Wednesday, 31 August 2022

Environment and Planning Committee

Inquiry into Apartment Design Standards

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (10:30): It gives me great pleasure to join the committee reports part of the Parliament today to speak about the report on the inquiry into apartment design standards, which was tabled earlier this month and was undertaken by the Environment and Planning Committee, which I am a member of. I am pleased to see that my friend the outgoing chair of the Environment and Planning Committee, the member for Tarneit, is sitting behind me in the chamber at the moment, and I want to congratulate her on her work and her leadership on that inquiry. Also I acknowledge the deputy chair, the member for Mornington; the members for Burwood and Box Hill—great friends of mine; and my neighbouring member who is also in the chamber, the member for Eildon, for their contribution. Just the one downside to this committee and its report is that I think the National Party really needs to take a look at maybe the example of the member for Gippsland South, who just spoke about the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee and has obviously been a very active participant. I cannot say the same for the member for Ovens Valley. I am not sure he even attended one of the deliberations for this report or any of the hearings, and in my four years on this committee he has barely attended anything. I really think the National Party need to look at if they are going to contribute, and if they are going to contribute, actually do the job. I think that the constituents of Ovens Valley have really been let down, particularly when for a previous inquiry he did not even come to all the hearings that were held in his electorate. But onto the positives—

Ms McLeish: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member on her feet is actually speaking about somebody, which I think is out of line. She needs to be focusing on the committee report itself rather than using it as an opportunity to bash a member of the opposition.

Ms GREEN: On the point of order, Deputy Speaker, I think that the member for Eildon knows full well the poor attendance record of the member for Ovens Valley.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Yan Yean, that is not a point of order. Let me go back to the original point of order and just caution the member to deliberate on the committee report that is before the house.

Ms GREEN: Before I was interrupted by the member for Eildon, that is exactly what I was doing. Thank you, Deputy Speaker.

It is actually a report that is very timely. We received the reference around the time that we were all midway through living through the lockdown and the impacts of the pandemic, and it was really very timely that the Parliament was looking at this issue about how people live in apartments, because so many more people had to work from home. It really has meant that people have looked at the way they do things, particularly with the number of children now growing up in apartments. I want to commend my friend Kos Samaras, who is writing extensively at the moment about housing affordability and the cost of living. I think this report can be read in the same context as the work that he is writing in that we do need to do housing and housing affordability better in this country, and this report will contribute to that.

There were many witnesses to the inquiry, and I want to particularly single out the Australian Institute of Architects’ Paul Zanatta, Tim Leslie, Bill Krotiris, Sarah Buckeridge and James Legge for the tour that they took the committee on to apartments in Elwood, West Melbourne, Fairfield and Burwood. They were really great examples. We looked at light, amenity, how children interact and communal spaces, and it really did form a strong basis for the recommendations that are in the report. It is a robust report. It has 35 recommendations and 64 findings. I want to commend the committee staff and commend the work of this report to the Parliament.