Funds to Tasmanian Planning Commission Left in Doubt
The Tasmanian Greens today pursued whether the State will meet its Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) commitments in relation to producing its final Greater Capital City Plan, and called on the Planning Minister to guarantee that linked federal funding is not at risk.
Greens Planning spokesperson, Tim Morris MP, said that terms of the COAG agreement state that future Commonwealth infrastructure funding will be based on that plan and not without it.
“Tasmania signed up to producing a Greater Hobart Capital City Plan by January 2012, and future federal infrastructure funding is reliant upon the State meeting that commitment,” Mr Morris said.
“The Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC) is responsible for producing this critical plan, and unless the Minister has provided adequate funding to the TPC to fulfil this commitment, the Greens are concerned that it will be an impossible task to meet in less than a year.”
“We are conscious that the COAG commitment requires the final Plan to be provided to the Commonwealth by January next year and we are not satisfied with Minister Greens’ casual response.”
“The Greens are not as confident as the Minister that the timeline will be met and we will be watching the progress closely.”
“Minister Green stated that the TPC has been adequately resourced and guarantee that the January 2012 deadline will be met,” Mr Morris said.
Tim Morris MP Greens Planning spokesperson
