ABC Mornings Thurs 14 Nov 2024 

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The Tasmanian government’s plan to create Development Assessment Panels that will remove local government from significant planning decisions is being strongly opposed by councils across Tasmania.

The president of the Local Government Association of Tasmania (LGAT), Mick Tucker, tells Leon Compton on ABC Tasmania Mornings that he’s angry and the changes are undemocratic.

“The consequences of taking local [councils] out of our community is absolutely horrendous…the actual idea that unless you have a lot of money in your pocket and you can go to the supreme court to appeal is disgraceful. We’re taking democracy completely out of this. We’re putting political intervention into the planning system…”

“The reality is we actually go through 12,000 development applications a year and we have about one per cent that go through to the appeal panels,” he says.

“We are dealing with bad state government legislation, they own it, it’s theirs, it’s a failure of the minister and the government and it’s their job to fix it and introduce fit-for-purpose planning legislation.”