Wednesday, 21 September 2022

Polwarth electorate land acquisition

Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (19:40): (6554) My adjournment this evening is for the Minister for Regional Development in the other place, and the action I seek is for the minister to come down and visit the Port Campbell and Corangamite shire community, and the Nesseler family in particular, to explain to them why two weeks ago her department saw fit to send a letter for compulsory acquisition of a parcel of land adjacent to the Twelve Apostles visitor centre.

Regional Victoria, and the Corangamite shire in particular, is desperate for investment by this state government in basic services. We are neglected in our health care. Our roads are universally considered the worst roads in the state of Victoria. Most of the Great Otways National Park is crying out for further investment in tracks. The Timboon rail trail, for example, a great public asset, needs about $3 million or $4 million immediately to fix up some of the old trestle bridges. There is huge demand for expenditure on basic government services and government-owned open spaces.

And for some reason, Minister, your department has seen fit to want to compulsorily acquire a parcel of land that has been in one family for a very, very long time—around 50 years or more. The Nesseler family have for 10 years tried to do the redevelopment of the visitor centre and the visitor services at the Twelve Apostles on their land. They currently run a very successful tourist business in the Port Campbell helicopter business. They live and breathe that community. They have the resources, the know-how, the skills and the expertise to run what is one of Australia’s premier tourist visitor locations. Minister, your department has sent—with no notice, no negotiation, no pricing and no structures in place—a letter demanding the handing over of that land by this family.

The community has not asked for this to happen. The community has not foreseen this happening. The community has a plan that everyone has been working to called the Shipwreck Coast Master Plan that clearly outlines the needs and the desires of that community, tourism and the Corangamite shire for government expenditure. It does not say you must go and compulsorily acquire from an unwilling seller and create a business and an enterprise that the private sector is more than happy to invest the money in. This is a terrible misuse of taxpayers money, and at a time when this government’s debt levels are skyrocketing greater than in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania, why on earth is your department seeking to spend probably upwards of $200 million on a project of land acquisition that no-one wants, no-one has asked for and there is no need to do? Instead, spend that money on what the community expects—basic services, open space and public land.