Public engagement and the installation of wireless facilities exempt from local planning requirements

Abstract

This article begins consideration of the public engagement mechanisms in Deployment of Mobile Phone Network Infrastructure, a legally-binding industry code of practice adopted by the Australian Communications Industry Forum, first registered by the Australian Communications Authority in 2002 and applicable to providers of "public mobile telecommunications services". This article explains the public engagement mechanisms set out in the code and evaluates them in light of certain fairness and competency factors. Theanalysis draws on interviews with individuals and local councils in northern New South Wales notified under the code, mobile carriers and their consultant planners. Although it welcomes the carriers' efforts to inform communities of infrastructure roll-out, it argues that aspects of the mechanisms may need to be reconsidered, especially the role definition of individuals in the process.