Thursday, 20 February 2020

Melbourne electorate

Ms SANDELL (Melbourne) (11:47): (1916) My question is for the Minister for Planning, and it is about protection of our parks, playgrounds and open space in the Docklands. Docklands is a great place to live. It has some great parks, but unfortunately some of these parks are now under threat.

Last year the City of Melbourne introduced a plan called ‘sunlight to parks’. It was championed by Greens councillors Rohan Leppert and Cathy Oke. The aim was to protect our inner-city parks and public spaces from being overshadowed by big buildings and to make sure sunlight gets to the parks. It now seems that the Minister for Planning has decided to exempt the Docklands from this plan. Docklands already has limited public open space. The people who live there deserve, just like anyone else, to have places they can go outside and enjoy the sunshine. My question is: will the minister reverse his decision to exempt Docklands from the City of Melbourne’s ‘sunlight to parks’ amendment and commit to protecting Docklands’ precious open space from overshadowing and inappropriate development?