The Tasmanian Greens are calling for all political candidates to support local government maintaining its current role in the planning system.
We believe community engagement and the right to third party appeal are critically important elements of development decision making.
The establishment of Development Assessment Panels to replace councils as the decision maker, and the abandonment of the appeals process will lead to community concerns and conflict over development decisions.
The Liberals propose to abandon local planning authorities and cut out community appeals, proposing Development Assessment Panels for both public and private land developments. This includes proposals like the controversial Lake Malbena chopper-accessed huts and other private developments inside parks and reserves, including the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
Liberal politicians have spent ten years weakening planning laws, rewriting park management plans, vilifying community advocates and greenlighting developments that would privatise public land and shut out long-time users of our parks and reserves.
This Development Assessment Panel proposal continues the developer-friendly approach and will disenfranchise community and lead to poor outcomes in both our parks and reserves, and local communities.
