Brumby downsizes democracy upsizes development
About a month ago Brumby gave Madden new call-in powers with the excuse that development was held up because of people - you know - citizens, voters - and democratic local councils. So under the excuse of "getting the economy going" Madden was given these extra powers.
Irresponsible authority
The very next week he intervened in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) over a bike track through Willesmere Park in Kew. Now that is really good for job creation!!!
Then last week he declared himself the Responsible Authority for 2 days and approved a development in South Yarra, where the developer was going against the approved plans and the council stopped it. So the developer went to Madden complaining and Madden approved it.
Developers Run to Mama Madden
The developers can now run to Mama Madden and she will wave a magic wand and make democracy disappear. It is rumoured that that Madden sees councils as getting in his way, basically.
Citizens appeal to omsbudsman
Today candobetter received information that Stonnington Council are appealing to the Ombudsman about the arbitrary call-in by Madden when the developers went knocking on his door.
The Ministers action will now be tested and the result will have bearing on all our futures.
If the Omsbudsman cannot stand up to the government on this issue of democracy then it is really time for a review of all our laws.
Remember solidarity?
Let all the people in all the states stand together in solidarity against the developers' overweaning demands, remembering that is was the growth lobby's demand for population growth to create demand for housing and the finance sector's exploitation of this undemocratic, unstable and anti-social market through sub-primes and various unreasonable fees and hidden cuts, that brought, not just Australia, but the world into the current depression.
Victoria's dinosaur economy - big projects, big debts, big talk
Mr Madden is acting for a dinosaur economy that is completely unsustainable and contributing frighteningly to overpopulation, greenhouse gas emissions and reduction in biodiversity and freedom for citizens. He should be made an example of for other arrogant state ministers to heed and reform before we lose even more of our natural ammenity and quality of life for nothing more than inflation to line the pockets of parasitic developers and their finance jockeys.
Recsei says high density causes more problems, fixes none
Dr Tony Recsei, President of SOS Sydney has written to the SM Herald about the fact that there is no high density city in the world not suffering from the problems that high density is supposed to prevent. He states that local research shows when you have high density you get increased traffic congestion, longer travel times, more energy per person used, no saving of water, increased housing costs and housing choice reduced. This retrofitting high density onto areas designed for low density does not save on infrastructure costs, it just overloads infrastructure and is much more expensive to fix than putting in new infrastructure in new areas.
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