John Menadue might be a bit before the time of some of you here, but he is very heavy duty. He was the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet – Australia’s top bureaucrat – during the Prime Ministership of both Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser. Nowadays he writes a Public Policy Journal called Pearls and Irritations. Recently he wrote an article on infrastructure projects in Sydney and Melbourne which found that, in the last decade, Australia has spent over $530 billion in highly dubious Sydney and Melbourne transport megaprojects.
He writes that “For over 15 years, a cocktail of ever cheaper debt, the unchecked influence of our transport infrastructure lobby and a seduced senior bureaucracy underpinned a drunken feast of road and rail megaprojects”. The North East Link is a cool $16 billion, a remarkable amount when you consider what could be achieved if that money were to be spent in other ways.
It is high time this infrastructure extravagance came to a stop. It is a reckless use of taxpayers money, and an invitation to cronyism and improper influence between the public and private sectors, with many of the usual safeguards being ignored. But it is not only a question of extravagance.
It is a question of environmental damage. The North East Link includes a massive 10 lane, 65 metre wide trench cutting through the middle of Watsonia. This project will lead to the felling of 26,000 trees. It is an incredible number. We live at a time when trees have never been more important. We need them to provide habitat for our declining biodiversity – our shrinking numbers of birds, plants and animals. We need them to combat climate change by absorbing greenhouse gas emissions. We
need them to keep our city cool and spare us from the urban heat island effect. We need them for the physical and mental health benefits that come from being associated with green open space and nature.
Government agencies seem to have all the right words about the need to protect trees.
Infrastructure Victoria, of all people, says “Our tree canopies are struggling for space with small lots, renovated homes, new townhouses and apartment blocks, all of which are accommodating Victoria’s growing population.” They go on to say that “Urban vegetation is important and has multiple functions and benefits for both the environment and people, improving community health and wellbeing, reducing urban temperatures and supporting ecosystems and biodiversity.”
But Infrastructure Victoria would claim that projects like this are the price we pay for urban consolidation, and that urban consolidation has environmental benefits. But the idea of chopping down trees for environmental benefit sounds way too much like the American General in the Vietnam War who told a reporter who asked him about bombing a village in the Mekong Delta that “we had to destroy the village in order to save it.”
In any event the latest Australian State of the Environment Report makes clear that urban consolidation is not saving the planet, it is wrecking it. It notes that “The growth rates of some of Australia’s capital cities are some of the highest in the developed world and these have placedgrowing pressure on the urban environment to expand either upwards (in terms of urban density) or outwards (in terms of urban sprawl).
It goes on to say that “Because of the increasing ratio of building area to land area on lots, the space for trees, plants and outdoor recreation at both the front and rear of dwellings has declined. This change in urban form is not only changing the physical form and character of green field neighbourhoods, but the ability to manage heat, improve walkability and thereby the liveability of our urban environments. It is also reducing the extent of urban biodiversity by decreasing tree canopy cover and urban space.
So the trees at Simpson Barracks have been killed in vain. The urban consolidation, and the traffic congestion that comes with it, have no environmental benefits at all.
The Government wants to talk about offsets. But if the Government is going to talk about offsets, it need s to do so in a way that the community can believe is fair dinkum. The Banyule Council has proposed a Green Lid over the North East Link, having worked with tunnelling, analytics and modelling experts. While it would no doubt take time, this could be a way of genuinely addressing some of the damage which has been done, and I urge the Government to examine and respond to
this proposal in good faith.
Thank you for coming along this morning to support the trees and bear witness to their loss. It is always very encouraging to come across civic-minded people who do things because they believe in them, not because there’s something in it for them. Planning Democracy, which I am the Convenor of, is a network of resident action groups. Our house is built on 4 pillars – heritage protection, protecting tree canopy cover, public open space, and giving residents a say in planning issues. I look
forward to continuing to work with you and supporting you in any way I can.
The Hon. Kelvin Thomson
Convenor, Planning Democracy.
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