The man most responsible is Michael Aird

CHRIS HARRIES
William Boeder, Whilst I share your thoughts on Llewellyn (he will have an awful lot to answer for in his next life!) I do believe that the Minister most responsible for having legislation drafted up to weaken Tasmania’s planning system is Michael Aird.

As Treasurer and ‘Minister for Economic Development’ he believed that Tasmania’s economy has being held back by ‘too much democracy’. He was clearly frustrated by planning delays to Gunns’ pulpmill and objections to the proposed Ralph’s Bay development and the big box commercial developments at Hobart airport – believing that these developments are far too important for negative public sentiment to block their rapid progress.

The pity of it all is that the hard-fought creation of Tasmania’s modern planning system (RMPS) had the tripartisan support of Tasmania’s three main political parties owing to its fairness to both developers and concerned citizens. Unravelling the system bit by bit is creating a mess that can never be straightened out again. What was once a streamlined, professional system is being converted into an unfathomable dog’s breakfast.

This may be Aird’s swan song, his political legacy, and he may feel momentarily proud of that… until maybe in his twilight years when the has the space to think of his grandchildren’s future (the planet’s future) and the wish of the people and his treasonable abrogation of duty to both.

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