July 2026

Australia’s housing and tourism sectors don’t just suffer from a shortage of investment. They suffer from an abundance of bureaucracy.

The latest example comes from Victoria, where four luxury glamping tents worth up to $100,000 each are about to be ripped out of the NRMA Holiday Park at Bright after sitting unused for five years. Not because nobody wanted them. Not because they were unsafe. Not because the business failed.

They are being removed because bureaucracy won.

According to a report by The Australian on 13 July 2026, the tents were approved for installation almost five years ago. Yet after endless planning disputes, shifting interpretations and regulatory confusion, they have never accommodated a single paying guest. Instead, they are now destined to be dismantled and relocated interstate.

Only government could turn a tourism investment into a five-year monument to red tape.

The extraordinary aspect of this saga is that the very same style of luxury tents has been operating successfully elsewhere in Victoria, including Phillip Island, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Inverloch and along the Great Ocean Road. But in Bright, the local council decided the tents were not really tents at all—they were buildings.

Same product. Same state. Completely different interpretation.

This is exactly what happens when governments fail to provide clear rules. Instead of certainty, businesses receive contradictory decisions depending on which council officer happens to be assessing the application.

It is bureaucracy by postcode.

The cost extends well beyond four unused tents.

Regional communities rely heavily on tourism investment. Businesses commit hundreds of thousands of dollars expecting governments to apply consistent regulations. Instead, they find themselves trapped in years of planning disputes while their capital sits idle earning nothing.

Meanwhile visitors go elsewhere, local businesses miss out on spending, jobs fail to materialise and confidence evaporates.

Industry representatives say Victoria is now the only Australian state without clear legislative provisions covering glamping accommodation. That should be an embarrassment for a government that constantly claims to support regional tourism and private investment.

The private sector is ready to spend money.

Manufacturers are ready to build.

Holiday parks want to expand.

Customers clearly want the product.

The only obstacle is government.

What makes this story particularly frustrating is that the Department of Transport and Planning is reportedly preparing guidance to clarify the rules—but only after years of confusion, legal disputes and wasted investment. That guidance is expected this month, years after it was needed.

This is a recurring pattern in Australian government. Bureaucracies create uncertainty, delay investment, frustrate businesses and then eventually produce a document explaining what everyone should have known from the beginning.

The damage has already been done.

Victoria’s caravan and camping sector contributes around $2.6 billion annually to the state’s economy and generates roughly 12 million visitor nights. Towns such as Bright depend heavily on attracting tourists with quality accommodation and new experiences.

Instead of encouraging innovation, governments have created a planning system capable of turning luxury tents into planning disasters.

It demonstrates yet again that Australia’s biggest barrier to economic growth is often not a shortage of entrepreneurs or investors. It is an excess of bureaucrats.

When governments complain about weak regional investment, they should first examine the obstacles created by their own departments.

In Bright, four perfectly usable glamping tents have become expensive symbols of everything that is wrong with Australia’s planning system.

Nobody benefits.

Except the bureaucracy.