Thursday, 2 April 2026

 Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (17:28): (1634) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Planning, and the action that I seek is for the minister to take on board the feedback from the Blackburn community and Whitehorse council in relation to the Blackburn activity centre, which has been received during the phase 2 consultation period, and to incorporate this feedback into the final plans. I would first like to acknowledge and thank the minister for listening to the concerns of the Blackburn community in relation to the significant landscape overlay areas. The exclusion of these overlays from the activity centre catchment is a recognition of the strong environmental attributes of this area and the importance of their retention as our city grows.

During the five-week consultation period of phase 2, many Blackburn residents have shared with me their views about the activity centre plans. Most people that I have spoken to in Blackburn recognise and support the need for additional housing in their suburb. They do not buy into the scare campaigns run by the opposition that those Victorians looking for their first home should be locked out of suburbs such as Blackburn and forced to live either in the inner city or on the periphery of Melbourne. However, residents have expressed a desire to see a more achievable and moderate-density outcome across the activity centre than that presented in the draft plans, with future building heights that are proportionate and responsive to the local context. Blackburn is not a major commercial centre like Box Hill or Ringwood. It lacks a major employment anchor and does not even have a supermarket within the activity centre boundaries. Accordingly, it retains a village feel, and it is important that any new developments add to, rather than supplant, the qualities that attract people to live in Blackburn in the first place. I look forward to the minister’s response.