Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Leader and Member for Clark
On behalf of the Tasmanian Greens, I tabled the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Amendment (Exhibition of Amended Applications) Bill 2021 in Parliament today.
The thousands of Tasmanians who put in their objection to a cable car on kunanyi, would be shocked to hear it could be amended and approved by the Resource Management and Planning Approvals Tribunal, or the now Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, without being able to have a say.
It’s a loophole in lutruwita/Tasmania’s planning laws that favours developers and locks the public out from having a say over places they love.
It’s a loophole that can, and has, been exploited by developers.
Our Bill would fix that loophole. It ensures amended planning applications are re-exhibited and representors can be added as parties to the Tribunal proceedings.
Under current laws, applications can be amended by order of the Tribunal and there’s no requirement for those to be re-exhibited.
This means that if a party to a planning application was not impacted by an initial development, but is impacted by a Tribunal-amended proposal, they are not given a say.
Just as we’ve always stood for a wild kunanyi, the Greens will always back the right of people to have a say. People should always be able to have their say on developments, particularly in public protected areas, and our Bill defends that right.
You can read the Bill here – https://tasmps.greens.org.au/bill/tasmanian-civil-administrative-tribunal