Wednesday, 5 March 2025

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (18:44): (1483) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek is that she not rezone the land at 131–133 Union Street, Windsor, currently occupied by the Windsor Community Children’s Centre. The land is owned by Swinburne University, which is seeking rezoning in order to be able to sell it. The Government Land Standing Advisory Committee held a hearing for the rezoning application last year, and it received more than 650 submissions, one of the largest responses in the state’s history. Nearly all of those application submissions opposed the rezoning. The minister is considering a report that she received from that committee in October 2024 and has yet to make a determination on it. The Windsor Community Children’s Centre has been the tenant at this site for the past 28 years. If it has security of tenure, the centre has the capacity to increase the number of childcare places currently available. I do note that the university initially sought unsuccessfully a public sector buyer for the land, but nevertheless it is important to put on the record that the reason that the university now owns the land is because it was gifted this Crown land – in other words, public land – which could well now be privatised if the university gets its way. There are solutions to this that the government could pursue. Stonnington council has written to the Minister for Children proposing a tripartite funding arrangement between the council and the state and federal governments. Minister, please stop the rezoning of the land at 131–133 Union Street, Windsor. Do not allow more public land to be sold off under your watch.