The Tasmanian government has suffered a $6.5 million cost blowout on its signature PlanBuild program, a new planning portal that was meant to speed up development approvals but has turned into a debacle.
PlanBuild was intended to be rolled out statewide.
Hobart City Council was the first to adopt the system when it went live in 2024, but the council says its implementation has frustrated council staff, residents and industry alike.
On Monday, the council unanimously backed a motion expressing its concern.
The motion described PlanBuild as "unfit for purpose", and called for an indefinite waiver of the annual $83,000 in fees paid to the Department of Justice — which runs the program — until the system is fixed.
Hobart councillor Louise Elliott, who introduced the motion and has been campaigning on the issue of planning costs and delays, described PlanBuild as "lose, lose, lose".
"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," she said.
The motion was supported by the council administration, who conceded the program's launch had been "very difficult for officers and applicants".
Scheme 'not up to scratch'
PlanBuild was conceived more than a decade ago, when former premier Peter Gutwein was treasurer and planning minister.
Mr Gutwein had pushed for a uniform statewide planning scheme to cover Tasmania's 29 councils. The idea was to roll out a streamlined, easy-to-use online portal for all building, plumbing and development applications, replacing the paper-based system.
Work started in the 2016-17 financial year, with a budget of $9.7 million — including $6.4 million in Commonwealth Small Business Regulatory Reform Agenda funding — after external tenders were called for by the Consumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS) arm of the Justice Department.
According to Benjamin Price, executive director of the Tasmanian branch of the Housing Industry Association, there was strong support at the outset.
"We were big backers of PlanBuild when it was initially brought to industry's attention," Mr Price said.
Unfortunately, the trial has not gone well.
"Our members right across Tasmania and particularly here in the south have been saying that PlanBuild is not up to scratch," Mr Price said.
"It's not working as intended and it's not making their lives easier, [and it] isn't delivering the efficiencies that the Tasmanian government had promised.
Maree Ashworth, client liaison officer for Hobart-based builders Ronald Young + Co Builders, deals with the PlanBuild system daily, and said she finds it incredibly frustrating.
Ms Ashworth told the ABC that for builds within the City of Hobart, her company hands the documentation over to somebody else to lodge through PlanBuild.
That preference means added costs on all sides.
Mr Price echoed her concerns.
"We hear feedback from members who are architects, designers, builders and plumbers that the PlanBuild portal is too difficult to use," he said.
"We even hear from some members that they are charging more to do work in the City of Hobart area."
Escalating costs
Last year the Justice Department waived the fee for 2025-26 in recognition that the system was not working, after a similar motion by Cr Elliott was passed by Hobart City Council.
In May, the department agreed to a PlanBuild remediation project plan. The plan, obtained by the ABC, aimed to address the council's concerns by February 2027 and lay the foundation for a statewide rollout.
In June, CBOS executive director Robyn Pearce told a parliamentary estimates committee hearing: "We're working with City of Hobart to ensure that some of the user functionality issues that are being addressed are put into place [and] we'll then be looking to roll it out to further councils."
She conceded the PlanBuild budget had increased from the original $9.7 million to $12.8 million.
The $3.1 million difference was attributed mainly to delays with the rollout, which led to a loss of expected revenue from other councils due to take up the scheme.
Additionally, only $3 million of the expected $6.4 million in Commonwealth funding was received, with the final $3.4 million withheld due to the expiry of the original grant.
That blowout has left the state's taxpayers $6.5 million worse off, as the original expected state outlay of $3.3 million has now risen to $9.8 million — a three-fold increase.
In correspondence with Cr Elliott, a spokesperson for the Justice Department said the total spending to date was just more than $11.6 million, of which some $3.45 million had been paid to the external developer.
"Rollout of the system to further councils remains on hold while post-implementation system enhancements are completed," the departmental spokesperson said.
"The final cost of statewide implementation cannot be determined at this point."
Cr Elliott told the ABC that despite the remediation work underway, "I do have genuine concerns that even with that extra work and the extra time and the extra money that it absorbs that we still won't end up with a product that's fit for purpose".
'Sold a pup', council says
At Monday's meeting, Cr John Kelly told the council that PlanBuild was a "disgrace".
"We have been sold a pup. We've got to toughen up here and really put our foot down with state government," he said.
"Other councils in Tasmania … don't want to touch this with a 40-foot barge pole. That is how bad this is."
Hobart councillor Ryan Posselt told the meeting the PlanBuild experience was comparable with the epic Spirit of Tasmania debacle.
"[It's] kind of analogous to the Spirits," Cr Posselt said.
"We are bearing the reputational damage, frankly. We also desperately need homes constructed in the city and commercial buildings constructed in the city."
The ABC understands PlanBuild has experienced a heavy turnover of staff within CBOS amid budget cuts and a hiring freeze at the Justice Department.
The Minister for Justice, Corrections and Rehabilitation, Guy Barnett, told the ABC he was aware of concerns with PlanBuild, and that an additional $2 million had been committed in the recent state budget to "deliver a pathway forward".
"I have asked my Department to work with City of Hobart as a high priority to correct bugs in the system," he said.
"I understand that we are seeing some important improvements to the functionality, but work is ongoing.
"We'll continue to work closely with the local government sector to pursue opportunities to have development applications and permits processed faster."
