Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Production of documents

Planning policy

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (10:03): I move:

That this house:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) was not specifically considered in Plan Melbourne;

(b) Victoria’s housing statement sets a target to build 800,000 homes by 2034, and Plan Melbourne states 1.6 million homes will be required by 2051;

(c) according to government documents, the SRL East precincts are intended to accommodate 70,000 homes alone;

(2) in accordance with standing order 10.01, requires the Leader of the Government to table in the Council within three weeks of the house agreeing to this resolution:

(a) the latest version of Plan Melbourne, be it a wholesale revision, draft, addendum or similar;

(b) reports from consultancies that have been or are intended to be used to inform an updated version of Plan Melbourne;

(c) submissions from third parties, including municipalities, that have been, or are intended to be, used to inform an updated version of Plan Melbourne; and

(d) any material presented in the last 12 months to the Minister for Planning regarding changes to Plan Melbourne.

The government claims to have a bold vision for housing and infrastructure to support that housing, but where is it?

Members interjecting.

Evan MULHOLLAND: You have spoken about Plan Melbourne. You have spoken for a long time about an update to Plan Melbourne, but we have not seen it. The plan for Victoria is being kept secret because it would expose what Victorians already know: Labor has no plans to deliver the housing that we need. If the government was confident in its plan, it would release it, not try to hide it and not try to hide any documents supporting that particular release. They are covering up their failure to deliver the housing and infrastructure where it is needed. Victorians are supposed to believe that the SRL precincts of SRL East will create 70,000 homes, but the government cannot tell us when that first home will be built. When will it be built?

Members interjecting.

Evan MULHOLLAND: I would offer interjections, but they probably do not have any as to when the first home will be built around the Suburban Rail Loop. I know Ms Terpstra’s Minister for Transport Infrastructure fails to invite her to forums like the North East Link forum that we held, where we did ask for any government MP to attend and they declined on behalf –

Sonja Terpstra: On a point of order, President, I have been sitting here for the last few minutes listening to Mr Mulholland’s long diatribe of disinformation and misleading the house, and I would ask that he stop spreading falsehoods in this chamber. If Mr Mulholland wants to say that government MPs were invited to community forums, that is untrue, and also –

The PRESIDENT: Ms Terpstra, I do not think that is a point of order.

Sonja Terpstra: Well, I think it should be. Mr Mulholland should stop spreading disinformation.

The PRESIDENT: I think people have the privilege in here to contribute how they see fit as long as they do not accuse individuals or sitting MPs of impropriety.

Evan MULHOLLAND: Particularly in making a contribution on the facts, so I will continue.

Michael Galea: Why do you oppose new homes?

Evan MULHOLLAND: I am absolutely not opposing new homes. Right now we have secrecy, spin and skyrocketing house prices, and what we are asking for is a government plan to deal with that. Greenfields housing is stalling because the government are stalling housing supply, and it is important to remember even with all the things they have done during the housing statement we had more homes approved in four years than Labor have had in a decade. I understand that the Labor Party have all of a sudden had a change of heart, but for eight of those 10 years they had Richard Wynne as planning minister putting height restrictions in places like Brunswick, putting height restrictions in the Southern Metropolitan Region, blocking development in our CBD and blocking development all over the state. The Labor Party literally introduced a bill prioritising objectors. I know Ms Symes spoke on that bill; a number of other colleagues, like the member for Macedon, spoke on that bill and spoke about how glorious it was that we were enabling objectors at VCAT. So for eight of the 10 years – you have had a change of tune now; I understand that – this government spent blocking development and halting development in the CBD. Mr Erdogan when he was on council supported putting height restrictions in places like Brunswick. Seriously – this government wants to talk about the housing crisis? It created it.

Members interjecting.

Richard Welch: On a point of order, President, I cannot hear over all the interjections.

The PRESIDENT: I will ask Mr Mulholland to continue uninterrupted.

Evan MULHOLLAND: Victoria is losing our competitive edge because we are failing to unlock industrial and commercial precincts and land supply, and this government is to blame. They have failed on the housing crisis and should support this motion.

Sonja TERPSTRA (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:09): I also rise to make a contribution on this motion as proposed by Mr Mulholland. Again, because they have changed the standing orders on us, I have 5 minutes or so to respond to this. Their whole premise is to gag the government and prevent us from properly responding to this motion. I note that when those opposite were in government they always blocked documents motions and never provided any transparency around documents, yet our government is not blocking this motion.

Renee Heath: On a point of order, President, I believe it is now Ms Terpstra misleading the house, so I just ask that you bring her back.

