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🇦🇺 Australia /Economy & Trade

Like the Spirits: Hobart council condemns ‘unfit for purpose’ planning portal

From ABC Australia · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Tasmania’s PlanBuild planning portal has exceeded its original budget by $6.5 million after a rollout that frustrated Hobart council staff, residents and industry.
  • Hobart City Council unanimously called the system “unfit for purpose” and sought an indefinite waiver of its annual $83,000 fee until the problems are fixed.
  • The portal began as a proposed statewide replacement for paper-based applications, with the original program budget set at $9.7 million in 2016-17.

A Tasmanian planning portal billed as a faster route through development approvals has become another public-sector headache, with Hobart City Council calling it “unfit for purpose.”

Unfit for purpose

· Hobart City CouncilThe council used the phrase in its motion criticizing the PlanBuild portal.

The council, the first in Tasmania to adopt PlanBuild when it went live in 2024, unanimously backed a motion on Monday condemning the system. It also called for an indefinite waiver of the $83,000 annual fee paid to the Department of Justice, which runs the program, until the portal is fixed.

Councillor Louise Elliott, who introduced the motion and has campaigned over planning costs and delays, described the project as “lose, lose, lose.” She said the council absorbed the reputational damage because residents assumed PlanBuild was its system, while taxpayers had spent more than $12 million and 10 years on a program that left people frustrated. The community, she said, faced another barrier to housing.

Lose, lose, lose

· Louise ElliottThe Hobart councillor described the effects of the planning system on the council, taxpayers and the community.

The council administration supported the motion and acknowledged that the launch had been “very difficult for officers and applicants.” PlanBuild was designed as a uniform statewide planning scheme for Tasmania’s 29 councils, covering building, plumbing and development applications through an online portal instead of paper processes.

Everyone's losing. Hobart City Council lose because it's a system that we have and people quite rightly think that it's our system, so we bear the heat and the reputational impact of that.

· Louise ElliottElliott explained why the council opposed continuing to pay the annual fee.

Work began in the 2016-17 financial year with a $9.7 million budget, including $6.4 million in Commonwealth funding. Benjamin Price, executive director of the Tasmanian branch of the Housing Industry Association, said industry had strongly supported the project at the outset and remained committed to its promise of making applications simpler, easier and quicker across the state.

We're still wedded to the PlanBuild promise: something that will make it simpler, easier, quicker to manage applications right across the state.

· Benjamin PriceThe Housing Industry Association executive described industry’s continuing support for the project’s original goal.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Australia in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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