As of early September 2025, the Local Provisions Schedule (LPS) process in Kingborough is in a crucial phase of public hearings in front of the Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC).

The Kingborough Council has submitted its report on the representations received from the public to the TPC and the TPC is now conducting public hearings, which began in late August 2025 and are expected to continue until early December. The purpose of these hearings is to allow residents who made a formal submission to speak to their concerns, providing an opportunity for their voices to be heard directly by the TPC delegates who will make the final decision. The TPC’s delegates have acknowledged the large number of representations—over 620—making this one of the largest LPS processes in the state.

On Day 3 of the public hearings, 2 September 2025, Joshua Graeme-Evans made a three hour representation and what follows is an overview of his personal views about the LPS process.

The rezoning of properties, might at first glance, seem like a mundane administrative process, but in Kingborough, the many owners of 1577 properties targeted with a brand-new Landscape Conservation Zoning are fighting for their very futures.

In a powerful and searing address to the Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC), Joshua Graeme-Evans laid bare what he considers to be a failure of governance in relation to the Kingborough Draft Local Provisions Schedule. Speaking as an outsider who went through a similar rezoning experience in the Huon Valley several years ago, his testimony went far beyond a simple objection to a planning scheme; it was an indictment of a system entertaining “a broadscale strategic land use change” not aligned with the public interest or expectation.

This is not a matter of mere policy debate for Graeme-Evans, but a profound breach of natural justice, where the very institutions meant to protect the public have, instead, placed their own arbitrary rules above the well-being of everyday people.

Graeme-Evans’s most potent criticism is reserved for what he sees as a systematic failure to inform the community.

He argues that while the planning authority may have met the bare minimum of statutory requirements, they have ultimately failed to inform every landowner of the intended changes which carry potentially “devasting” consequences.

He provided the TPC with compelling evidence: a sample listing of 46 people who were previously unaware of the proposed Landscape Conservation zoning (LCZ). The sheer volume of uninformed residents speaks volumes. He shared the story of one resident from Hindman Drive in Kingston, who noted that a majority of people on his street were completely in the dark until just a few weeks prior. This widespread lack of awareness, he contended, is a direct result of the authorities’ actions, which have “involved, arguably, not informing the public, minimising engagement and downplaying zone implications.”

This is not an oversight; it is, in his view, consistent with a strategy to push through a massive, strategic land-use change without facing meaningful opposition. He read out comments from furious community members, who described the process as a “disgrace” and were “appalled” that they hadn’t received direct written correspondence from the Council. The consequences of this procedural failure are what truly fuel Graeme-Evans’s impassioned stance. He detailed what is at stake for ordinary people, describing scenarios where people may be “losing access to finance, insurance.” He highlighted the “potential property value implications and people not being able to use their property for what they bought it for.”

To underscore these concerns, Graeme-Evans provided the TPC with tangible examples and documents. He cited his own neighbour’s property appraisal, which plummeted by a staggering 40% after the proposed zoning. He also drew on his own past experience with a similar and unnotified zoning change in 2015, that resulted in him losing “permitted residential use rights” and “access to finance.”

To lend further weight to his claims, he tabled a letter from a real estate agent who confirmed the “significant impact on property values,” and a statutory declaration from a mortgage broker who highlighted that conservation zones are viewed as “less marketable and high risk” by lenders.

The TPC’s dismissive characterisation of this evidence as “almost like hearsay” only served to emphasise the very bureaucratic disconnect that Graeme-Evans was critiquing.

During the hearing Graeme-Evans questioned and recounted the historical accuracy and reliability of planner’s advice to the Public and elected officials. This included the validity of the 35F Report to the State Government, should it have been approved based upon misleading information. The actions of the planners “make no sense to me” he said. He drew attention to conflicting statements, how planner’s advice had changed over time, and inconsistency with State Guidelines. With all this in mind, he ultimately questioned the capability of planners to attend future hearings “with an open and impartial mindset”.

In conclusion, Graeme-Evans’s presentation was a call for the TPC to look beyond the procedural minutiae and to consider the profound human impact of their decisions. He urged them to ask whether it was a “fair outcome” for a property owner to lose access to finance due to the zoning. His plea was for the commission to exercise its power and correct what he sees as a broken system. The price of this institutional failure, he warned, is not just measured in lost property values and access to finance, but in the mental and financial devastation of the community itself.

He ended by urging the government to not “use the landscape conservation zone,” and to not allow a bureaucratic process to trample on the lives of the very people it is meant to serve.

The Local Provisions Schedule (LPS) is a key component of the Tasmanian Planning Scheme. It’s a local planning document, specific to each municipality, that works in conjunction with the State Planning Provisions (SPPs).

While the SPPs set the overarching, statewide rules for land use and development, the LPS is responsible for applying these rules at a local level. It includes things like zone maps, which determine what type of zone a particular parcel of land falls into, and can also contain specific area plans for unique locations, aiming to ensure local needs and characteristics are addressed within the broader state framework.

The final decision on the Kingborough LPS will be made by the TPC after these hearings conclude and will not take effect until formally endorsed.

Tasmanian Times (TT) is a community-based news and current affairs service covering the island state of Tasmania. It exists to provide a diverse presentation of Tasmanian issues. TT creates and supports independent media content utilising the best of modern technologies and tried-and-true practices of public-interest journalism.

Support us in expanding our coverage and developing new content by and for Tasmanians. 

 New initiatives on the way include … what our contributors and readers suggest! Please get in touch with your suggestions.