Thursday, 11 September 2025

 Michael O’BRIEN (Malvern) (10:26): Fourteen of the Labor government’s high-rise activity centres are being imposed on my Malvern electorate; the most of any in the state. Labor wants to see congestion-causing high-rise next to the very same train stations where Labor refuses to remove the level crossings. Residents living near Glen Iris or Tooronga level crossings are having insult added to injury. This is not about building more homes. If it was, Labor would work with Stonnington council, which has a housing strategy to provide 67,000 new homes, 34 per cent more than the state government’s target. While Labor ignores councils, we see what really motivates them. At 173 Burke Road in Glen Iris, a Woolworths tower proposal was knocked back by council, knocked back by VCAT but approved by Labor’s Minister for Planning. Well, guess which company has donated to the Victorian Labor Party? None other than Woolies. If it looks dodgy, it probably is. There is a way to build more homes: listen to locals and work with councils. The problem is, for Labor, it just does not pay.