The Land Use Planning and Approvals (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2026 could give unprecedented new powers to the Minister for Planning. The Bill allows for the concentration of power in creating a system where the Minister initiates the draft amendment to a planning scheme, with statewide application, and then holds the ultimate veto or approval power.
Despite a pledge from the state Liberals to reform campaign finance laws, council candidates won’t have to disclose political donations ahead of this year’s local government elections. Tasmania remains the only jurisdiction in Australia without a mandated donation disclosure scheme for council elections, and new rules won’t be implemented until after October’s vote.
Donations undisclosed. Voters to be kept in dark on council candidate funding. Read More »
The public has never been consulted on the draft legislation that will remove 50 councillors from Tasmanian councils.
The legislation to remove 50 local government councillors has not been released for the community, the voters, to comment on. The government has misled the Legislative Council by claiming that this has occurred.
PMAT & TCT Joint Media Release: Countdown to weakening of Tasmania’s democracy – TODAY Read More »
An election is being held on 02 May 2026 for House of Assembly seats in Huon and Rosevears. As part of our election work, PMAT surveyed candidates on key planning issues across Development Assessment Panels, changes to Elector Polls and proposed changes to weaken Tasmania’s State Coastal Policy.
As we wrap up 2025, we want to say a heartfelt thank you 💛 This year has been huge, and none of our wins would have been possible without your support, your voice, and your commitment to protecting our communities and the places we love.
Thank you + PMAT Wrap up 2025 Read More »
“Development in our public wild places is now possible with Reserve Activity Assessments, an internal government process for assessing tourism porposals. Many permitted uses can be approved in our national parks and wilderness World Heritage areas and there is no guarantee of public notification or consultation over these processes. Hence there are no appeal rights and review of decisions across 50 per cent of Tasmania.”
Mercury Opinion Piece: Squeezing Out Our Character Read More »
Our organisations do support legislation to make the RAA process a statutory process to address a range of existing problems we have been raising for over eight years.What our organisations are calling for is a transparent statutory process for assessment of developments in National Parks and Reserves, that includes merit-based planning appeal rights.
“Developers and the community
will face a peacemeal system with
no consistency from one municipality
to the next.”
The Mercury: Cloud Hanging Over Protection Of Our Coasts Read More »
“At a time where we should be thinking more about how and where we build, this will most likely increase the risk to buildings in the coastal zone. It will have implications around liability for local councillors, rate payers, and also implications for the insurance sector around insurability and potentially increase premiums.”- Sophie Underwood, State Director Planning Matters Alliance Tasmania
The Mercury: Sun, Sea and Scepticism Read More »
