Planning legislation critics say new bill is very similar to last year’s failed attempt.

Opponents of a state government plan to introduce development assessment panels to the planning system have branded the proposed legislations “undemocratic”. 

It is the Liberals’ second attempt to transfer council planning powers for some developments to independent panels. The Legislative Council voted down a similar bill in November last year. 

Planning Matters Alliance Tasmania director Sophie Underwood said the new bill was essentially the same as the one parliament rejected.

She said property developers would be able to put in a request to the Planning Minister to “bypass” councils the community and the planning appeals tribunal and have their development assessed by a DAP. 

“The government has brought back this highly contentious bill, despite 92% of the almost 500 submissions received in the first version of the anti-democratic bill in 2024 were opposed,” she said. 

“The DAPs bill was so flawed, every council in Tasmania voted against it and it was voted down in the Legislative Council on the last sitting day of parliament last year.”

Tasmanian Conservation Trust CEO Peter McGlone said the bill would “allow radical changes to how Tasmania protect its heritage buildings, national parks and public open spaces from being overtaken by developers.”

“The statement in Minister Ellis’s media release that ‘we are ensuring Tasmanians can have a greater say in the development process, with public hearings for each and every applications’ is just insulting to the hundreds of Tasmanians that voiced their disapproval of the earlier version of the DAPs legislation and demanded retention of planning appeal rights,” he said. “The hearings that the Minister refers to can be cancelled by the DAPs and representations can be declared frivolous which removes the right to attend the hearings.

“The Minster is trying to paint undemocratic legislation as an improvement,, which must be aggressively opposed by Tasmanians’.

Public consultation closed on the bill on April 24. 

Greens planning spokesperson Helen Burnet said her party remained opposed to the proposals. 

“Planning Minister Felix Ellis is clearly on a power trip, releasing policy after policy to undermine the state’s planning system,” she said. “This steamroller approach will deliver worse outcomes for the community and won’t even achieve what the Minister says he wants. While it’s good to see a longer consultation period for this bill, the real issue is whether the government is actually listening.”

Public meetings calling on the bill to be rejected will be held on in Glenorchy on March 4, Blackmans Bay on March 20 and Deloraine on March 27.