Abstract
Planners have partially justified their existence as a discipline by claiming that the planning discipline is one that determines consensus about definitions of the common good or public interest and justified plans with certainty that plans prepared by planning practitioners would 'protect' or serve public interest. However, the reality of contemporary planning contexts, in which Business, NGOs and Indigenous People also prepare plans or work in partnership with government agencies, is that we need to rethink our interpretation of the concept and determine new ways in which planners may serve the public interest.