Thursday, 28 August 2025

Kingston City Council

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (23:52): (1913) My adjournment is to the Minister for Local Government, and the action I seek is an assurance that the municipal monitors recently appointed to Kingston City Council are not a veiled attempt to influence or smooth the path for the current controversial planning decisions around the proposed housing development sites at Rossdale and Kingswood golf courses, which are currently being touted for large-scale housing development. Within days of a large public gathering against a development at Rossdale we have monitors appointed at Kingston council. Monitors interventions like this are supposed to be justified. They must be transparent and grounded in evidence. But I have not seen any explanation of why these newly created positions are justified, because I am pretty certain it is not to support the local community. Meanwhile we have some excellent, decent councillors and a mayor who work hard for these communities.

The timing of the monitors’ appointment is interesting, with the huge community outcry of petitions and rallies calling on the government to listen to the people and reconsider these plans. Dividing up golf courses and putting up huge numbers of apartments – 941 proposed in Kingston – without supporting infrastructure is just foolhardy and a kneejerk reaction, conveniently timed before an impending election. Local residents have been more than vocal and wanting to be heard. They are wanting to be part of the planning negotiations, but their concerns are being ignored by the Labor state government. In a widely publicised case about 96 per cent of approximately 10,500 residents opposed the development, which would increase Dingley Village’s population by nearly 25 per cent. More than 1400 community members submitted concerns on the scale of development during the consultation period. Concerns relate to traffic congestion, environmental loss and a total lack of adequate infrastructure. There is also mounting evidence around the Kingston development being built on a flood plain, with possible ramifications on insurance liabilities.

I would like some reassurance from the minister that these monitors are not being used as a political tool to override community sentiment, apply pressure to council decision-making or facilitate a given development outcome under the guise of government support. The community deserves better. Locals have already been ignored in the initial planning stages and in every step of the process. The community and local councillors deserve to know what conduct has triggered this decision to have an oversight body deny them the right to be heard. Victorians deserve to trust that interventions by this government are not being used to silence great councillors and steamroll contentious planning matters.

Minister, are you able to outline the terms of reference and rationale for the appointment of the monitors at Kingston council, guarantee that any planning matters, particularly involving Rossdale and Kingswood, are inclusive of the elected council and the community and are not influenced by unelected monitors operating at the current desperate whim of this dishonest government and assure the community that – (Time expired)