A foolish consistency is very undesirable

MINISTER Gutwein says he wants consistency in the planning system. What he really means is that he wants consistent rules but unfortunately not consistent or good planning outcomes. Under the guise of the term “consistency” the minister has been able to undermine the integrity of the planning system. If it is consistent then it must be good is the mantra. A closer look at the rhetoric exposes the sham.

It is of course a complete nonsense to apply the same rules to residential suburbs that have different physical and historical characteristics. The traditional outer residential suburbs of Hobart simply do not have the inherent problems of suburbs immediately adjacent to the city centre and tourist hotspots, suburbs developed in the 1800s particularly heritage precincts with narrow one-way streets, little off-street parking and utilised by city commuters are already under severe stress and clearly cannot sustain the additional negative impacts that is a logical consequence of additional commercial and open slather visitor accommodation activity that the minister proposes.

Whist the existing and increasing traffic impacts on inner-city suburbs are problematic, the minister’s rejection of consultation with the Hobart City Council and residents is even more bewildering than the planning changes he now proposes. The minister recently in- dicated that if the council wanted changes to his visitor accommodation provisions it would have to seek those changes through a process to be conducted by the Tasmanian Planning Commission. Given that the minister will have passed the offending changes into law even before the commission hearings are held the public can be forgiven for thinking that this is just another cynical exercise by a government intent on involving itself in local planning issues to the advantage of vested interests while totally ignoring the concerns of the Hobart City Council and affected residents.