The Tasmanian Planning Scheme Bill has passed though both houses of Parliament; without amendment by the Legislative Assembly and only minor amendment by the Legislative Council.
The Bill gives power to the Minister to write the terms of reference for the State Planning Provisions – which are the basis of the new Tasmanian Planning Scheme. Whoever writes the terms of reference controls the process.
It seems the Planning Scheme has been well under preparation before the passing of the Bill, which makes somewhat of a mockery of the role of Parliament.
It was disclosed in Parliament that there will be 22 planning zones and 16 codes called up in the State Planning Provisions. So the clause in the amended Act which provides for the Minister to prepare the terms of reference for the State Planning Provisions is irrelevant as the State Planning Provisions are already being prepared.
The newspaper notice that the Minister has prepared terms of reference for the State Planning Provisions, a requirement in the amended Act, will be a formality well after the fact.
The State Planning Provisions are prepared only once. Thereafter the Provisions may be amended, also under the control of the Minister.
The Government’s often claim of transparency in preparing the Tasmanian Planning Scheme does begin to ring hollow.
The Government has claimed that public review of the draft Planning Provisions provides ample transparency. To provide true transparency all submissions and reports resulting from the public review processes should also be published.
Only by seeing the arguments for or against the preparation and amendment of the State Planning Provisions, (and later the Local Provision Schedules), can the public be assured the process is open and transparent.
Not even Parliament has the right to see the public submissions or the reports from the Planning Commission to the Minister. Parliament has essentially no further role in the Tasmanian Planning Scheme.
Parliament may get to see the Minister’s own review of the new planning scheme in 4 years time, but that is all.
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