Media release – Felix Ellis, Minister for Housing, Planning, and Consumer Affairs, 26 February 2025
Consultation launched on Development Assessment Panels
The Tasmanian Government is progressing its landmark Development Assessment Panels, today commencing a new round of public consultation on the draft Land Use Planning and Approvals (Development Assessment Panels) Bill 2025.
The Bill will allow certain developments to be assessed by independent expert Development Assessment Panels (DAPS) established by the Tasmanian Planning Commission, improving the certainty, transparency and the effectiveness of planning across Tasmania.
Minister for Housing, Planning, and Consumer Affairs, Felix Ellis, said if you meet the planning rules, you should be good to go – whether that’s building more homes, growing a business or delivering community infrastructure.
“Our Government will always back in the builders who want to grow our economy, create jobs and take our state forward,” Minister Ellis said.
“This legislation, along with our suite of key planning reforms, will give community and business the confidence they need to invest in job-creating development in Tasmania.
“Under these streamlined laws, we are ensuring Tasmanians can have a greater say in the development assessment process, with public hearings for each and every application allowing community members to have their voices heard.
“This far exceeds what is available under the existing planning laws.
“Importantly, we have listened to the needs of the local government sector and will be providing the draft DAPs Bill for an extended 8-week consultation period.
“The revised Bill follows extensive consultation with the community and the local government sector, and we are confident it strikes the right balance.
“The Development Assessment Panels will ensure we can deliver more homes for Tasmanians, faster.
“We are planning for Tasmania’s future, we are planning for growth, and this legislation will be the next step in our long-term plan.”
The draft Bill can be found here.
Media release – Planning Matters Alliance Tasmania and the Tasmanian Conservation Trust, 27 February 2025
Proposed planning laws are anti-democracy, anti-transparency and will be catastrophic for ordinary Tasmanians
On the 26 February 2025, the Planning Minister released the hugely contentious and anti-democratic draft Development Assessment Panels (DAPs) Bill for public consultation for a second time.
The changes made to the second version of the DAPs Bill are insignificant as they are so slight, they have no practical effect.
“The Government has brought back this highly contentious Bill, despite 92% of the almost 500 submissions received on the first version of the anti-democratic Bill in 2024 were opposed. 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,” said Sophie Underwood, State Director of the Planning Matters Alliance Tasmania (PMAT).
The proposed Bill will also 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 assessment process, with public hearings for each and every application’ 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,” said Peter McGlone, CEO, of the Tasmanian Conservation Trust
“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,” says Mr McGlone. “The Minister is trying in vain to paint undemocratic legislation as an improvement, which must be aggressively opposed by Tasmanians.”
Ms Underwood said that public consultation closes on the 24 April 2025, and that she predicts The Bill will be debated in Parliament in early May 2025. The focus will be on the Legislative Council who will have the ultimate say. PMAT will be encouraging the seven independents and one Greens to vote against the DAPs Bill.
“The Government is proposing again to take developments out of the normal planning process and assessed by DAPs, removing councils from having a say over approvals and removing planning appeal rights and with that, the voice of the community, voters and rate payers,” Ms Underwood said.
“Property developers can 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 Planning Minister decides if a development can be assessed by a DAP.
Peter McGlone also criticised the Government’s attempt to address the weaknesses of DAPs, stating that ‘The undefined DAP criteria mean that the Minister can apply them to all possible types of developments with no checks on his arbitrary powers. The Government’s claim to have improved the legislation by removing one ‘ambiguous or subjective criteria’, i.e. ‘controversial’ is highly misleading as all other ‘ambiguous or subjective criteria’ remain in the new draft legislation e.g. councils have a ‘perceived conflict of interest’ or ‘a real or perceived bias’ and that projects are ‘considered significant’.
“This is with a backdrop of property developers still being able to donate to political parties in Tasmania (unlike ACT, QLD and NSW), as well as Tasmania having one of the weakest anti-corruption watchdogs in Australia, and Tasmania being the most secretive Government in Australia, this is completely open to corruption almost by design.” said Sophie Underwood, State Director of the Planning Matters Alliance Tasmania (PMAT)
PMAT will be advocating against the second only slightly revised Bill and will continue our public meetings around Tasmania to encourage communities to stand up and engage to scrap the DAP Bill before they have their voice removed.
They are encouraging the community to come to public meetings and take action against the Bill with their next #ScrapTheDAP public meeting held in Glenorchy on Tuesday 4 March at 6.30 pm at the Moonah Arts Centre. Followed by public community meetings in Blackmans Bay on the 20 March, Deloraine on the 27 March with more to be announced.
See PMAT’s further information about DAPs here.
Media release – Helen Burnet MP, Greens Planning spokesperson, 27 February 2025
New Bill, Same Old Problems with Liberals’ DAP Push
Despite being roundly rejected by the Parliament and the community last year, the Liberals have renewed their push for Development Assessment Panels with the release of another bill.
Following their previous attempt at legislation for DAPs being voted down by the Legislative Council, we knew the Liberals would be back to try again. However, what we didn’t expect was just how little has changed about their proposal.
The new bill released by the Liberals has all the same issues as their last misguided effort. As such, the Greens maintain our strong opposition to this reform.
Planning Minister Felix Ellis is clearly on a power trip, releasing policy after policy to undermine the state’s planning system. 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. After all, over 500 submissions were entirely ignored by the Liberals last time around.
If the government was truly interested in consultation on their DAPs bill, they would be open to the possibility of abandoning the policy altogether. Otherwise, this process will once again be nothing more than meaningless lip service.
