Tuesday, 27 August 2024

Planning policy

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (17:46): (1079) My matter for the adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Minister for Planning in the other place. It concerns the government’s announcement in recent days of 10 centres within metropolitan Melbourne where it proposes to strip councils and communities of democratic planning rights and to force the densification of these areas in an unrestrained way. I am thankful for the contribution of the City of Boroondara and, I might add, the City of Bayside too in recent days. The council’s response to the state government’s latest plan for the Camberwell Junction activity centre on the council’s website has a statement from the mayor which lays out a number of the concerns:

… Council is not supportive of … the additional ‘catchment area’ that extends a further 800m from the boundary of the centre and will allow for development height up to 6 storeys in heritage areas and low scale single dwelling leafy neighbourhoods. Neither Council nor the community have been consulted on this alarming new catchment area, which is illogical and representative of poor planning.

They went further to say:

This vast catchment area encompasses 4,500 heritage listed properties. It is estimated that approximately 48% of this catchment area is land currently protected by the Heritage Overlay –

and it lays that out in the maps on its site.

… Council does not support this catchment area in any way and condemns the state government’s disregard for local heritage and amenity …

Any claims by the Minister for Planning that they have undertaken consultation with Council on the latest version of their plans are completely false. Council only obtained a copy of the latest plans via the state government’s website on Thursday 22 August, after media releases and announcements were made by the Minister.

This is a harebrained plan by the state government. There is no proper planning for services, for health services or for education services. Where is the sewerage plan? You are going to put tens of thousands more people into these areas. These plans are not up to scratch. They have not properly consulted with local communities and areas. More often than not, I add, the slowness in planning is not caused by councils, it is actually the minister herself and the department. More often than not, planning scheme amendments are sitting on her desk and her predecessor’s desks for years in some cases as communities wait for planning approvals, often with council support. The slowness is the government and the department, not the councils. What I am seeking here today is for the minister to go and consult councils in those 10 or so areas and to actually redraw these plans in consultation with councils and communities rather than undemocratically overriding local communities.