Wednesday, 27 August 2025

Wallan quarry

Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (19:06): (1893) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek is for the minister to meet with members of the local Wallan and Beveridge community in regard to the planned quarry in their neighbourhood she recently approved. The Wallan and Beveridge community are fiercely opposed to the process which has taken place in regard to this quarry – a process that has ignored them and dismissed their concerns, lacks transparency and threatens to devastate their lives. This quarry has been approved in the heart of a designated growth corridor and sets a dangerous precedent by putting heavy industry before families and the community.

Last week I met with the community and listened to what they had to say. It was very clear that they are overwhelmingly and deeply saddened and frustrated by the minister’s decision to approve this quarry and the lack of meaningful consultation with them. They fear for their children’s safety, with up to 250 additional heavy trucks passing dangerously close to school zones and childcare centres on already congested roads. Residents speak of being financially ruined or unable to move out, with homes now effectively unsellable. They also rightly fear the irreversible damage to significant Wurundjeri and Taungurung cultural heritage sites, the loss of native habitats and the contamination of groundwater. Most damningly, they describe this process as a sham consultation. They were presented with a precinct structure plan that never mentioned a quarry, only to be informed later that a decision had effectively already been made. Ecological studies were kept secret and First Nations consultation was shallow and tokenistic, and resident petitions with 1200-plus signatures and the overwhelming 96 per cent of council submissions opposing the project have all been ignored.

In talking to residents I learned that in the three years this process has gone on, none of the four planning ministers in that time have gone down to the community to meet with them. Minister, this community deserves transparency and accountability. The more they are met with silence, the more this decision looks like the result of a flawed, opaque process that puts the profits of developers before the needs of everyday people. Minister, will you show your face to the people of Wallan and Beveridge who will be affected by this life-altering, community-shaking decision? If you cannot, then this project rightfully deserves to be put back in the ground.