New offences, new enforcement orders, and new powers
New offences and enforcement orders have been introduced, along with substantial increases to penalties for breaches of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (the PE Act), the Planning and Environment Interim Regulations 2026, and planning schemes.
The Planning Amendment (Better Decisions Made Faster) Act 2026 introduced a range of reforms to the enforcement provisions specified in Part 6 of the PE Act.
The new powers, sanctions and penalties have been established to more effectively deter non-compliance with Victorian Planning laws and provide for more proportionate responses to offending conduct.
New enforcement orders
The PE Act contains four new enforcement orders, which can be used to provide proportionate responses to contraventions of planning schemes, permit conditions or agreements.
If a person has been found guilty of an offence under the Act or the regulations, a responsible authority can apply to the Court to make one or more of these new orders:
- adverse publicity orders
- commercial benefits orders
- supervisory intervention orders
- industry exclusion orders.
The orders are issued by a court on the application of the responsible authority.
Civil Penalties
Amendments have been made to the PE Act to also provide the option to responsible authorities to seek to apply civil penalties to persons that contravene planning schemes, permit conditions or agreements.
Following application by a responsible authority, if the court is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that a person or body corporate has contravened a planning scheme, permit or agreement, then the court may make an order that the person has contravened the provision.
The court may subsequently, order the person or body corporate to pay a civil penalty of an amount not exceeding 2,000 penalty units for a natural person and not exceeding 10,000 penalty units for a body corporate.
A responsible authority may apply to the court to apply a civil penalty to a broad range of persons in respect to the contravention of planning schemes, permit conditions or agreements. For example, on application, the court may apply civil penalties to persons who attempt to:
- contravene, induce or attempt to induce a person to contravene
- aid, abet, counsel or procure a person to contravene
- conspire with others to contravene planning schemes, permit conditions or agreements.
Offences
The PE Act contains three new offences.
These are summarised below.
False and misleading information
It is an offence to knowingly and recklessly provide false or misleading information to a person or body performing a function under the PE Act. This includes statements made, information provided and documents produced.
Contravention of supervisory intervention orders and of industry exclusion orders
Supervisory intervention orders enable the appointment of a person to supervise an offender’s business practices and activities. An order made by the Court will specify how the appointed person will fulfil supervisory functions. If the person subject to the supervisory intervention order contravenes the order, this constitutes a serious offence to which the court may apply high fines or imprisonment.
Industry exclusion orders prevent offenders from participating in the commercial development of land for a specified period and are intended to be applied to persistent offenders against the Act or the Regulations and in circumstances where the court is satisfied that it is not appropriate to apply a supervisory intervention order. If the person subject to the industry exclusion order contravenes the order, this constitutes a serious offence to which the court may apply high fines or imprisonment.
Other changes to the PE Act enforcement regime
Increase in general penalties
The penalties applied to contraventions of planning laws have been increased for body corporates from 1,200 penalty units to 6,000 penalty units. The option is also available to the court to imprison offenders for up to 10 years should such a punishment be justified in the circumstances.
For contraventions of the PE Act of a continuing nature, the daily penalties have also been significantly increased:
- for natural persons, up to 120 penalty units per day
- for a body corporate, up to 600 penalty units per day.
New rules about entering land
The reforms include two new powers for responsible authorities to gain access to sites to monitor compliance with planning laws.
Authorised officers are now able to enter land and obtain evidence without consent, notice, or a warrant if they have a reasonable belief that permanent and irreversible harm to the natural environment is occurring, has occurred, or is about to occur on that land. In all other cases, the existing requirements of the PE Act regarding entering land remain.
Authorised officers are also now able to be accompanied on enforcement site visits by a relevant expert.
Identity cards
There is a new requirement for officers authorised to undertake enforcement action under the PE Act to carry identity cards. These cards must be provided on request when the authorised officer is undertaking activities under the PE Act.
Change to time limit for filing a charge-sheet
The time period to commence criminal proceedings against an alleged offender has been extended to 24 months to ensure that offenders are not escaping punishment due to the time it takes to develop a brief of evidence and commence a criminal proceeding.
State Monitoring, Compliance and Enforcement Policy
A forthcoming change to the PE Act will establish a requirement for the State Government to prepare a State Monitoring, Compliance and Enforcement Policy. Its purpose is to promote compliance with, and enforcement of, planning laws through transparency and consistency between responsible authorities regarding how compliance monitoring and enforcement powers will be used and to provide for improved coordination to make best use of enforcement resources.
The State Monitoring, Compliance and Enforcement Policy will be developed during 2027-28.