Ms ROSOL – Unfortunately, I was ill last week and had COVID when we were debating the original piece of legislation, so I was not able to speak to it then. I am happy to be here today and able to speak to this. When I speak to it, I think of the people that I represent from Bass. Many times over the course of many projects, planning issues and development proposals within Bass, they have often expressed their concern about planning processes, and their fears that the people are not listened to in it, or that there are people who have a lot of funds and money behind them, particularly developers, who are able to get what they want because of the money they have.
When I speak to this motion now and to the motion to put aside the bill, I speak with them in my mind, thinking of them and their great love for their communities, their great love for the spaces and the places within Bass, and their desire for decisions to be made in an appropriate way, following processes that are set out that ensure that everyone who should be included in the decision is included in the decision. That is not what we are seeing happen here. The process that was in place, the planning process that was followed, ended up with this development at Stony Rise being found to not be appropriate. The Planning Commission made their decision based on evidence and based on a process. They clearly set things out. What we have here in this piece of legislation has been an overriding of that planning process, a mockery. This makes a mockery of the planning process. It is a misuse of parliamentary process and power.
I have heard people saying the Greens do not understand, as if we are some kind of stupid. What we are talking about here is wanting things to be done properly. That is not stupid or something that is hard to understand. The Greens are committed to process being followed, not being pushed aside and pulled around and influenced by money from developers who think that when they do not get what they want they can just pass money around. We know this has happened from the evidence that was brought forward last night in the other place. That is really an inappropriate, completely terrible thing to be happening in our state, that because someone has the money to pay for a giant ad in several newspapers around the state, they can get the ear of people in government to do what they want. That is terrible.
Then, once they have their ear they can make donations and those donations can purchase influence with people in power so that they get what they want. That goes against everything that is good, that goes against everything that is right that goes against respecting the community, respecting people and respecting processes. The Greens are not going to sit back and let that happen without saying this is not okay. This is not okay to happen in our state. We cannot let our parliament be used through the use of money to influence people and shift decisions around so that developers can get what they want by jumping outside of proper and regular processes. They have been put in place for a reason, to make sure that projects are assessed carefully against a range of criteria.
If we have every possible development project that people can think of and they can just sidle up to a politician and say, ‘I’ve got this idea that I’d like to have happen in Bass’ – it could be a cable car from the back of a hotel across into the gorge or a new hotel somewhere in the city that goes above the height limits of Launceston – and say, ‘Here is some money, here is my idea. Could you please do something about it?’, that is a corruption of the political process and it is just not acceptable. We are not going to sit back and let this one go through without highlighting how inappropriate and wrong it is.
It is not about the project itself. We have heard that it will have benefits for the community and that the community want it. That is not what this is about. This is about the process. It is not about whether it will have a positive impact on the community or whether something will have a negative impact. It is about the process and it is not acceptable to just ride into something and override all the processes that are in place for a good reason, all the processes that give people a voice, all the processes that give an opportunity for appeal and feedback and a response so that we ensure that all voices are heard on something.
This sets a precedent for all sorts of projects across our state. This sets a precedent for any developer to think that if they do not get their way through a planning process they can just make it happen by using their money. We cannot let this happen in our state, so we are moving this motion to set aside this bill because it is wrong. The bill is wrong and should not be happening. That cannot be ignored or silenced and you cannot tell us that we should not be here moving this motion because this is the right thing to do in a situation where the wrong thing is being done.