The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Because I am the lead speaker I can say what I like pretty much, just as Mr Mulholland could. As I was about to say before I was rudely interrupted, the government will not be opposing this documents motion, because we never do because we do not have a problem with transparency, unlike those opposite. The diatribe that we listened to just now was a complete and utter shambles and a joke, and I look forward very much to telling everyone in the North-Eastern Metropolitan Region about how those opposite on those opposition benches actually oppose the Suburban Rail Loop, because this is a very popular project. People in my region deserve access to public transport. They currently do not have it. The people who live in my region in Manningham and those areas – those kids want to be able to access university. Rather than taking four buses and hours to get there, Suburban Rail Loop East will actually give them the capacity to get on a train to get to either Deakin University or Monash University.

But you do not care about that over there because what you want to do is do nothing. All you want to do is sit there and criticise rather than actually give access to public transport to people who need it and to kids who need it. They want to live where they grew up, and they want to have access to good university and education opportunities. But no, you just want to get in your expensive European cars and drive 3 kilometres up the road into your employer-sponsored car park. But those kids need public transport. All they have got is buses, and they are sitting in gridlocked roads because you lot never built anything. You never built anything and you never will, because people do not have confidence in your ability to deliver anything. At least people say to us, ‘We might not like you, but you get stuff done.’ We absolutely get stuff done. We are building big projects like the Suburban Rail Loop. We are also doing roads because we realise that you cannot just do one thing, you have got to do a lot of things. You have got to do public transport access and you have also got to build roads. Roads like North East Link are going to remove 15,000 trucks from local roads in the community that I live in and that I have seen over the last 10, 15 years. Roads like Rosanna Road are completely gridlocked with traffic because you lot did nothing.

If you want to talk about housing, how about I remind you that the Morrison Liberal government for 10 years did not invest a dollar in public housing. You have gone quiet over there now, haven’t you? You have got absolutely nothing to say. I am telling you, what we just had to listen to here was a complete and utter diatribe of garbage from those opposite about how we do nothing. It was complete and utter garbage and misleading the house. All you want to do is post on social media and go, ‘Oh, look at us; we’ve got answers to things.’ You have got answers to nothing. I tell you what, if this lot ever got in government our roads would be further gridlocked and the public transport system would be incomplete chaos and disarray.

As I said, we have invested $400 million in local infrastructure projects. We are going to see an enormous uptick in housing being built so that kids and locals can live in communities where they grew up. That is what people want and that is what people are telling us they want, and we are listening to it.

John Berger interjected.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Except for Brighton and Camberwell and those areas where they oppose anyone having access to housing at all.

Michael Galea: A lot of people there still want it too, though.

Sonja TERPSTRA: Correct. But again, they oppose everything always. That is what they are doing; they oppose everything always. Whilst criticising this government they have absolutely no plans. I am yet to hear any tangible idea from those opposite. They are the worst opposition in history. Again, where are the ideas? Where are the suggestions? Where is the positive, optimistic plan about anything? There is nothing. All they want to do is absolutely criticise.

We will get on with delivering because we know what people want. We know they want access to housing close to public transport, close to education opportunities and close to where they live. Like I said, Suburban Rail Loop is an incredibly popular project that has been voted on twice by the Victorian public. It has been voted on twice and it is popular in my region. I cannot wait to campaign on this. I cannot wait to tell everybody in my region how those opposite sat in this chamber and soaked up time talking about how much they oppose this project. I know Mr Galea and Mr Berger will also join me in taking every opportunity to tell Victorian electors how much you oppose public transport and how you do not want people to access public transport. We will not be opposing this motion.

Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:14): I am pleased to rise to speak on motion 816 regarding some documents. What we have with the Suburban Rail Loop generally is a lack of transparency – the way that it seems to move around from being a rail project to a housing project to a university link to an airport rail. The idea that we can add 70,000 homes and make them affordable to people while simultaneously taking windfall gains tax, Suburban Rail Loop tax, value capture levies et cetera means that all of these policies are very confused and pulling in very different directions. The community understand that. The property developers understand that, because they are not investing. The councils understand this, because certainly their rights have been eroded and therefore through that the rights of the local community to have a say in what happens to their community.

There are a whole series of fallacies that we have heard today about how this provides housing. It does not provide housing, because if you are going to tax the developers who are building the houses $11 billion, that cost goes on to the nature of the properties being built. The only way you can absorb those costs is to make high-yield properties, which means that you are not building houses that people can live in. Certainly there are not 70,000 people waiting to live where they grew up in $800,000 to $1 million apartments. In terms of basic scrutiny of the strategy on something that is the most expensive project ever undertaken and that will bankrupt the state, having scrutiny of the project that underpins that is not unreasonable. It is quite sensible, and anyone calm, cool and collected would understand that and would not oppose it.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (10:16): I am absolutely delighted to speak to Mr Mulholland’s documents motion with respect to Plan Melbourne because it gives us the opportunity to talk about the exceptionally significant work that is being done, particularly by the Minister for Planning, to develop a plan for more housing and more opportunity not just in Melbourne but across Victoria, because that is what this government is focused on. It is about creating homes, creating opportunity, not just in Melbourne but right across Victoria. That is exactly what the plan for Victoria announced by the government as part of the housing statement, after undertaking extensive consultations throughout 2024, is exactly designed to do – to build more housing in this state so that more Victorians have the opportunity to live in the communities that they want to live in, so that they have got the homes that provide them with access to jobs and access to schools and the opportunity to live somewhere close to their family or close to where they grew up. That is what is driving Labor’s policy agenda in the housing and building space. It is to give more Victorians the opportunity to have a home close to the communities they want to live in, and it is working.

