Wednesday, 19 November 2025

 Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (18:34): (2155) My adjournment is to the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek is for the minister to explain herself and explain her hypocrisy when it comes to planning. I want to point to her ministers statement in the lower house today, where she actually quoted me and quoted my great maiden speech as some sort of point of attack, where I said:

… it is immoral that large sections of our inner cities, flush with good transport, schools, health care … remain almost flat, with obsolete overlays denying young Victorians a chance to buy their first home where they want to live …

which is true. But the Minister for Planning might want to speak to her old friend Richard Wynne, who spent eight years of government opposing any sort of sensible development. She also might want to speak to Minister Erdogan or the member for Broadmeadows, who worked with Richard Wynne while on council to oppose development in Brunswick and to slap on height limits in Brunswick. That is the hypocrisy we see.

But I wanted to play a bit of a game of guess who said this. I will read a quote, and people can guess. First quote:

Unlike those opposite, the Andrews Labor government recognises that community and public participation is important and absolutely central to planning law and policy in Victoria. Unlike those opposite, the Andrews Labor government believes very strongly in giving a voice to the community.

Who said that? It was the Minister for Planning, in 2015. Here is another quote:

We have a very strong community spirit in –

insert suburb –

As residents, we are very proud of our beautiful environment and we want to see development that is appropriate to the area.

Well, that suburb is Carrum, and that quote is from the Minister for Planning. Another quote:

We know all too well that increased development in and around Melbourne and other regional centres throughout Victoria inevitably puts enormous and intense pressure on our heritage and puts that heritage at risk.

One guess at who that was – the Minister for Planning. The Minister for Planning is an absolute hypocrite when it comes to these issues. As we know, they passed the VCAT amendment enabling objectors bill 2015, Brian Tee’s handiwork, which has caused a lot of the issues in our planning system. The Minister for Planning can get up and use my quote as she has, like, five times – it is getting tiresome – or she can admit to her hypocrisy for the majority of this government.

Gayle Tierney: On a point of order, President, the member is reflecting on a member of another house, and I ask for it to be withdrawn. It was twice he called the Minister for Planning a hypocrite.

The PRESIDENT: Yes, I think we have before deemed calling someone a hypocrite unparliamentary, so I will ask him to withdraw that part of it.

Evan MULHOLLAND: I am happy to withdraw that part. I can say ‘disingenuous’.

The PRESIDENT: Yes, it is a weird sort of ruling in that you might get away with saying something like that, but a ‘hypocrite’ is another thing. I uphold the point of order, and thank you, Mr Mulholland.