Minister lauds planning laws

Projects Bill ‘robust, transparent’

PLANNING Minister Roger Jaensch has spruiked the government’s Major Projects Bill as “robust, transparent and comprehensive”.

Debate on proposed laws began in the House of Assembly on Tuesday.

The laws are designed to simplify the approval process for projects which are high value or complex, or deemed of being of major significance, by placing their approval in the hands of an expert panel rather than local councils.

Labor has indicated it will back the legislation, but wants a number of amendments. The Greens are opposed.

Mr Jaensch said the Bill had been through several rounds of comprehensive public consultation.

“While some will claim it aims to ‘fast track’ proposals and eliminate public scrutiny, nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

“The Bill provides for a comprehensive and rigorous assessment process with no ‘short cuts’ or political involvement.

“This Bill sets out arguably the most open and transparent approval process for major projects in the nation, while providing for all of the key planning related permits in a single process.

“Modelling of the time frames indicates that a full major project assessment would take about 11 months.”

Mr Jaensch ruled out the laws being used to rush through the proposed Mt Wellington Cable Car without the consent of the Hobart City Council. Labor Planning spokeswoman Anita Dow said the Opposition backed the Bill in principle.

“But we also acknowledge that there has been significant community concern. The government’s done a really poor job at communicating, all of the aspects of what is quite a complex Bill,’’ she said.

“We have decided to propose a number of amendments.”

Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff accused the government of hiding some of the responses to the public consultation.

“Department of Justice staff confirmed that 1755 people made submissions during the consultation for the controversial Major Projects Bill, but only 1549 of these have been published on the department’s website,” she said.

“Of the 1549 that have been published, 98 per cent explicitly oppose the Bill. Less than 1 per cent of submissions, just 12, are in support – most from organisations with a vested interest.”