Areas of expertise

Overview

Anthony was appointed Senior Counsel of the Tasmanian Supreme Court in May 2020.

Anthony heads the Planning & Environment group at Page Seager. He has over 30 years’ experience in planning, environment and administrative law. He assists clients to navigate the environment and planning assessment process, with particular experience in major developments and infrastructure projects. His client base includes some of Tasmania’s largest government business enterprises, Councils and major property developers.

Anthony appears as Counsel primarily for property owners and developers in merits based hearings and administrative law review in the Supreme Court.

Experience

Anthony also regularly appears as Counsel in the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal, the Tasmanian Planning Commission and the Supreme Court of Tasmania (including the Full Court) and has been involved in some of Tasmania’s landmark planning and environment cases. His experience includes:

• due diligence for a Council sewerage upgrade project (~ $40M), which involved advising on all environment and planning statutory approvals;
• advising on the implications of the multi-million dollar major capital city redevelopment project for existing infrastructure providers;
• advising on the upgrade of a wastewater treatment plant, specifically in relation to the applicable statutory approval framework and a suggested roadmap for the most efficient and cost-effective approval pathway;
• appearing as Counsel in the Full Court of the Supreme Court in relation to an assessment under the Environmental Management and Pollution Control Act 1994;
• appearing as Counsel in the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal in relation to the odour modelling assessment of a wastewater treatment plant near the site of a proposed tourist development; and
• advising on statutory approvals for some of the Tasmania’s largest greenfield developments.

Anthony’s cases are public and can be searched with key words A Spence and ACR Spence at www.austlii.edu.au under the Tasmania tab.