Wednesday, 13 August 2025

Environment and Planning Committee

Inquiry into Securing the Victorian Food Supply

John LISTER (Werribee) (11:11): Sometimes work in this house can be a bit of a hungry job, and so today I am speaking on the Legislative Assembly Environment and Planning Committee’s Securing the Victorian Food Supply report, because it is important to reflect on how some of the findings and recommendations from this report apply to my community on the edge of Wyndham, on that western boundary of our metropolitan community and our peri-urban community. I thank the chair of the committee, the member for Wendouree, and other committee members for their work on this report. The report looks at population growth and urban sprawl, which is something I know all too well in Wyndham, and shows that Wyndham is one of the fastest growing LGAs, with our whole population across Victoria to rise above 10 million people by the 2050s. As someone who lives in Werribee and represents the expanding outer west, this growth is quite evident, and with my community being one of the youngest in the state, the question of food security for future generations is an important one to consider, not only for the future but for what we are doing now. I will talk about two aspects of that in this report.

I want to take the opportunity to highlight some of those findings and recommendations that go particularly to the idea of protecting our peri-urban communities and urban fringe as well as food security, especially for communities like mine that are low socio-economic communities, where sometimes putting food on the table is one of the greatest challenges. I recently had the pleasure of meeting with representatives from the Little River Action Group. While they formed to fight against plans for a container terminal proposed to be built by Pacific National in the township – a single issue ‍– their concerns have gone far broader now and deeper than just this one issue. One of the amazing features of the township is the rural lifestyle and unique grassland environment around it, all while 15 ‍minutes from our urban boundary and the fastest growing suburbs in Victoria. The committee’s findings 13 to 18 of the report, relating to the impact of our growing city on our peri-urban environments, are particularly pertinent to the Little River community. Our green wedge on the western side of Melbourne is not only home to environmentally significant grasslands but also long used for grazing livestock. Near the coast we have a significant amount of Victoria’s fresh vegetables ‍– and a fun fact for the house is that 70 per cent of Victoria’s lettuce comes from the Werribee South area.

The committee has concerns about the impact of land banking in particular, and the Little River Action Group has also raised this with me. They have seen this land banking by private developers and the management of that land after it has been purchased, with weed control and preserving wildlife corridors of particular concern. I therefore welcome the committee’s recommendation 5, that the government works to ensure that updates to our planning policy framework are undertaken as part of that, to strengthen those planning controls, to look at key concepts to improve agricultural policies around those areas and also to look at the value of those small peri-urban farms as a way of bolstering our food system. I have also taken their concerns to the Minister for Planning, and I thank her for her support for our community as we not only grow but also enhance and protect what makes the different corners of Wyndham unique.

I do also note Wyndham City Council’s responsibility for managing our green wedge in the western municipalities. Recommendation 9 goes to the need for a review for these plans across our municipal areas responsible for green wedges. The Western Plains South Green Wedge Management Plan was completed in 2018, and while it is comprehensive, I think it is time to review the plan and make sure that any changes to land ownership and management that have happened in those years since are monitored. I look forward to working with Wyndham City Council on initiating an update for this plan with the Little River community. I thank the Little River Action Group for meeting with me, and I look forward to working with them into the future.

I also want to turn to the issue of food security in our community, albeit briefly, but it is a really important thing. The committee’s finding 27 is of interest to my community, particularly around providing more food bank programs. I recently did a visit with the minister at the table, the Minister for Agriculture, to our food bank at Wyndham Park Community Centre. Through our government’s investment of over $50,000 to the program at the centre, they are not only able to access groceries through Foodbank but also supplement it with locally grown fresh produce and food from their community gardens to help give a better diversity and range of food that they provide. I welcome this finding from the committee and hope to see more examples of this through our next round of grants for food banks in Wyndham. Part of securing our food security is also securing water in Werribee South, and I welcome the government’s efforts on this side to help secure water for Werribee South and continue to have that as one of the prime agricultural parts of our state. Thank you to the committee. I look forward to working with community partners on our food security and protections for our green wedge.