Tuesday, 14 May 2024

 Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (20:38): (887) My adjournment is for the Minister for Planning, and the action that I seek is for the minister to immediately overturn the retrospective environmental audit overlay (EAO) that has been applied in North Wonthaggi that has left hundreds of residents in severe stress and uncertainty. Hundreds of property owners in North Wonthaggi have been placed under this stress because this new environmental audit overlay, which could cost each of them up to $80,000 to satisfy, has been implemented, and five years retrospectively. That is like this government changing the speed limit and saying that whoever has broken –

A member: That’s five times 80,000.

Renee HEATH: Exactly – whoever has exceeded that new limit in the past five years will have to cop a fine. It is absolutely unbelievable, and the community is hurting because of it. This EAO, which was approved by the minister in January this year, was not even communicated to the members and the people that own these properties. In fact they found out via social media or the newspaper, and this has been a scandal of monumental proportions. This overlay was put in place after it was discovered that parts of the area had a history of farming and grazing on that land. Well, I would be amazed if there were any recent developments and any recent subdivisions that did not have a history of farming on that land. These residents have been singled out and they are being punished, so on Saturday Wayne Farnham and I joined hundreds of locals in the park as we gathered to get answers on this issue. I spoke to one beautiful lady in her early 30s who had forgone a lot of life’s luxuries to get into the property market. She had scrimped and saved, and she and her partner live in a home that they bought there. Then they took the plunge to buy a block of land to build on as an investment. Now the home that they live in has been drastically devalued, and they are not allowed to build on that investment block of land. She has been left a nervous wreck, in her words, and she says she is anxious all the time.

Another woman escaped family violence and has worked really hard to have a fresh start and now says that she is under enormous stress. Another couple said that they bought their house two weeks before this overlay was secretly applied retrospectively, and now they are left in an incredible amount of stress and they have a lot of regrets. This is an issue that I ask the minister to give immediate attention to so these people can go back to living their lives normally.