Hobart is desperate for new homes, but elected members - predominately Helen Burnet, Mike Dutta, Anna Reynolds and Bill Harvey - have voted against hundreds of homes, despite them being recommended for approval by their own planning officers. 

The HCC publishes summary information on approved applications that got through their tight net. No such summary is offered that covers the hundreds of homes that were voted against. The Hobart community deserves full transparency and easy access to the votes, rationales and decisions made by the Hobart City Council elected members when they act as a planning authority. 

The Hobart City Council, through the Lord Mayor, Anna Reynolds, was asked to improve the nature and scope of the information that is easily available to the public on the planning activity and decisions made by the Council. A very reasonable request. The Hobart City Council said No, city resource issues. Given what is at stake and that housing impacts everyone, that's not acceptable. 

Hobart's housing stress will not go anyway until supply and demand are considerably more balanced. Hobartians (and all Tasmanians) deserve easy access to the full picture and who is making what decisions and on what basis. 

By signing this petition you want to see the Hobart City Council publish on their website the below information and commit to updating this within three business days of the decisions being known:

We want the Hobart City Council to publish on their website:

• a cumulative summary of each occasion where the Council acts as a Planning Authority on all housing and hotel planning applications (including dwellings, multiple dwellings, student accommodation, change of use to visitor accommodation, and parcels of land) which states: 

o the date of the council meeting, the title of the application and associated reference numbers 

o the number of homes and/or hotel rooms included in the application (e.g. 4 new  dwellings, 9 subdivision lots, 175 hotel rooms) 

o whether the application was recommended for approval or refusal  

o the votes cast by each Elected Member so it is easily clear which Elected Members  did and did not support the planning application 

o the overall result of the motion. 

• a brief statement from each Elected Member which outlines their rationale for their vote when the Elected Member has voted against a planning application despite the application was recommended for approval.