Tasmania's Resource Management and Planning System : towards sustainable development?

Abstract

In 1994 the Tasmanian State Government finalised a suite of legislation, the
 Resource Management and Planning System (hereafter called the System), in response
 to pressures resulting from the State's past problems and conflicts associated with
 economic development and environmental management. In this dissertation examples
 of these problems and conflicts, their underlying circumstances, and the strengths and
 weaknesses of the environment protection and land-use planning legislation applicable
 at that time are examined. These pressures induced a reform process involving a change
 in political attitudes towards environmental management, and a complete review of the
 legislation, culminating in the formulation of the new System. The reform process, and
 the objectives, structure, instruments and processes of the System are explained.
 The System is intended to incorporate into resource management and
 planning decisions the principles of sustainable development. Using the principles,
 objectives, and proposed measures for achieving sustainable development which
 emerged from the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio
 de Janeiro in 1992, the author has deductively constructed a benchmark concept for
 sustainable development relevant to Tasmania. The System is assessed in terms of the
 degree to which it has incorporated of these principles and its potential to facilitate their
 objectives. In addition, the System is assessed for its potential means to avert or resolve
 a recurrence of Tasmania's past development and environmental management problems
 and conflicts.
 Assessment shows that all the principles of sustainable development
 considered relevant to Tasmania are incorporated within the System either explicitly or,
 occasionally, by generous interpretation. Notwithstanding their incorporation, the
 principles are sometimes poorly defined, and can be expected to generally diminish the
 System's outcomes. I argue that the potential for the System to facilitate the objectives of
 sustainable development is substantial, but is diminished by ambiguities in the System's
 own objectives, its limited jurisdiction, a lack of obligation on decision-makers to
 adhere to those objectives, and the absence or incompleteness of planning instruments
 and processes. The System could offer effective means for addressing Tasmania's
 development and environmental management problems and conflicts. The principal
 obstacles to this potential are its restricted jurisdiction, and the absence of a formal
 regional planning mechanism. The realisation of this potential greatly depends on the quality of Ministerial, and therefore political, decision-making required by the System,
 the level of leadership given to promoting the System's objectives, and an adequate level
 of resourcing.
 The assessment of the System undertaken here concludes with an overview of
 the lessons learned from Tasmania's experience in formulating and implementing a
 resource management and planning system intended to facilitate the objectives of
 sustainability. These lessons include the significant benefits resulting from a
 comprehensive consultation process with all stakeholders, the need for adequate
 education in relation to the System's objectives and processes for those using the
 System, and the shortcomings in the System's instruments and processes.