In June 2014 Premier Mike Baird and then Planning Minister Prue Goward announced plans to establish a Greater Sydney Commission, described as a single agency to “streamline the way the NSW Government’s infrastructure and urban planning priorities are delivered”.

The proposal fits into a larger political and policy picture, one that encompasses the reform of local government in NSW and the revamping of metropolitan planning. On becoming Planning Minister after the 2015 election, Rob Stokes foreshadowed an “overhaul” of planning, including the removal of “unnecessarily confusing rules that add nothing but complexity to the planning system”. Mr Stokes was reported to have said that “despite studying the planning system since ‘last century’, he did not understand NSW planning laws”, which needed “to be simplified”.