Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Michael O’BRIEN (Malvern) (10:27): Historically, matters raised with ministers in letters from MPs were prioritised for response, not just as a professional courtesy but also acknowledging ministerial accountability. So it was disappointing to have to raise the failure of the Minister for Planning and Attorney-General to provide any response to two important matters. The first is my letter dated 23 July 2025 relating to the fraud perpetrated by now-deceased solicitor John Adams, who operated a Ponzi scheme registering false mortgages to lure investors into giving him money. On behalf of people who suffered catastrophic financial losses, I asked the minister what safeguards have been put in place to prevent this fraud from happening again. Some 225 days on, the minister has not bothered to respond.

I also wrote to the minister on 17 December last year regarding the admitted failure of her department to properly consult with residents of the heritage-listed Gascoigne Estate in Malvern East, who will be impacted by the proposed Caulfield station activity centre. Affected residents were therefore denied the opportunity to attend either of the two in-person sessions, even though they were held in Elsternwick and McKinnon for 2 hours only. Let me be blunt: the so-called consultation process in my area over Labor’s activity centres has been incompetent at best, if not deliberately designed to disenfranchise my residents. Despite writing to the minister over 11 weeks ago, I have not had even an acknowledgement, let alone a substantive response. If the Attorney had ignored correspondence when a lawyer as she does as a minister, she would have been sued for negligence. She needs to lift her game.