Tuesday, 3 March 2026

 Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (21:20): (2364) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Planning. The community of Blackburn are at this moment feeling like they are being punished for sticking up for themselves. They are being punished for providing the consultation feedback they were asked to provide. Blackburn activity centre is the only activity centre where the borders were announced but not the building heights. In every other activity centre both were announced simultaneously. But in Blackburn they only were told the size, not the heights, and it intruded into a very sensitive area of high-value, high-significance landscape overlays. The community were rightfully outraged. Many put signs in their gardens. There were something like 5000 signatures from a very small area against this, and the government had to retreat because they were in serious trouble in that area.

So the size of the activity centre boundaries was shrunk, but the government made sure they paid for it, because the heights were then subsequently announced and were completely above anyone’s wildest, worst dreams of what they could be. In an area which has one- and two-storey buildings only, we have been given 16 storeys. In South Parade, a shopping strip of one and two storeys, it is 12 storeys the length of the shopping strip, and then on the other side of the train station it is 10 storeys. So we are going from a quiet suburban strip to a wind tunnel of 12 and 10 storeys. Down Laburnum Street it is six to eight storeys the length all the way down to Laburnum. This is a traditional tree-lined street.

Members interjecting.

Richard WELCH: The members over there are mocking the community of Blackburn. That is what you are doing. You are mocking the people of Blackburn and their concerns. Even with –

Michael Galea: On a point of order, President, I think Mr Welch is all too aware that we are not mocking any community, we are mocking the appalling housing policy of the Liberal Party.

The PRESIDENT: I do not think that is a point of order.

Gaelle Broad: On the point of order, President, I just want to point out that it is like the old men on the Muppets, listening to these guys tonight. I ask if they could just settle down a little bit.

The PRESIDENT: I call the house to order.

Richard WELCH: Now, to add insult to injury, the consultation website gives a drop-down for how many storeys you would prefer in the activity centre. Guess what the minimum is – eight. So you cannot say two, you cannot say four and you cannot say six. You cannot provide feedback that says, ‘We don’t actually want any of this at all.’ A 16-storey building adjacent to a residential street of single-storey buildings – 16 storeys. So the action I seek from the minister is to update the website and provide proper options for people. If you want feedback, allow them to actually provide it.