In the last 12 months Victoria has led the nation in terms of the approvals of new homes, the approvals of new dwellings. There were about 60,000 new approvals in the last 12 months – more than Queensland, more than New South Wales. There were more buildings actually completed, more dwellings actually completed, in Victoria in the last 12 months than in any other state – more than New South Wales, more than Queensland. More homes were completed in Victoria in the last 12 months than in any other state – more than New South Wales, more than Queensland. That is what this government is focused on, and our plan to build more homes and activity centres across Melbourne, our plan for more housing right across the state, will continue to deliver the housing and opportunities that our state and its residents so absolutely need.

We are backing in that investment in housing with investment in the kind of social infrastructure that we need. We know – Mr Galea knows; he was on the inquiry with me last year – that more than half of all the government schools built and opened in this country in the last five years were right here in Victoria. We are building more schools. We have got new hospitals that are opening. We are building roads, we are building community infrastructure, we are upgrading parks and we are building the transport links that our state needs for the future, and we are doing all that so we can have more homes for Victorians to live in.

The documents that Mr Mulholland is seeking are going to show an incontrovertible truth, and that is that under Labor homes are being built right across Melbourne and right across Victoria, and our plans to build and approve more homes are going to have more homes being built in communities where people want to live. That is what the documents Mr Mulholland’s motion is seeking will show, because that is exactly what this Labor government is delivering.

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:20): I am also very exercised to be up here today speaking on yet another short-form documents motion from those opposite, and it is nice to see that they have at least gone to the effort of having three members in the chamber for it. If I had the time, I would love to go into many of the arguments that have already been so well canvassed by both Ms Terpstra and Mr Batchelor, but I will leave those remarks as they stand.

My first observation on this particular motion is that it is rather interesting, because it actually appears now, Mr Mulholland, that you are probably well aware that we are already well into consultation for Plan Victoria, which is not just Plan Melbourne. You extensively used the words ‘Plan Melbourne’ I believe five times in this motion. This is a government that is invested in all Victorians, including those in regional Victoria, not just those in metropolitan Melbourne. That is exactly why we are doing Plan Victoria –

Ryan Batchelor interjected.

Michael GALEA: Because we actually do, Mr Batchelor – yes, we care about the whole state. We do not just care about NIMBYs in Brighton and Hawthorn.

The other thing that struck me in reading this is that it is calling for documents, and particularly point 1(a) alleges that the Suburban Rail Loop was not specifically considered in Plan Melbourne. I am not sure if you have been doing your homework properly, Mr Mulholland – I know you have been busy fending off the attacks from Mrs McArthur for your leadership role –

A member interjected.

Michael GALEA: Two votes, yes. If you go onto the website of Plan Melbourne you will find a 2019 document – yes, 2019, only six years ago – a specific, nine-page addendum to Plan Melbourne.

President, at this point I would seek leave to table this document for the benefit of Mr Mulholland.

Leave refused.

Michael GALEA: This is an extraordinary situation. They are here today calling on the government to provide documents. I have just attempted to provide for Mr Mulholland’s benefit a document in the chamber. I have tried to actually help him, assist him, on the very point that he is seeking information about the Suburban Rail Loop as it pertains to Plan Melbourne. I have actually tried to assist him. As I said, it is the customary practice of this government not to oppose such motions. But perhaps we should make an exception, because apparently you do not want the documents – you do not want to actually see a nine-page document which goes to the heart of what you are saying. It undermines your whole argument. I realise that, Mr Mulholland. If you had done your homework properly, you might have realised that. In an effort to help this chamber and in an effort to help those opposite to understand, I was happy to table that document, but apparently those opposite are not interested in actually getting any documents out of this motion. If they were, they would have consulted this nine-page document. They would have actually read through it. They clearly have not done so; they have not done their homework once again. That is because, I am sure, they are too busy fighting with themselves, fighting against Mrs McArthur – she is coming for your role – and fighting against the many NIMBYs in their party, who I am sure are going to overrule any aspirations you might have on housing, Mr Mulholland.

Motion agreed to.