA’s first year must ensure the agency is “scrupulously rigorous and has a ‘belts and braces’ approach to avoid risk”.

Planning Minister Paul Scully said the review showed the authority’s processes had not been compromised, and “all necessary steps will be taken to support the continued function of the HDA”.

The report said the government received an alert that an unauthorised AI tool was being used to help prepare reports for the agency on October 31, and Scully was briefed on November 20.

The report confirmed the tool was used by the department’s panels and housing delivery team to collect information once a developer had submitted an expression of interest via an online form.

Cybersecurity experts found the AI software was used early in the assessment process as an “administrative assistance tool” to summarise the sentiments expressed in submissions made against development applications, and rate them on a positivity scale of zero to five, the report said.

It was also used to extract and summarise content from public council websites and meeting minutes, and to answer questions about development applications from some departmental staff.

The information was compiled into a report template in the reports, which included other information drafted by planning bureaucrats, provided to the panel members before a meeting.

Duncan said the technology leveraged in the software was “at the simple end of the AI spectrum”.

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“It collated publicly available information from the internet. It was not making any decisions or recommendations, nor undertaking assessments or authoring content.”

The report said it was not apparent the IT tool used had been “more effective than other authorised software available for use within the department or available elsewhere in the NSW government”.

A review of more than 70 reports found no evidence of mistakes, and the report found the likelihood of errors from the use of the unauthorised software was low.

“However, the risk of an unauthorised software of any kind to any system or process within public administration needs to be recognised,” Duncan said.

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Scully accepted in full the review’s recommendations, which included reinforcing AI policies with staff; using authorised software; reviewing all unsuccessful EOIs prepared with the tool to confirm there were no errors; and completing a planned review of the authority’s processes and procedures.

Duncan said that review should consider introducing a process manager role to support the panel, and adding an independent panel chair “of substance and status” from outside the public sector.

It should also consider adding a penalty – “such as ‘return to go’” requirement – for applicants who did not comply with procedures.

A government spokeswoman would not comment on individual staffing matters when asked whether Wynter remained on leave.

The Gordon apartment block is one of more than 300 proposals, amounting to 102,000 potential new homes, the authority has recommended for the faster state significant development pathway.

The Park Avenue development, which includes a portion of affordable housing, was assessed and approved in seven months under the transport-oriented development (TOD) planning controls, despite dozens of objections from residents and Ku-ring-gai Council.

Construction is expected to start in mid-2026. Scully said: “We have seen housing proposals of this size and scale getting stuck in local planning systems for too long.”

The Minns government established the three-person agency to bypass local councils and speed up large housing developments, as it attempts to build 377,000 new homes by mid-2029. It was enshrined in legislation in November.

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