Editor: The situation in Victoria has been very difficult for democracy since the beginning of the 1990s because the Victorian Parliament has been overwhelmingly dominated by one party or the other. At the beginning of this nightmare run, it was dominated by Jeff Kennett's Liberal Party, which tried to raise population growth in Victoria and which began a series of changes to local government and rules for planning and development. When the Labor Party came to power after a long time in the 'desert', it redoubled, tripled... the Kennett Government's efforts to raise population numbers in Victoria and it has made and continues to make ever more decisions to empower corporations and developers in the Growth Lobby at the expense of the people who elected it. Of course, as we have reported elsewhere, this whole process has been helped in Victoria, as in other states, by the growing subserviance of the ABC and biased reporting by the commercial press, which has commercial and corporate interests in finance, mining, real-estate, development and lifestyle commodities which comprise the growth lobby currently dominating Australian politics and budget programs.
This article publishes comments by a transcript from Hansard of comments by David Morris, Liberal Member for Mornington. The full source is at end of article. Note that by publishing these comments we are reporting political comment, we are not endorsing the Liberal Party.
Mr MORRIS (Mornington) — I am pleased to have the opportunity to make some comments on Planning Legislation Amendment Bill 2009.
[...] Let me say at the outset that this is an absolute shocker of a bill.
How government members and indeed the minister can come into this house, support this sort of legislation and keep a straight face while they are talkingabout it and all the wonderful things it supposedly does is quite frankly entirely beyond my comprehension.
This bill is nothing but an attack on communities. It is an attack on local democracy and on local government.
It is simply a blatant, naked grab for power. It is hidden behind rhetoric about reforming the planning system, but that is all it is — a grab for power. Let usbe very clear about it. Absolutely nothing in this bill will contribute to legitimate reform. Nothing in this bill will speed up the process. Nothing in this billwill improve probity. Nothing in this bill will improve transparency or quality of outcomes. Indeed all those things will go backwards under this legislation.
It is in fact highly likely that additional delays will be caused by the introduction of this legislation. In many cases, if not all cases, councils as responsibleauthorities have delegated extensively to their officers, so many of the decisions that are proposed to be considered by development assessmentcommittees (DACs) have already been delegated to individual officers or committees of officers, and this process will be slowed down.
The message from the state government to the people and the councillors of Victoria is very clear:
‘You can’t be trusted. You can’t be trusted to make decisions about your own communities, so we’re going to make them for you’.
There is only one positive comment I want to make about this bill, and that is to say I appreciated the frank, comprehensive and professional manner in which we were briefed on the issues by the departmental officers and by the minister’s office; it was well done. Apart from that, there are no redeeming features.
What does this crock purport to do?
The bill amends the Planning and Environment Act to establish development assessment committees and to set guidelines for their operation. It is interesting to note that the minister described this bill as a framework for a new state-local government partnership. It will be an interesting partnership — local government will pay, but the state government will make the decisions.
You might say the polite term for all this is cost shifting. You might say it is undermining the democratic process.
I call it extortion at gunpoint. Hand over your valuables; in this case hand over your suburbs, towns, cities and neighbourhoods. Each neighbourhood has been established and nurtured bygenerations of civic leaders. Each neighbourhood has its own character and is a special place in its own right.
The demand is, ‘Hand them over to us and we will look after them for you. You will still pay, but we will look after them’.
Government members know how devastating the bill is going to be but still support it
If this bill succeeds, every neighbourhood in the state is at risk, every neighbourhood will be compromised — not might be compromised but will be compromised. Government members understand that. They know exactly how devastating this bill will be and what it will do to local communities. But for some reason they are prepared to support the bill. Let there be no doubt that a member who supports this legislation will not be able to ever come into this house again and pretend they are a friend of local government. They will have outed themselves for life and proved beyond reasonable doubt that they are enemy no.1 of local councils and local communities.
The amendments to the Planning and Environment Act change the definition of growth areas and establish and regulate the DACs [Development Assessment Committees -- Ed.] There are also amendments to the Docklands Act 1991, the Heritage Act 1995, the Local Government Act 1989 and the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Trust Act 1996, which is being amended to make some changes which should have been enacted years ago. I mention that only in passing, because I wantto concentrate entirely on the growth areas and the development assessment committees.
New rules may extend to any council or part of a council in Victoria
The changes to the growth area provisions are substantial. Growth area provisions are currently restricted to the defined councils of Cardinia, Casey,Hume, Melton, Whittlesea and Wyndham. They are defined in section 46AP of the principal act, which will be repealed under this legislation. It is proposed that the new provisions will be extended to any council or part of a council in Victoria. Any area can be declared a growth area — from Malvern to Mornington,Maldon to Mildura, and from Narre Warren, Northcote, Noojee or Nepean.
The changes will be made without consultation
The changes will be made without consultation. The Minister for Planning, through the device of an order in council, can make orders at the stroke of a pen.The Minister for Planning will become the Tsar of Planning for all of Victoria. He alone will declare the growth areas; he alone will make decisionswithout the hindrance of local opinion and community input.
Areas will not only be defined as growth areas; they will also come under the ambit of the Growth Areas Authority.
If you happen to be living within a defined urban growth area, any land transfer that occurs after the passage of this legislation will cost you an up-front payment of $95 000 per hectare for the privilege. The whole concept is just crazy. It throws due process out the window, and it cuts the community out of what process is left — and on top of that you get to pay for the privilege of no longer being able to have a say in what happens in your community.
The other principal change of course is the introduction of the development assessment committees. Once again the changes apply across the state. Once again, with a stroke of a pen, the minister can rip away any local oversight or any part of the responsible authority functions of a local council — without discussion, without consent, without justification and with no right of appeal.
It is rubbish to claim that councils or ratepayers will still control the process
If this bill ever receives royal assent, it will change local government in Victoria forever. No doubt as the debate progresses we will again hear from across the chamber claims that councils will still control the process.
That is rubbish.
Councils — or the ratepayers — will foot the bill. That is the extent of the input they will have. They will pay for the privilege. They will provide the resources and they will cop the blame, but they will have absolutely no say in the outcomes.
The other claim that is often made and that no doubt we will hear again and again is that councils control planning schemes and are able to make local policy.
That is not just rubbish — it is absolute rubbish. Yes, local policy exists, but it will always get trumped in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal by state policy. In any case, who makes the policy? It goes through a planning scheme amendment process. Who says you can even start a planning scheme amendment?
It is the Minister for Planning. Do not tell me that councils have any real say in what goes on in their community.
There are a whole lot of other examples of nonsense in this bill that I obviously do not have time to detail, and I do not believe any purpose would be served by detailing them. An example though is the conflict-of-interest provisions that, as I understand it, have effectively been mirrored from the Local Government Act.
We know that the Local Government Act, as amended, is totally unworkable. It has taken only four months to prove that these provisions will not work for local government, so the government is introducing them for DACs as well! These are provisions that require 70-plus pages of explanation, and still do not work. There are lots more examples in a similar vein.
The Bill must not pass
This legislation is an attack on local government, it is an attack on local communities and it is an attack on every citizen of Victoria. It is a blatant grab for power.
It is a cheap stunt to try to pass off the shortcomings of the government’s planning processes. The bill must not pass.
End of Mr Clark's speech.
Ms D'Ambrosio, Labor Member for Mill Park, rose and spoke in support of the bill.
Source: “Planning Legislation Amendment Bill, (Second Reading), Members Statements, Assembly, Hansard, Tuesday, 5, May, 2009, pp.1185-1187.
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