Tuesday, 12 November 2024

 Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:49): (1264) The action I seek is from the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop. Box Hill’s recent community forum on the Suburban Rail Loop attracted 400 residents, all deeply invested in the future of our local area. This is what happens when a community mobilises. The strong turnout highlights a community deeply concerned about how this major project will impact their neighbourhoods. It is clear they feel their voices are not being heard, but they must be heard in shaping the outcome. The forum provided critical space for discussion on the SRL’s potential impacts. The forum saw constructive exchanges with urban planners, transport experts and environmental advocates who addressed local concerns. Most of these residents had never heard from the SRL and felt that the SRL did not bother to consult them or care about their opinion.

The lack of information at this stage of proceedings is shocking, and you would have to question what communication benchmarks the management and board of the SRL have weighed through. It resulted, though, in about 150 questions being submitted to the forum. Many attendees raised valid concerns regarding the project’s transparency and timelines and the impact on green spaces and neighbourhood character. They expressed shock at the prospect of high-density development in residential streets, the loss of cherished open space and the erosion of local planning controls. There was sheer incredulity that six-storey flats could be built in their streets, that heritage controls were going to be removed and that there was no right to objection – it feels unbelievable in 2024 in Victoria just to be saying that. And it was evident that while there was support for improving infrastructure, there was a strong desire for it to be done in a way that respects and preserves the unique character of our area and that respects and considers local voices.

High-rise development and density were not endorsed at the last election. Let us be 100 per cent clear: there is no mandate for this, and there will be democratic consequences for the local member and for Labor in Box Hill, in Blackburn, in Burwood and in Glen Waverley for this policy. Therefore the action I seek from the minister is to try, if he can, to explain why the $200 billion Suburban Rail Loop is being forced down the throats of locals in Box Hill, Burwood and Glen Waverley, without a mandate, for this scale of population densification. Minister, listen to the overwhelming support for returning planning power to the community while ultimately pausing the destructive Suburban Rail Loop.