Tuesday, 12 November 2024

Eastern Victoria Region

Renee HEATH (Eastern Victoria) (13:02): (1233) My question is for the Minister for Planning. My constituent Andrew Little is a registered builder and owner of Ecowall Cladding, a small family-run startup business seeking to produce hemp-based mud bricks, which is a bio-composite building material made from industrial hemp. In July Mr Little finally gained approval to use a shed on his property as a hemp processing facility, only to receive an immediate appeal to VCAT from one of his neighbours. On Friday Mr Little was advised that VCAT was scheduled to have a hearing in April next year, which would mean that the whole timetable for one approval will be over two years for a development that has been shovel-ready for over 12 months. Minister, Mr Little has written to you on many occasions and first wrote to you about this issue in March. He has been told by your office that the letter is ready but needs to be signed by you. Minister, can you please take the time to sign this long overdue response to Mr Little – (Time expired)