Cartoon by Daze
If you want a bit of background before you start …
Project of State Significance (PoSS)
In Tasmania, a Project of State Significance (PoSS) is a project deemed to be of such scale, complexity and importance that it warrants assessment at state-level rather than local council. These projects also require significant investment and can have substantial economic, environmental, and/or social impacts.
The process is designed to expedite approvals by bypassing local council and existing planning instruments, but also allows for a focus on broader economic, environmental, and social impacts at a state scale.
In October 2023, the proposed stadium at Mac Point was declared a PoSS.
The Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC)
Once the PoSS was declared, the Premier directed the Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC) to undertake an integrated assessment of the project. After a period of consultation, the TPC set the final guidelines for that assessment.
The project proponent, the Macquarie Point Development Corporation (MPDC), made its first submission in September 2024. After requests by the TPC for further information, MPDC made further submissions in the first part of 2025, giving the TPC a huge amount of data to work through.
Having completed that work, the TPC exhibited a Draft Integrated Assessment Report (DIAR) on its website on 31 March 2025, inviting representations to be submitted by 8 May.
Public hearings are currently scheduled to take place between 30 June and 25 July 2025.
Click here to read more about the PoSS process:
Responding to the DIAR
Reaction to the DIAR
It’s been a busy couple of weeks since the DIAR dropped. There was no glowing report card for the proposed project. The Government and the MPDC rushed to discredit both the TPC and experts quoted in the DIAR while the ink was still drying on it.
After months of shovelling out money to consultant firms (some of whom produced work that failed to meet the TPC guidelines), the MPDC started throwing large sums at lawyers in an effort to establish that the TPC had stepped outside its prescribed scope. This claim has since been firmly quashed by the TPC.
The Premier’s contributions have swung wildly between claims that he will stand by the agreed process and threats to legislate to bypass it. As late as today, he was digging in (that hole is already biggish!) on the legislation threat, explaining on Facebook (without a hint of embarrassment): “It has become clear over the past week that the current process is undermining confidence in the future of the project.” You don’t say, Premier!
Members of Our Place with years of experience in planning matters cannot think of another time in our history when so few have gone to such great effort to trash a process in preference to engaging with it. What does it say about a project that its strongest advocates know it cannot stand up to the scrutiny of a process that they selected – indeed, selected to seek to avoid the full rigour of standard planning approval processes?
A community response to the DIAR
The Premier’s efforts to muddy the waters – with his ‘on again, off again’ PoSS thought bubbles – can act to limit the numbers of Tasmanians who take up the TPC’s offer to respond to their report, jerking us around as we try to weigh up the odds on which way this will land. Let’s not play that game.
We need as many submissions as possible to hit the desk at the TPC before midnight on 8 May. It is crucial that we are heard and this is our only opportunity in this forum – the only planning forum for this project.
It is also important that each submission reflects an individual voice, so pick your topic – one that you feel strongly about, one in which you have some expertise – and explain why you support the Draft Report.
Some tools to help you
The key to making a representation that will carry maximum weight is to be able to answer NO to this question at the TPC portal:
So, we are not setting out any proforma responses for a copy and paste option. What we have done is set up a marked-up version of the DIAR for reference. The report itself is a hearty read – well worth the effort if you have time. But we know you are busy! So you can scroll through the document, review the highlighted sections and choose one or more areas to be the focus of your response.
Click here for the marked-up DIAR:
We have also set out some pointers if you are not sure where to focus your effort. Remember, these are not for a copy / paste option if you want to tick the right box!
While all of the key themes that Our Place prosecutes still apply – it’s not needed, it’s not wanted (it has no social licence), we can’t afford it – it is our fourth line of argument that sits most comfortably under the aegis of the TPC – it won’t fit. That this is the wrong location is the essential planning issue. Within that are several key themes:
- Scale: too high (10 storeys higher than Evans St); too broad (area equivalent to 4 city blocks); it can’t be made smaller and maintain its Tier 2 AFL Venue status.
- Safety and circulation: site restricted to one side for egress; roads too narrow; shared traffic ways foot/road.
- Logistics: site too small for construction materials storage, site offices, staff parking; deliveries and excavated waste extraction (>140 trucks/day x 30 weeks to dig out the carpark).
- Indigenous recognition: proposed Aboriginal Culturally Informed zone (read pocket) is an insult; falls well short of what was promised to Aboriginal Tasmanians.
- Heritage: colonial (Hunter St); industrial (the Goods Shed); ceremonial (Cenotaph).
- Neighbourhood health and well-being: noise (including for the TSO); traffic congestion; overshadowing; excludes the public 96% of the time; impermeable street frontages.
- Environmental sustainability: light spill and noise; water demands of turf; heating & cooling.
- The wrong vernacular: lacks cohesion with surroundings; goes against everything the Sullivans Cove Planning Scheme and the architects who have adhered to it have achieved over the decades.
- Mitigation strategies: applied finishes like ‘timber tech’ and plants to soften boundaries etc are an admission that it doesn’t ‘fit’; it’s the wrong shape and size and no amount of lipstick will change that.
Sending it off
Some tips that might help if you have not done something like this before:
- Familiarise yourself with the TPC’s requirements. Click below to see their form.
- Write your text off-line.
- Do a character count – anything over 6,000 characters won’t fit on the form and will need to be uploaded as a PDF.
- Click below to check in again at the TPC site to make sure you are on track – e.g. have you included any personal information in the body of your representation? If Y, think about whether you are willing for that to be published on the Commission’s website.
- If everything is good to go, complete all of the required fields in the TPC form. Then copy your text and paste it into the box at section 2 of the form. You can also upload up to two other supporting documents.
Click here for the TPC representation form:
The TPC site is very user-friendly but the Our Place team is happy to advise if you have any questions as you go. Email us at mail@nonewstadium.au.
Let’s show the TPC that we value their work. Let’s show the Premier and the MPDC that we are not all that happy with their work!