Wednesday, 23 September 2026

 Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (11:05): I rise to speak on the Environment and Planning committee’s report into securing the Victorian food supply and the government’s response to that. I think it is really important that I do because this really impacts housing, and we have noticed that those opposite have gone very quiet on their housing policy as it relates to us in the outer suburbs. So I think it is important that somebody speaks about it in this place.

The inquiry, as you would well know, looked at the future of food production in Victoria and at the pressure urban development places on productive agriculture around Melbourne. For the communities that I represent, this is something that is right at our doorstep, on the eastern side of Yan Yean Road – we are talking about Yarrambat and Plenty – and then the strip between Doreen and Whittlesea and then up further around Wandong. You can stand on Yan Yean Road and on one side is suburban Melbourne and on the other side is open landscape and green wedge. People choose to live here because of that character, they do not want to see Melbourne simply continue spreading north. And this is the really important part: Labor is the only party that has committed to keeping Whittlesea and Wandong as country towns, Labor is the only party that has committed to keeping the green wedge and the urban growth boundary.

The committee heard about the importance of protecting rural character and about stopping speculative development, and the committee’s recommendation is clear – recommendation 11 calls for a strong and unequivocal commitment to maintaining that urban growth boundary, and Labor has delivered that. But the Liberal Party has not committed to the green wedge. They have not committed to keeping legislation for the green wedge. I invite the Leader of the Opposition, if she wants to, to come back into the chamber and correct me. But the fact is that their spokesperson the member for Caulfield refused to commit to keeping the green wedge as it is. In fact, to quote the member for Caulfield, they will be returning planning decisions to locals. So what does that mean? That means no legislative protections. Currently, if there are going to be any changes to the green wedge, both the lower and upper houses have to allow it. But we have heard directly from those opposite that they will return it to the locals – that is, they will take away parliamentary protection of the green wedge. The housing policy of those opposite is to speed up housing in the outer suburbs. That is a contrast to Labor’s policy, which has been to slow down and space out new estates coming so that we can make sure that our infrastructure is keeping up with the population.

I invite those opposite to come to Wallan and come to Donnybrook and to tell them that they want housing built even faster in our areas. If we look at Wallan at the moment, we are building the Wallan ramps and upgrading the northern intersection with Watson Street to make traffic better for people that are living in the estates of Wallara Waters and Newbridge. We are making sure that happens first before new estates are opened up further east. But the Liberal Party’s commitment is to ignore those infrastructure needs, ignore the traffic dramas of a morning and just get more houses built in the outer suburbs, including taking away protections for our green wedge and our urban growth boundary. And why do they want to do that? They want to do that because they do not want more housing in the areas where they live, in the inner suburbs, which have a lot of transport connections, health services and the like. They want all the housing, faster, out where we live.

Well, Labor says no. Labor has drawn a line. Labor says Whittlesea will remain a country town, we say Wandong will remain a country town and the green wedge on the eastern side of Yan Yean Road stays protected from housing development. We do not want to see Melbourne gradually creep up around our borders. Returning decisions to the locals, as the Liberals say, is something we view with great scepticism in my area, considering we have had local Liberal members holding meetings with landowners about subdividing and getting rid of the greed wedge for our beautiful area.