Wednesday, 15 September 2021

Mr HAYES (Southern Metropolitan)

Incorporated pursuant to order of Council of 14 September:

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to e-petition 351, an e-petition raised by the residents of Banyule that seeks to prevent local councils accepting unsolicited land proposals for the acquisition of public land.

The residents draw attention to the recently announced plans of Banyule City Council, who have entered into a public-private partnership with Woolworths, resulting in Woolworths’ property development division being allowed to acquire public land in exchange for the provision of public infrastructure, namely building the Rosanna library as an extension of their development.

In April 2021, Banyule council announced a partnership with Woolworths to allow them to expand their already approved development by acquiring another 828 square metres of public land in exchange for building the Rosanna library and then building an even larger supermarket. The additional land they acquired was zoned public use and had not been identified as surplus by council. This deal was done without any transparent public consultation and is setting a precedent which will bind the residents’ hands. Woolworths will also be the permit applicant for the combined build and Banyule will have a conflict of interest, being planning authority and a party to the development.

The residents are concerned that this now sets a bad precedent in Victoria, with other local councils now contacting Banyule City Council expressing interest in establishing similar development partnership models across Victoria.

Public infrastructure becomes bargaining power in confidential agreements, impervious to the public eye. These types of deals remove the public’s voice on the sale of public land and provision of local infrastructure and remove the ability to freely challenge attached private development.

These situations must draw our attention to the influence private developers have, over and above public transparency, which now puts every piece of public land at risk. I also firmly believe that public land should stay in public hands; once it is privatised it is gone and rarely can any land of equivalent value be bought back.

At the core of these proposals is the misappropriation of valuable public land and the large sums of money private developers will pay to acquire this land. Power, money and the influence of private developers is usurping the democratic process and the interests of the public. The confidential nature of these deals could create pathways for corruption and undue influence within local councils, allowing avenues for the wilful deception of the public. All Victorian local government areas are susceptible to these risks. Unsolicited proposals bring huge risks and one has to only look to the controversial and underhand Crown Casino deal in Sydney as an example of a complete failure of process. The architect of the casino project stated, ‘That building should stand there and be a warning to us all. We should look at that building and forever know that we should never let that happen again’.

The petitioners are requesting that the Minister for Local Government take action to prevent local councils from accepting unsolicited proposals to purchase public land and from exchanging public land for infrastructure.