Tuesday, 25 August 2026

 Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (22:04): (2719) My question is for the Minister for Planning. The action I seek is for the minister to return planning authority for planning scheme amendment C164, a large housing development in Clarkefield, to the Macedon Ranges shire. Rushed and uninformed decisions make bad decisions, and Labor’s Minister for Planning is attempting to rush through a highly contentious planning decision that will dramatically change the hamlet of Clarkefield forever and have serious knock-on effects throughout the Macedon Ranges, all without proper public consultation. Clarkefield is a tiny hamlet, with only a few hundred residents living in farmsteads spread throughout the area. Unlike for the Macedon Ranges shire, the minister and her department have no expertise in understanding this area or the broader ramifications this development would have. A developer has applied for planning scheme changes and a planning permit that will take farmland next to Clarkefield train station and subdivide it into 2500 lots, with some lots as small as 84 square metres.

The terrific Liberal candidate for Macedon Kate Kendall has met with residents and affected stakeholders, who are alarmed by the proposal and say the development is totally inappropriate for the Macedon Ranges. The shire is famous for its heritage villages and spacious country feel. It has a unique character and charm, which is often the reason people choose to live there. If this development goes ahead, it will squeeze 6000 new residents into a high-density suburb that is out of character for the area. This will produce a huge increase in traffic in the area, which local roads and intersections are not ready to handle, and the state government has failed to commit to upgrading surrounding arterial roads. It will also put massive pressure on train services that are already overcrowded. Locals tell me it is hard to get a seat on the train now, and I have heard stories of mothers with prams being left stranded at the station because there is no room.

Macedon Ranges Shire Council does not support the proposal in its current form and has identified numerous problems with the analysis and report submitted by the developer. Council says the proposal is premature because strategic environmental infrastructure, governance, drainage, housing and community safety issues remain unresolved. The Department of Transport and Planning wrote to council on 1 May this year, giving them just one month to make a submission on the proposal before it closed on 1 June. This was not nearly enough time for council or the wider community to read the documents and properly consider the complex proposal. This planning development should not be rushed, and Labor must stop fast-tracking projects for big developers against the objections of local communities.