Key Points

A Dean Winter Labor government will give our housing sector the Fresh Start it needs after 11 years of a Liberal Government.

Working with builders and planners, a Labor government will slash development rules, with the aim of cutting the size of the rules in half.

A Labor Government will:

• Release a monthly planning dashboard that compares council performance on planning and development approvals, so we can see exactly where the problems are and fix them.
• Remove unnecessary complications, discretion triggers and endless or unclear requests for information.
• Review the process for appealing requests for information and make sure councils are held to account.
• Clarify and simplify what is required to submit a development application, and sign off more as part of building applications.

Why we need it

Under the Liberals, the average time taken to build a house in Tasmania has increased by nearly 50 per cent.
Housing approvals are at the lowest level since 2016.

In 2014 the Liberals promised “faster, fairer, cheaper, simpler” planning rules for development with a single statewide planning scheme.

11 years later, ask any builder, or anyone who’s tried to build their own home, and they’ll tell you it’s worse than ever.

• According to the Housing Industry Association’s latest Housing Scorecard, Tasmania is lagging behind the rest of the nation when it comes to new housing builds, placing the state at the bottom of the pile.
• Tasmania has a lack of new home building work entering the pipeline, one of the “weaker” renovations markets in the country, and the “weakest” multi-units sector.

“There are simply too many delays, too much red tape, and too many unnecessary hurdles to jump over.”

The details

Working with builders and planners, we will set a target to reverse the Liberals 50 per cent increase in building times by reviewing development rules, in consultation with builders, with the aim of cutting the size of the rules in half.

Labor will remove unnecessary complications, reduce discretion triggers and endless requests for information.

You shouldn’t need to hire an army of consultants to build a standard three bedroom home.

Labor will simplify what is required to submit a planning application and sign off more as part of the building application.

We will also establish a planning dashboard that compares Councils for their performance with development approvals. We want to know where the problems are so we can fix them.