Media release – Felix Ellis, Minister for Housing, Planning, and Consumer Affairs, 16 February 2025
Streamlining subdivision approvals to get more homes built, faster
The Tasmanian Government is continuing to make Tasmania’s planning system simpler, faster, and fairer – today announcing plans to repeal the Local Government (Building and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 to streamline the approvals of subdivisions.
Minister for Housing, Planning, and Consumer Affairs, Felix Ellis, said this is one of the worst pieces of red tape on Tasmania’s books.
“The building and construction sector has faced too much red-tape when trying to get home-building opportunities out of the ground,” Minister Ellis said.
“Outdated and unnecessary requirements under the Local Government (Building and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 complicate our assessment processes and conflict with our contemporary Tasmanian Planning Scheme, holding up a lot of work needed to provide more home across the state.
“Currently, before a sod can even be turned a subdivision proposal must be assessed against two sets of planning requirements, costing time and money and leaving hopeful homeowners waiting.
“This move is a great example of how we are cutting through unnecessary red tape and getting on with the job of getting more people into homes,” he said.
The changes will move those aspects in the Local Government (Building and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1993 relating to subdivision approvals into the Tasmanian Planning Scheme, removing the duplication.
Minister Ellis said the changes would reduce the administrative cost and burden faced by developers and encourage more construction.
“This is a common sense reform that will see more homes built, faster.
“We’re making sure that getting approval once means you’re good to go.
“Importantly, it still provides the community with the peace of mind that the rigorous processes under the Tasmanian Planning Scheme still apply, giving the community the chance to comment on any proposed developments.
“It’s planning reform like this that will continue to make Tasmania’s planning system simpler, faster, and fairer.”
21 February 2025
Delivering on a new fairer, faster, simpler planning system for the regions
The Tasmanian Government is taking action to ensure councils have the settings they need to support a fairer, faster and simpler planning system.
Minister for Housing, Planning and Consumer Affairs, Felix Ellis said as part of our suite of reforms to Tasmania’s planning system, the Tasmanian Government is ramping up work on the reviews of all three regional land use strategies.
“By ensuring our regions can better plan for the future, the new strategies will deliver more homes faster and support game-changing economic development by streamlining strategic planning across the State.
“This will result in more jobs for Tasmanian tradies, helping to keep our economy strong.”
The regional land use strategies set medium to long-term planning directions for the north, north west and south, influencing land use and development and providing a critical link between state and local strategic planning.
“We will provide dedicated resources to work with all relevant stakeholders to get these reviews finalised faster,” Minister Ellis said.
“To further support and expedite the reviews, we will bring together senior representatives of Council, the State Government and the Regional Land Use Strategies Steering Committees to ensure enhanced collaboration and shared ownership.
“Everyone wants to see these reviews completed sooner to ensure Tasmania has contemporary regional land use strategies that will guide our regions for years to come.
“Working with LGAT and councils within the regions is the way to deliver successful results with strategic regional planning, and I look forward to this continued collaboration.”
The allocation of dedicated resources and the oversight group builds on the significant work already underway, with the Government providing support to the regions through guidance, data and studies that informed the reviews.
LGAT President Mick Tucker said: “We welcome today’s announcement from the Minister to ramp up work on the reviews of the three regional land use strategies, which are critical to guiding local development and increasing certainty for developers. The local government sector has long been advocating for a greater focus on the strategic elements of our planning system, so we look forward to working with the Government on this work.”
Central Coast Council Mayor Cheryl Fuller said: “The north west welcomes the opportunity to work with a dedicated team that can quickly provide clarification to our issues as they arise. The finalisation of the Strategy will provide surety for our work as planning authorities and confidence for those who wish to invest in the north west.”
“Once completed in June 2026, the new regional land use strategies will guide Tasmania’s sustainable growth into the future.”
26 February 2025
Slashing red tape across the construction industry
The Tasmanian Government is ensuring homes can be built faster by slashing red tape for the construction industry, allowing houses to be completed sooner.
Minister for Housing, Planning and Consumer Affairs, Felix Ellis, announced legislation will be introduced to Parliament this year to cut down on unnecessary building red tape, starting with plumbing approval requirements.
“The Tasmanian Government is taking action to get homes built cheaper, faster, and easier,” Minister Ellis said.
“We know all too well that red tape gets in the way of building homes faster – delaying construction, and costing Tasmanians time and money.
“This red tape busting action will allow a plumber to install ‘deemed-to-satisfy’ plumbing work in a standard house construction without council approval.
“Currently, plumbing work for a new home requires approval, even if it complies with standard designs.
“Delays in processing these permits have added weeks to build times, when our tradies want to get on site and get on with the job of building more homes.
“We want to make sure that, for standard ‘deemed-to-satisfy’ plumbing work, designed and installed by licensed tradies, you won’t need to jump through anymore unnecessary hoops.
“This simple but important change will mean that homes can be completed and ready for move in weeks earlier, saving families and our industry time and money.
“This is about making the building process easier and simpler for Tasmanian families, and our building and construction sector, while still adhering to the National Construction Code.”
Importantly, the council will still be notified and will retain all existing powers to inspect the work and issue compliance orders both during and post- construction.
HIA Executive Director, Stuart Collins, said the simplification of the plumbing approval process is a win for red tape reduction.
“This important announcement by the Tasmanian Government will go a long way to reducing delays and the cost of building new homes and renovations,” Mr Collins said.
This work will be part of broader reform to provide that building and plumbing policy is prescribed in Regulations, instead of Determinations currently set by the building regulator.
