The Tasmanian Liberal Government proposes legislation to empower the Minister for Planning to remove assessment and approval of developments from the normal local council process to be replaced by State-appointed Development Assessment Panels (DAPs), conducted by the Tasmanian Planning Commission. 

The Minister could remove assessment and approval of a development – at any stage in the council process – and transfer to DAPs.

This would allow property developers to bypass local councils and communities and remove elected councillors from having a say on the most controversial and destructive developments affecting local communities. 

DAP decisions would be final – there will be no right for the community to appeal the final decision to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Developments could only be appealed to the Supreme Court on an error in law.

We anticipate the draft legislation may also give the Minister for Planning new powers to instruct councils to commence planning scheme changes but perversely, only when a local council has rejected such an application. This means, for example, rezoning land to facilitate developments such as Cambria Green, the Gorge Hotel in Launceston, and large-scale residential subdivisions.

Public comment on the proposed Tasmanian draft DAP framework closed on the 30 November 2023. Thank you to everyone who made a submission and sent a copy of their submission to State Parliamentarians – almost 250 community members called on the elected members of the Tasmanian Parliament to oppose the upcoming Bill.