Special development orders will soon require parliamentary approval after Government tabled amendments to the legislation yesterday.Minister for Environment and Planning Walter Roban said the amendments would allow greater transparency and openness.He said they decided to make amendments to the Development and Planning Act after drafting the SDO for Rosewood Tucker's Point.“Chambers recognised that a long outstanding matter regarding whether or not SDOs should be subject to Parliamentary scrutiny had not yet been resolved,” he said.“It was agreed that the Government would be best served by having SDOs subject to parliamentary scrutiny, and that the scrutiny should be via the affirmative resolution procedure.”The affirmative resolution procedure means MPs and Senators will debate all the permissions and conditions attached to a SDO.The move will bring SDOs back in line with the practice before 2007, up until then they had been subject to parliamentary scrutiny, Mr Roban said.In 2007 they were classified as Government notices, rather than statutory instruments, which meant they were no longer subject to parliamentary scrutiny.Yesterday Minister Roban said: “One critical feature of a statutory instrument is that it has a legislative effect.“Clarifying the Development Planning Act to provide for SDOs to be considered statutory instruments and for them to be subject to parliamentary oversight via an affirmative resolution procedure is, in my opinion, serving the public interest.”