Wednesday, 15 May 2024

Housing

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (18:44): (896) My adjournment matter this evening is for the attention of the Minister for Planning, and it is in relation to the redevelopment of the Barak Beacon estate. I have raised this issue in the house before through a constituency question, and I received a response from the minister on 3 May that spoke about the consultation that is being done, and in response it says:

‘Stage 1 community engagement’ commenced in June 2022 …

…

‘Stage 2 public consultation’ was initiated in February 2024 where local residents, Port Phillip City Council and key stakeholders and the broader community were invited to provide feedback …

I have met with residents on a number of occasions down there. In fact the Shadow Minister for Planning James Newbury and I met with residents there only last week, and they are still wanting to understand a number of questions from the government around the development, including wanting to meet with the Minister for Planning. They want to speak with the minister around their concerns, they want to know the due date for the decision and they want the minister to actually understand what the residents are saying. I know that there has been representation from a number of people, including the council, but the Beacon Cove Neighbourhood Association have also met with the local member and are wanting representation to the minister.

The City of Port Phillip have also written to Minister Shing in her capacity as Minister for Housing because this development is being led by Homes Victoria. In the letter to Minister Shing the council point out their concerns – they are very supportive of the development, but they cannot support the build in its current form. They lay out why, and they put this motion to council, which was passed on 6 May. They provided this information to Homes Victoria on 7 May, and the council officers have also sought confirmation from both Homes Victoria and the Department of Transport and Planning that council’s concerns will be incorporated into the design. They are very concerned that their concerns around the design and those relevant changes that they would like to see will not be taken into consideration. So the action I seek is for the Minister for Planning to respond to the City of Port Phillip’s concerns and also to the residents and the Beacon Cove Neighbourhood Association to allay them of the concerns and to go through those designs and to make sure that all of those concerns that they have raised will be dealt with accordingly.