Thursday, 15 August 2019

In reply to  Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (5 June 2019)

Mr WYNNE (Richmond—Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs):

The community care accommodation planning provisions are based on long-standing bipartisan policy to exempt these types of land uses from permit requirements to reduce discrimination against disabled or disadvantaged people seeking housing.

One of the primary reasons for the introduction of the exemption in the 1980s was to safeguard against objections being made to permit applications based on the physical, mental or social characteristics of the future residents.

The purpose of the October 2018 amendment was to improve the operation of the community care accommodation planning provision by:

• Clarifying the areas where the exemption applies, which was previously inexplicit and open to varying interpretations; and

• Broadening the requirement that developments be funded exclusively by the Department of Health and Human Services, to permit funding by any government department or public authority.