Northern Victoria Region
Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (12:45): (1648) My constituency question is for the Minister for Housing and Minister for Planning. Last week I visited Shepparton ACE Secondary College, a small independent school providing education to disadvantaged students disengaged from the system. ACE, recently booted from their premises by Shep council for a state government project, have just opened their new purpose-designed campus. Now the council and the government are building a four-storey social housing tower on the car park next to the school. This will loom over the school and block its fire escape. Because it is part of the government’s social housing project, it is exempt from the usual planning rules. We are told that Shep council recently rejected a two-storey apartment development literally next door to this site as unsuitable. We do not oppose social housing with the right location and design. This is not it. ACE college should not be chased out again. Public housing towers are so 1960s. There are many alternative locations in Shep for this project. Minister, why is ACE college being trampled again by this terrible design for social housing in Shep?