Wednesday, 25 May 2022

Planning policy

Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (17:58): (1944) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Planning. Preston Market is set to be redeveloped. The owners were set to build 2200 apartments on the site that surrounds Preston station. This should be a slam dunk win for Preston and for Melbourne—thousands of people with direct access to a train line and close access to stores and market stalls. The project was set to contribute $800 million to the area, with $75 million being spent on developing and supporting the market itself. The project also follows housing affordability advice from the Grattan Institute: to make housing affordable you need to build more houses, and the best houses to build are ones that contribute the least to congestion. Their specific advice was to relax density restrictions for housing along transport corridors.

In classic government fashion the authorities have decided to ignore this advice and squash the development. Housing affordability be damned; the locals want to keep pushing up their property values, and they cannot do that if people are allowed to build houses. Mark my words, nimbys are the cause of unaffordable housing. This new development would help share the Preston community and train line with many more people. It would provide living space to thousands of people in a desirable location. It is selfish to set up in a neighbourhood, to stake your property and then to demand that no-one else be allowed to build new housing just so you can keep it for yourself, just so you can keep your own property value high and rising.

The Minister for Planning’s latest proposal is to slash the number of apartments almost in half. The median price of a two-bedroom unit in Preston is $610 000, with median houses costing over $1.2 million. Local action groups go on and on about preserving the character of the neighbourhood, but the primary characteristic of your neighbourhood is that soon only the wealthiest Australians will be able to live there. Preston Market is not in my electorate and is not an issue for me to decide, but I do not want what is happening there to happen to Northern Victoria.

In Bendigo a proposal for 14 new houses was rejected by the council to again maintain the neighbourhood character. The council defended their decision, saying that they could ban the creation of new houses and lower housing prices at the same time. This is not actually possible. Rental prices are soaring in Bendigo and across Northern Victoria. Housing support providers are raising alarm bells because the number of people accessing emergency accommodation is rising quickly.

No more excuses—we need to build big in Victoria. The government should immediately take action to remove restrictions and allow homes to be built. The Liberal Democrats want to see an ambitious new target in Victoria of 1 million new homes in the next 10 years. We need right-to-build laws. I want people to build new housing in Northern Victoria. I want to see property prices stop rising so people can afford to buy them. I want people to be able to afford to live here. I call on the minister to relax planning restrictions that prevent and slow the rate of new housing being built.