Wednesday, 9 March 2022

Development facilitation program

Mr BARTON (Eastern Metropolitan) (17:50): (1798) My adjournment this evening is for Minister Wynne in the other place. The development facilitation program was set up during COVID-19 as a special planning body to speed the development of projects and stimulate the economy. Within this body the Minister for Planning also has the power to conduct an accelerated assessment. We have seen a number of controversial development projects approved under this process, bypassing due process, the most notable being a six-level aged care home in Prahran that had 122 objections from residents, was twice rejected by Stonnington council, was knocked back by the state planning tribunal and ruled out by the Supreme Court—all before being approved by Mr Wynne’s office. Another case of the minister’s planning body having been used as a back door for controversial projects is TLC’s proposed development in Ivanhoe, which was refused by the council for breaching a number of existing covenants. When TLC appealed to VCAT they actually withdrew their application prior to the hearing because of these breaches.

While understandably much has to be done to help recover the economy after pandemic restrictions, there must remain accountability, transparency and community interest at heart. This approval process bypasses local councils, communities and even Supreme Court decisions. Unfortunately we do not know how far this goes. 295 developments were submitted to Mr Wynne’s task force, established last April, and these decisions have not been made public. Essentially we are letting the minister sign off on development projects that do not meet planning regulations or zoning requirements or meet community interests. All due process has been forgotten.

My office has been contacted by a number of local residents who fear similar backdoor approvals occurring for unsuitable developments in their community. The public is losing faith that these developments have to meet any conditions or provide any public benefit whatsoever, and I can see why. So the action I seek is: will the minister make publicly available on what grounds he approved each project under the development facilitation program?