Development | Legislation | Statewide

The draft Land Use Planning and Approvals Amendment (Development Assessment Panels) Bill 2025 is open for consultation from 26 February to 5pm, 24 April 2025.

What is this about?

A revised draft Land Use Planning and Approvals Amendment (Development Assessment Panel) Bill 2025 (the draft DAP Bill 2025) has been prepared for public consultation before reintroduction into Parliament during 2025.

The history of this Bill is in the Background section below. Documents relating to how it has evolved are in Lifecycle version 1 (2024).

The current documents for this consultation are in Lifecycle version 2 (2025).

What is not included?

The draft Bill does not change the planning scheme rules that all development applications are assessed against.

Who is involved?

The State Planning Office, on behalf of the Minister, prepared the various supporting documents, and worked with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel to prepare the draft DAP Bills.

The State Planning Office reviews submissions received during consultation and advises the Minister. Any final draft Bill requires Cabinet approval prior to being tabled and debated in Parliament.

How long will it take?

It is anticipated that a revised draft DAP Bill will be tabled in Parliament during 2025 following a further public consultation period.

Background

The government initiated an enquiry into the performance of local government, which commenced in January 2022.

One of the issues that was discussed at length was how controversial planning applications were dealt with. This is because of potential conflicts of interest between Councillors having to act as a Planning Authority, while also having been elected to represent their constituents. One possible solution was a Development Assessment Panel, which is commonly used on the mainland of Australia.

The Review undertook extensive consultation, and the reports are available on the future of local government review website.

This draft legislative amendment is a result of this Review.

On 21 July 2023, the Premier announced the development of new legislation to allow certain types of development applications to be determined by independent Development Assessment Panels (DAP), appointed by the Tasmanian Planning Commission. The intention was to provide an alternate approval pathway outside of Councils’ decision-making functions and help ‘take the politics out of planning’ for more complex or contentious development applications.

The Minister broadened the scope of the new legislation by including provisions to direct a planning authority to prepare a draft amendment to its Local Provisions Schedule (LPS) under certain circumstances where a review under section 40B of the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993 (the Act) has been exhausted.

A Position Paper on a proposed DAP framework was open for consultation from 19 October to 30 November 2023, receiving over 540 submissions.

A review of submissions informed a revised DAP framework. The Report on Consultation on the DAP Position Paper can be found in the project life cycle below.

The outcomes from the initial consultation were used to prepare the draft Land Use Planning and Approvals Amendment (Development Assessment Panels) Bill 2024 (draft DAP Bill 2024) that underwent 5 weeks of consultation from 7 October to 12 November 2024.

The Government reviewed the submissions received which informed the version of the draft DAP Bill 2024 that was tabled in Parliament in late November 2024.

While the draft 2024 Bill passed successfully through the House of Assembly, it was not passed by the Legislative Council.

LUPAA (DAP) Bill 2024 Version 1 - Life cycle

The stages of the project are explained in more detail below.

Proposed amendment

A Position Paper on how a Development Assessment Panel might operate underwent community consultation.

The State Planning Office held an online presentation on 13 November 2023 about the position paper which included an opportunity for questions and answers.

Have your say - Position Paper 2023

The State Planning Office consulted on the Development Assessment Panel Framework Position Paper for 6 weeks. Submissions closed on the 30 November 2023.

Your Personal Information

Position Paper submissions received 2023

A total of 543 submissions were made during the public consultation on the Development Assessment Panel Framework Position Paper, as listed below.

Report on consultation released (inc. revised framework)

The Report on Consultation on the DAP framework Position Paper has been published.  The Report responds to the issues raised in submissions and outlines a revised DAP framework. The revised DAP framework has been used to inform the drafting of a Bill to amend the Act.

Report on Consultation - DAP Framework Position Paper
Have your say - Draft Bill 2024

The State Government wants to hear from you about the Land Use Planning and Approvals (Development Assessment Panels) Bill 2024 (the draft DAP Bill).

The draft DAP Bill proposes an alternate assessment pathway for certain development applications to be assessed by an independent Development Assessment Panel established by the Tasmanian Planning Commission.

The draft DAP Bill also proposes to introduce an additional mechanism allowing the Minister to direct a planning authority to prepare a draft amendment to its Local Provisions Schedule under specific circumstances.

For background information, please refer to the Report on Consultation - Development Assessment Panel framework Position Paper and Fact Sheet

Consultation will be open for 5 weeks. The closing date for submissions is 5pm on 12 November 2024.

LUPA Amendment (Development Assessment Panels) Bill 2024
Draft Bill proposing alternate assessment pathway for certain types of development

You can have your say by making a written submission and posting or emailing it to the State Planning Office before the consultation period closes.

Postal address:

State Planning Office
Department of State Growth
GPO Box 536
Hobart TAS 7001

Email address:

spo@stateplanning.tas.gov.au

Your Personal Information

Draft Bill submissions received 2024

A total of 461 submissions were received during the public consultation period on the draft Land Use Planning and Approvals Amendment (Development Assessment Panels) Bill 2024 which are listed below as ‘LUPAA DAP Bill Submission’.

Submissions received after the close of the public consultation period are similarly listed below as ‘LUPAA DAP Bill Late Submissions’. Comments made in late submissions have been considered where possible within the timeframes allocated to this process.

Bill goes to Parliament

The Bill was tabled in Parliament and debated but did not pass.

More information is available on the Parliament website.

LUPAA (DAP) Bill 2025 Version 2 - Life cycle

The stages of the project are explained in more detail below.

Scoping revised DAP process

Further consultation is being undertaken to determine scope of revised DAP Bill.

Have your say – Draft DAP Bill 2025

The revised draft Bill is out for public consultation.

The Bill and supporting documents are available below.

Consultation will be open until 5pm, Thursday 24 April 2025. You can have your say by making a written submission and posting or emailing it to our office before the consultation period closes.

Your personal information - submission publication

Postal address

State Planning Office
Department of State Growth
GPO Box 536
Hobart TAS 7001

Email address

haveyoursay@stateplanning.tas.gov.au

Background Report for Consultation - revised draft DAP Bill 2025
Information on the DAP Bill 2025
Draft Land Use Planning and Approvals Amendment (Development Assessment Panel) Bill 2025
Submissions received on draft DAP Bill 2025

Once the consultation has concluded, all submissions (comments) will be reviewed and considered by the Minister before the revised draft DAP Bill 2025 is tabled in Parliament.

Bill goes to Parliament

The revised draft DAP Bill 2025 will be tabled and debated in Parliament.