PMAT community meeting on planning and development decision changes: Removing planning from Councils? Forced amalgamations? State Government takeover of planning?

Meeting Motion
The meeting calls on the Burnie, Circular Head, King Island, Waratah – Wynyard and West Coast councils to all hold well advertised separate public meetings in separate municipalities regarding the Local Government Review and not on the same night.

Moved: Marie Meakins
Seconded: Tyree Gehan

Motion passed unanimously through show of hands.

The meeting discussed, amongst other issues: 

• Forced amalgamation could see the loss of local representation, increased property rates and council costs and loss of local services. PMAT supports voluntary amalgamations.

• Removing Councils from making decisions on Development Applications, bypassing local democracy. These changes would fundamentally alter Local Government and planning in Tasmania and how the community and Council have a say on future developments, including planning appeals.

• The State Government wants to choose who makes planning decisions. They want to replace Councils with State Government appointed ‘independent assessment panels’. In NSW, local planning panels were created to stamp out corruption, but councillors from across the political spectrum say they favour developers and undermine democratic accountability. An example of the effects of removing Councils as a Planning Authority in NSW and replacing them with planning panels can be read here: How ‘unelected faceless men and women’ keep approving NSW developments, Sydney Morning Herald, August 15, 2021.

• We are seeing the takeover of planning by the State Government and unchecked Ministerial powers: changes in Tasmania’s planning system shift power over planning decisions away from the Tasmanian Planning Commission, Councils and the public into the hands of one individual – the Minister for Planning.

Photo: PMAT Wynyard Community meeting, with approximately 30 people in attendance, 22 June 2023.