Media Release: Revelations UTAS Bill Will Protect Only 14% of Sandy Bay Campus
Image Credit: Based upon map derived from the LIST.
Revelations UTAS Bill Will Protect Only 14% of Sandy Bay Campus
12 April 2026
Independent Member for Nelson Meg Webb today revealed the University of Tasmania (Protection of Land) Bill 2025 will allow the future sale of more than half the Sandy Bay campus contrary to the Tasmanian community’s understanding.
Ms Webb said there are serious questions over whether the Rockliff Government deliberately misled the community and Parliament or presided over an incompetent legislative error.
“The Rockliff Government’s so-called UTAS (Protection of Land) Bill will only protect approximately 14 hectares of the land at Sandy Bay – a miserly 14% of the current campus,” Ms Webb said.
“People have been allowed to believe that other than the parcels of land identified for rezoning for inner residential development the majority of the Sandy Bay campus will be protected with any future sale needing to come back to parliament for approval by both houses.
“Closer analysis of the Bill reveals this is not the case.
“Instead, the Bill creates three categories of land. The protected, the rezoned, and the unprotected.”
Ms Webb said the Government told the Legislative Council during debate on March 25 that the Bill would prevent the University: “from disposing of campus land at Sandy Bay without the approval of both houses of parliament. There are only two parcels of land exempt which we are looking to rezone”.
“The Minister is wrong. There is a further 57 percent of the current campus exempt from the requirement to come back to parliament for disposal.
“The Bill specifically defines the protected 14 percent of land, and also the 28 percent identified for rezoning, but is worryingly silent about the remaining undefined and unprotected 56 hectares between Churchill Avenue and Olinda Grove, which is approximately 57 percent of the current campus.
“That 57 percent of the current Sandy Bay campus will be left in unprotected limbo by the so-called Protection of Land Bill is scandalous.
“This is either a shocking oversight by the Government, or it has been a deliberate ploy.”
Ms Webb said the Government makes a lot of self-congratulatory noise about any future moves to sell the vested, or protected, land requiring approval by both Houses of Parliament, while failing to detail that 57 percent of the campus could be sold by the University without ever coming back to the parliament.
Ms Webb explained that Schedule 1 of the Bill only protects as Vested Land the 14 hectares between Sandy Bay Road and Churchill Avenue, excluding all of the remaining approximate 84 hectares between Churchill Avenue and Olinda Grove.
“Schedule 2 identifies a subset of land within that excluded from protection land above Churchill Avenue, totalling 28 hectares identified for rezoning and sale, leaving approximately 56 hectares of adjacent campus land outside both the rezoned and protected land categories.
“The fact the Government is still trying to say the current identified areas for rezoning are the only campus land exempt from the Bill’s protections, is either incompetence or a deliberate attempt to mislead the parliament and the community.
“This fiasco is a clear demonstration why the Parliament should not be used as a de facto planning body.
“If the University had been required to go through the standard planning processes when seeking to sell the identified campus areas, it is doubtful any planning authority would have left a 57 percent loophole.
“The Government must now explain whether this is intentional or a stuff up.
“The so-called UTAS Protection of Land Bill is more than just Orwellian, it is fundamentally flawed, and the revelation that 57 percent of the campus will be left unprotected demonstrates why Parliament should reject it,” Ms Webb said.
Read Meg’s Background Briefing Paper: UTAS Bill Leaves Majority of Sandy Bay Campus Unprotected, April 2026, either below or as a PDF here:
