More proof Liberals’ so-called planning reforms have failed

New data exposing Hobart as having the most restrictive residential zoning rules of any capital city in Australia is definitive proof that the Tasmanian Liberal Government’s so-called planning reforms have failed. 

The Liberals promised us a system that was simpler, fairer and faster, but instead, after 13 years in Government they have delivered a bottleneck.

The newly released Australian Zoning Atlas report reveals a staggering 97% of residential land within 20 kilometres of the Hobart GPO is "highly restricted" – crippled by a rigid state-mandated planning scheme. This makes Hobart more restrictive than Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, actively locking everyday Tasmanians out of the housing and rental markets.

There is a real economic and human cost of this failure every single day. We have young families unable to buy their first home, workers locked out of the rental market, and businesses struggling to attract staff because there is simply nowhere for people to live.

Hobart City Council and our other local governments do not have a magic wand here. They are legally bound to apply the rigid state scheme handed down to them by the Liberal Government. Our local councils are merely executing a broken scheme overseen by the Tasmanian Liberal Government that promised the exact opposite of what they have put in place.

We were promised a planning scheme that would slash red tape and unlock supply. What the Liberals actually delivered is a bureaucratic straightjacket that has driven housing supply into the ground and pushed prices through the roof.

Tasmanians cannot afford any more of a government that uses planning as a tool for inertia rather than progress.