Legislation to restrict UTAS’ ability to sell Sandy Bay land to be debated before end of sitting year

Legislation that would limit the University of Tasmania’s ability to sell land at its Sandy Bay campus site will soon be debated in state parliament, the Rockliff government says.

Artists’ impressions of the development for UTAS (University of Tasmania) STEM precinct on Argyle and Melville streets, Hobart.

Legislation that would restrict the University of Tasmania’s ability to sell land at its Sandy Bay campus site will be brought on for debate in state parliament before the end of the sitting year, the Rockliff government says.

The Liberals went to the March state election with a plan to limit the university’s capacity to dispose of land at Sandy Bay, pledging to pass new legislation that would require any such moves to be approved by both houses of parliament.

It comes as the University of Tasmania (UTAS) seeks to relocate the campus into the Hobart CBD – a plan that has sparked an intense campaign of grassroots community opposition.

University of Tasmania building and signage at the Sandy Bay campus. Picture: Richard Jupe

In June, the government – which once wholeheartedly supported UTAS’s relocation proposal – tabled the University of Tasmania (Protection of Land) Bill 2024 in the lower house. But the legislation is yet to be debated by parliamentarians.

Clark Liberal MP Madeleine Ogilvie said the government was “keen to achieve the right balance” between the “protection of land” and working with the university to secure a “STEM-led” future at the existing campus.

“It is the government’s intent to bring the legislation on for debate before the end of the parliamentary year,” she said.

Clark Liberal MP Madeleine Ogilvie. Picture: Linda Higginson

The state originally gifted the Sandy Bay land to the university for the purpose of education in 1951.

UTAS Pro Vice-Chancellor (South) Professor Nicholas Farrelly said the university was facing an “urgent need” to invest in STEM facilities in the state’s South amid a period of major higher education policy reform.

“We welcome the broad support for investment in STEM and continue to highlight the challenges of placing constraints on the university as we engage with all stakeholders on finding a constructive path forward,” he said.

Vice-Chancellor Rufus Black wrote to UTAS staff in May to inform them that the university would be re-examining its plan to move its STEM facilities to a site on the corner of Argyle and Melville streets.

Professor Rufus Black Vice Chancellor UTAS. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

It came after the law faculty announced it wouldn’t be moving into the former Forestry Tasmania site on Melville St and would remain at Sandy Bay. The College of Business and Economics is set to relocate to the building, which is currently being redeveloped to the tune of $131m.

Under new leader Dean Winter, Labor has strongly backed the university’s CBD relocation strategy, accusing the government of stymieing development and creating sovereign risk by walking back its statement of support for the move.

Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Lovell said it was “unacceptable” for UTAS to be kept in a “state of uncertainty” over the relocation and that the issue needed to be brought on for debate in the parliament as a matter of urgency.

“We understand that Premier [Jeremy] Rockliff’s government is comfortable dragging things out, and getting nothing done, they’re famous for it,” she said.

“But the university wants to press on with its positive plan to construct nearly 2000 desperately needed homes on unused land in Sandy Bay, creating thousands of construction jobs in the process, all while providing the resources to fund a new state-of-the-art $500m STEM facility for Tasmania’s students.”