Wednesday, 13 August 2025

Environment and Planning Committee

Inquiry into Securing the Victorian Food Supply

Daniela DE MARTINO (Monbulk) (11:01): It is an absolute delight to speak on our Environment and Planning Committee’s report regarding the inquiry into securing the Victorian food supply. I am further delighted that the government has just released its response to this report. It was tabled last sitting week. When I saw that, I jumped at the opportunity to speak on this, because food systems have not just been a real interest for me since I first started to consider what I was putting into my body when I fell pregnant 22 years ago but were literally part of my everyday living when my business was centred around food and the supply of it here in Victoria. For a good seven years I owned and operated my organic mini supermarket. I spoke with farmers and wholesalers on an almost daily basis over that time, which gave me a really strong and clear understanding that our food systems operate under challenging and difficult conditions, not least of which are the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events on our farmers and food supply. Couple that with urban sprawl taking over old market gardens and it is evident that we cannot let our food supply as a state just tick along. We must ensure that we as a government set the conditions and parameters to ensure that the food that feeds us is produced in the best possible conditions, which means close to population centres, such as that 100-kilometre radius around Melbourne, and also on the best arable land possible.

Soil is everything, and not all soils are the same. I am of a vintage that I remember the old Castrol GTX oil ad ‘Oils ain’t oils’, and I can say that soils ain’t soils. We need to protect the best of the soil that we have there. I see some nodding heads; we all remember that. It was apparently 1988, that ad. Of particular interest to my constituents across the district of Monbulk is the future of our green wedge land. The vast majority of my electorate sits within a green wedge zone across two local government authorities, which are Yarra Ranges council and Cardinia shire. Many, especially those in the eastern Dandenong Ranges area, have expressed concerns to me that the farming land, particularly in Cockatoo and Gembrook, may be at risk of becoming useless by being subdivided into allotments just too small for farmers to generate enough income to be sustainable.

Our inquiry looked at this. It was a concern shared by many others who came before our committee from all parts of the state. I want to speak about recommendation 5:

That the Victorian Government ensure that updates to the State Planning Policy Framework undertaken as part of the Planning for Melbourne’s green wedges and agricultural land: Action plan 2024:

• strengthen the planning policy imperative for protecting all agricultural land from inappropriate development to secure Victoria’s food supply

• define key policy concepts to improve the interpretability of agricultural policies

• acknowledge the value of small peri-urban farms, as a source of:

• local food supply and economic activity

• regenerative land management practices

• diversity and resilience in Victoria’s food system

• encourage innovative farming practices and development which enhances the productivity and viability of farming in peri-urban areas.

Before I continue, I want to say thanks to the secretariat and my fine committee members. I have thanked them before when I have spoken on this. Thank you in particular to the witnesses and farmers, who are pretty time poor. They gave up their time to tour us on their properties or to come and give witness evidence to us, and for that we are eternally grateful, because it was their source of information that helped inform this. I just wanted to give them a bit of a shout-out.

I do want to acknowledge that the Victorian government’s response on this recommendation – in fact on the vast majority of the recommendations – was to support it in full. The Victorian government is progressing related reforms under the action plan. The planning policy framework, PPF, will be amended to strengthen protections for all productive agricultural land across Victoria. This will support food security and reduce rural land fragmentation by establishing settlement boundaries to manage growth appropriately. The government will remove ambiguous terms like ‘strategic significance’ and ‘economic importance’ from agricultural policies in the PPF. All productive agricultural land will be recognised as valuable, and decisions will continue to be guided by integrated decision-making principles. The PPF will reinforce the value of peri-urban farms for local food supply, economic activity, regenerative practices and food system resilience. Councils will be supported to reflect this in local policy through planning scheme amendments. Councils will be directed to encourage innovative and sustainable farming practices through the PPF, including the use of recycled resources like water and biogas, to support viable and productive farming in peri-urban areas. This will be music to the ears of many who understand the significance of protecting this agricultural land and ensuring it is viable for sustainable food production. As I have before, I commend the report to the house, but I am also grateful for the recommendations.