Wednesday, 17 August 2022

Statements on parliamentary committee reports

Environment and Planning Committee

Inquiry into Apartment Design Standards

Mr SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (10:04): It is my pleasure to rise to speak on the Inquiry into Apartment Design Standards, a report that was done in August 2022. This was done by the Environment and Planning Committee. First of all I want to thank a number of members that were on the committee: the member for Tarneit, the chair, and I know the member for Eildon was also on that committee—fantastic. Largely this report’s importance and relevance to my electorate is that we are seeing a huge increase in growth in apartments. It is important to have that to accommodate the growing population in Victoria and in Melbourne.

However, particularly in areas of my electorate—and I cite areas like Elsternwick—we are seeing an absolute densification, and a lot of the designs for these apartments are effectively for shoeboxes. You walk into some of these apartments and you are literally in the bedroom—there is no hallway; there is no walkway. I am told by many of the developers that are building these apartments that it is effectively communal outside living. You sleep in these apartments; you do everything else outside of these apartments. There is a communal kitchen to book if you want to book it, communal theatres, communal libraries and a whole range of other things, which might sound great. However, particularly with what we have experienced over the last four years in terms of having people locked in their homes and locked in their apartments, we know you need space.

I think what we are doing particularly to the mental health of families and of young people by building these shoeboxes simply for commercial purposes without looking at the amenity and livability is a real concern, so much so that the report talks about standards. It talks about what other states, like New South Wales, have done, particularly in terms of having some design standards, and it also covers things like affordability, importantly. It looks at futureproofing some of the apartments with transport needs, such as electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It looks at how these apartments can be built, keeping in mind lower emissions and reductions. It also looks particularly at, as I said, New South Wales and Western Australia mandating things like minimum daylight access, because we do know some are built with very few windows, very little daylight and huge carbon footprints, doing nothing for anybody—other than a commercial outcome.

I think this is a very important report. It certainly highlights the fact that livability needs to be a priority. I know that, as I say, for many of the constituents in Elsternwick, Caulfield East and actually right through Caulfield—if you look around the Caulfield Racecourse, where we are now up to about 2000 residents just living around the racecourse itself in very, very small, tiny apartments—we need to ensure going into the future that we have design standards, that we have height limits and that we have infrastructure that supports those height limits and design standards so there is livability and accessibility for all. It is something that I have certainly been very strong on in this Parliament, talking about that livability piece. It is certainly what I will be advocating for in the lead-up to the election.

Glen Eira has had its fair share—some would say too much of a share—in terms of overdevelopment. We need to curb that. We need some planning height restrictions in some of these areas so we ensure that the accessibility and the livability are maintained. That is what I will be focusing on to ensure that in suburbs like Elsternwick, Caulfield East, Glen Huntly, Ormond and Ripponlea—all of these areas—livability is protected for our neighbourhoods and that while welcoming development we do it sensibly, we certainly do not entertain overdevelopment and we have the kind of apartment living that people like you and I and everyone else would expect, nothing less.