Tuesday, 28 July 2026

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (19:07): (2629) My matter for the adjournment tonight is, I think, for the Minister for Planning, but part of the point I am going to make is that the state government has lost its way on heritage issues. There is no specific area within government that takes overall responsibility. There are bodies, such as Heritage Victoria, that administer certain statutory protections for places of significance, but no state entity provides dedicated policy investment coordination across Victoria’s broader heritage sector. Heritage is under attack under this government. First of all, a number of programs have been concluded by this government. The Living Heritage program played an important role over many years, about $8 million a year, and that has gone and not been replaced. Support for the National Trust of Australia, a body that manages many of our heritage places, a not-for-profit body, has not been renewed. There is no multiyear funding for the National Trust in the way that would enable them to make proper decisions and proper heritage protection decisions.

Under the state government’s planning changes, we see now an attack on heritage properties and heritage precincts. The state government has put in place a series of high-rise, high-density planning arrangements which sweep away the protections or leave the protections weak in the face of an overwhelming focus on high rise and high density and the destruction of existing streetscapes, existing heritage and existing heritage buildings. This attack on heritage is a bad outcome for our state, which has long been recognised as a place that understood the importance of our heritage in a cultural sense but also in an economic sense – and both are important. I am in receipt of correspondence from the National Trust pointing out many of these issues.

What I am seeking from the minister is, first of all, a focus on heritage directly, making sure that there is – and this might be a matter for the new Premier to take up – some sort of overarching place in government that focuses on heritage, and part of that would also see the reversal of the terrible attack on heritage that has occurred with the recent planning changes with the high rise, high density that is going to roll over many heritage areas in our state, and also a consideration of the restoration of some of the funding that provided support for heritage in key locations around the state. We are in a position now where, if we do not act, we will lose something valuable that will not be there for our children and their children.