A group of Tasmanian mayors have lashed out at a proposal which would allow for some development applications to bypass council assessment in favour of an independent panel appointed by the Tasmanian Planning Commission. The state government says the process will "take the politics out of planning" and has backed in the draft legislation as sensible planning reform. The legislation still needs to go through state parliament, with the draft bill expected to be tabled in the coming weeks.
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00:00Tasmanian councils assess thousands of development applications each year.
00:07The vast majority are signed off by local government staff,
00:11with only about 10% determined by elected councillors.
00:15But the state government says the system is too politicised.
00:19We've had housing developments knocked back
00:23because of planning matters at a local government level.
00:28The government wants to implement an alternative application process
00:32known as Development Assessment Panels, or DAPs,
00:35which would allow applicants to bypass councils
00:38if their project involves social or affordable housing,
00:42is valued at more than $10 million,
00:45or if the planning minister decides that the project
00:48is significant to the local area, is overly complex,
00:51is likely to be controversial,
00:53or if the council is deemed to have a perceived bias.
00:57The minister says he wants to take the politics out of planning
01:00and yet he's making himself the king of the planning system
01:04with no checks and balances.
01:06These are laws that really are not needed.
01:09The system is working well.
01:11The Development Assessment Panels would be appointed
01:14by the Independent Planning Commission,
01:16and once a final decision on a project is made,
01:19there'd be no right of appeal on planning grounds.
01:23This is the Wild West on steroids.
01:25This is not a good planning outcome for our state.
01:28This is ham-fisted and it's ill-advised
01:30and all fair-minded Tasmanians ought to be deeply troubled by it.
01:34I'm not interested in mayors that have self-interest, of course,
01:39and are grandstanding.
01:42What I'm interested in is putting roofs over people's heads.
01:45The government plans to table its draft bill in parliament this month.
01:55.