Thursday, 24 February 2022

Compulsory acquisition

Ms BURNETT-WAKE (Eastern Victoria) (17:32): (1775) My adjournment request is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure. The action I seek is for the minister to ensure and provide a commitment that proper face-to-face consultation occurs with all residents whose homes and properties are acquired to make way for state infrastructure projects. I recently met with several residents living on the outskirts of Pakenham whose properties are being acquired for the new Pakenham East train station to service a new 7200-home estate. What is shocking about their story is that the media were advised prior to the residents of the acquisitions. The media were advised at 4.00 pm on 10 February 2021. It was later that night, between 5.00 pm and 8.00 pm, that representatives from the Level Crossing Removal Authority doorknocked to inform affected home owners of the acquisitions. All these residents have worked hard for their properties. In one case the husband had worked seven days a week for 10 years to build their dream home. This couple’s home was just three years old when they were told it would be demolished for the train station. They were not home when the representatives doorknocked and were instead notified via a late-night phone call. Their neighbours were left to find out through the front page of the newspaper the next morning. The fact that media were advised prior to the residents is outrageous. It appears the government prioritises getting brownie points for new infrastructure over the emotions of affected home owners.

Since then some residents have received an offer which they advise does not allow them to buy a comparable home. When one resident attempted to reach out to the level crossing authority about the mental and emotional impacts this was all having, she was sent the Lifeline number. This is not caring for the community, this is not listening or even supporting those affected, and a late-night phone call is not consultation. Others have written to the authority questioning placement of the station, which is almost 1 kilometre down the road from the estate it is designed to service. The authority said they could not undertake community consultation on the station location, as it is not an aspect of the project that community feedback can influence.

The issue was raised my predecessor, the Honourable Edward O’Donohue, in April last year, and a response was received from the minister on 26 May. In her response the minister advised that the Level Crossing Removal Project had met with impacted residents and would continue to do so regularly as the project progresses. Nine months have now passed and the affected residents I spoke to have not once been visited by anyone involved in the project. They have received updates about their own lives via written correspondence. They are now being charged rent on their own homes that I am advised is more per month than their mortgage was, and they have been told to continue paying building insurance.

The process of acquiring property is life changing and should be treated that way. This lack of consultation cannot keep happening. Therefore the action that I seek is that the minister ensure and provide a commitment that proper face-to-face consultation occurs with all Victorian residents who are going to have their homes and property acquired to make way for state infrastructure projects. They must not read about their homes being acquired in the media and they must not read it in a note left in their letterbox.