Wednesday, 30 October 2024

 Michael O’BRIEN (Malvern) (09:59): I rise to condemn the Minister for Planning for approving the Woolworths development at 173 Burke Road in Glen Iris. This planning minister was very keen to object to overdevelopment in her own Carrum community. She even wrote a letter protesting it, but she could not wait to rubberstamp a huge property play from a big supermarket chain that just coincidentally, I am sure, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Australian Labor Party. Labor planning ministers who object to oversized developments in their own backyards but rubberstamp them in other communities should be called out for what they are: hypocrites. This 173 Burke Road proposal was rejected by Stonnington council because it was inappropriate for the site and the surrounds. Woolworths then appealed, and after a 12-day hearing at VCAT it was rejected by VCAT for the very same reasons. But Labor’s planning minister from Carrum apparently knows better, because she has rubberstamped a massive supermarket and towers proposal within 400 metres of three schools and a medical clinic, which will cause havoc on the roads and sacrifice the livability of local residents and traders. Make no mistake: with 10 local activity development centres being imposed by Labor on my Malvern electorate alone, this is Labor’s blueprint of things to come – high-rise, high-density overdevelopment, ignoring the community and doing the bidding of Labor-donating big developers.