Council debates million-dollar AI trial to bring Wagga into the future

On Monday night, councillors unanimously endorsed Cr Richard Foley's notice of motion, agreeing to write to the NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully and express the council's interest in participating in the upcoming proposed artificial intelligence pilot project for planning matters.

The state government has announced $5.6 million in the budget for the AI pilot project aimed at supporting councils to make faster decisions, compliance checking and to create workflow efficiencies in the development assessment process.

Cr Foley said the purpose of the motion was to "try and get this technology ... for council to assist town planning to get through backlogs and menial tasks", thus enabling council to concentrate on "planning for this city in the future".

"As the biggest [inland] regional city council in the state we need to be on the front foot [to get] technology that can assist us to grow this city in the most progressive fashion," he said.

With the spread of AI in recent years, concerns have risen about the possibility it will create job redundancies, putting people out of work, but Cr Foley believed this would not be the case.

He said AI has "only served to greater enhance" the abilities of councils in other jurisdictions including those in Victoria.

"[This has meant that] the creatively skilled workers can focus on creative [endeavours] as opposed to being tied up with the paperwork and regulatory issues that can be done by AI," he said.

Weighing into the issue, Cr Kendall raised doubts that anyone is yet able to understand the limits of AI.

"It's highly critical that we make an application to be part of this] pilot trial," he said.

He said it is also important to assist staff and believes AI should on the whole "improve the process, resulting in a better outcome."

Cr Tim Koschel noted that AI is growing on a daily basis.

"It's through every applications we use on our phones, it's right through social media and everything we use at work on a day to day basis already," Cr Koschel said.

"I work for a bank and AI is playing a big part in lots of different things at the moment.

"We can do a lot and use the resources in ways I think moving forward will help make things a lot smoother and quicker.

"This isn't about replacing our planning staff with computers, the trial is about seeing how this can help us, and if we can replace the technology and are lucky enough to get a run of the trial, I think it will be a big help to the planning staff."

Cr Jenny McKinnon said AI offers "lots of positives around standardisation and taking care of run of the mill matters and hopefully it will free up our staff... for more complex and not so run of the mill matters."

"Given it is a trial, I will be keen to hear the feedback from staff at the end of that about what their experience has been and whether they welcome it with open arms, or whether it has some detrimental side."

However, Cr McKinnon did warn council to "be aware ... [that] rules still apply in matters [such as] ... when there are 10 or more objections [to a development] ... they will still come before the council for determination.

"I believe there are some safety mechanisms built into this [and] I think a trial is great idea at this point in time," she said.

Deputy mayor Amelia Parkins asked council how long the trial went for and what the impact of the trial would have on current planning resources.

General manager Peter Thompson said council has already attempted to ascertain further information.

"The answer we received from the department was that this project is very much being driven by the minister's office," Mr Thompson said.

"I believe [the trial's direction] is fluid [at this point in time and will be formulated] once they know which councils are interested and participating."

Mr Thompson reiterated the importance of AI in the future.

"There is nothing more certain than the future role AI will play in planning, it is just a question of how that unfolds," he said.

The general manager also expressed confidence that the trial would not see a machine deciding whether to accept or reject applications.

"A machine won't be making a decision to approve a development when there are members of the community who don't want it [to go ahead]... likewise, I don't think a machine will refuse a development based on the objections of people in the community.

"I think that will always be dealt with by real breathing humans. What might happen though, is until an application complies with the requirements of those set in the planning regime, a machine will keep rejecting it," Mr Thompson said.

"To that extent, it is probably good for us as we won't have to keep doing that ourselves, and a planning consultant will have to explain to their client why they can't get through the gate."

Cr Georgie Davies noted Wagga council is far from the only local government jurisdiction where people experience lengthy delays to the passage of development applications.

"I think we should embrace technology or any solution that could help speed up some of these issues and help relieve the really busy team," Cr Davies said.

The motion was moved by Cr Richard Kendall and seconded by Cr Rod Kendall.