Stadium fiasco shows planning system broken and chaotic, say developers and planning groups

The “stadium fiasco” proves Tasmania’s planning system is broken and chaotic, planners and developers says. Experts say what needs to happen next.

Tasmanian Executive Director of the property council, Rebecca Elston at Glebe. Picture: Linda Higginson

The “stadium fiasco” proves Tasmania’s planning system is broken and chaotic, planners and developers said on Tuesday.

The Property Council of Tasmania and the Planning Institute of Australia say the state now appears to have a two-speed planning system: one for special projects which get their own legislation and another for the everyone else.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff has announced the government will draft enabling legislation to approved the project — which is a condition of the state getting its own AFL team.

Property Council of Australia state executive director Rebecca Ellston said despite the importance of he project, the Premier risked signalling a lack of confidence in the planning system.

“This announcement suggests the government has concerns about the function and capacity of the planning system,” she said.

“We cannot ignore the fact it’s getting harder and harder for projects to get out of the ground.

“There is a real concern that because the planning system is not being improved to keep up with contemporary expectations and provide certainty, that Tasmania is becoming less and less desirable for businesses wanting to invest in major projects.

“This entire fiasco shows even a government-backed project can’t successfully navigate the broken planning systems in Tasmania.”

The Tasmanian Division of the Planning Institute of Australia says the government had failed to carry out the reforms needed to the planning system.

“Government needs to invest in its planning system and significantly improve its capacity to deliver the key components to make it function, whether they are the Tasmanian Planning

Policies, reviews of the regional land use strategies or compile and consolidate the data that is needed to make the system work,” it said in a statement.

“State government needs to resource the operation of the planning system, not just apply ad hoc or Band Aid solutions to fix one off problems.”

Planning Matters Alliance Tasmania state director Sophie Underwood said parliament deciding on the approval made good planning difficult.

“The TPC draft report shows there are numerous unresolved planning and environment problems that need further information and assessment, such as transport to the stadium and movement of people around the stadium site, visual impact, cultural impacts, in particular on the Cenotaph, and removal of contaminated materials from the site.” she said.

“The TPC should be left to assess these and other issues and make independent recommendations to the government. The government cannot assess its own project.”

Our Place convener Roland Browne and Greens Senator Nick McKim on Tuesday called for the federal government to pull its funding from the project.

“We’re going to see the state go bankrupt,” Mr Browne said.

“Why is the federal government going to put $240m into a project that’s going to bankrupt the state and require the federal government to bail out Tasmania.

“This is a slow motion train wreck.”

Originally published as Stadium fiasco shows planning system broken and chaotic, say developers and planning groups