Thursday, 20 February 2025

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:20): (1451) My matter for the adjournment is for the Minister for Planning, and it concerns the state government’s announcement late last year on tram and train activity centres. There were 25 that were named and apparently there are another 25 to come, and that is on top of 10 large centres with massive zones around them. These 25 will have an 800-metre zone around a station or village, and they will see huge density, with up to 20 storeys, and potentially 20 storeys as of right, as the government strips away the powers of local communities and councils to regulate and control what is built in their own areas.

These are important areas, and 18 of these 25 are in my electorate of Southern Metro: Darling, Gardiner, Glen Iris, Tooronga, Auburn, Hawthorn, Glenferrie, Toorak, Armadale, Malvern, Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Hughesdale, Oakleigh, North Brighton, Middle Brighton, Hampton, Sandringham, Toorak Village and Prahran. For these examples, massive development will occur without the control or input of local communities. To date no-one has seen the plans for these. The minister has kept this secret to herself and her department, and I say it is time the community saw the truth of the matter and saw what the minister is proposing. She is going to take away local powers, local democracy and local appeal rights. This is a travesty, it is undemocratic and it is actually going to see heritage areas of our suburbs destroyed by high-density, high-rise development – unrequested high-density, high-rise development that is being forced or foisted on local areas.

It is time the minister came clean. It is time the minister told us the truth. It is time the minister brought forward the draft plans that she and her department have concocted without talking to the community and without working with local councils. We need to see those plans. The community needs to see those plans. I can tell you what: many in the community are very angry about these plans and many in the community have had enough. They say, ‘We don’t need these developments forced upon us.’

We all see the need for balanced development, and there are opportunities. Many in these communities are able to find ways to see increased height and increased density without stripping away the community’s rights and their local democracy. It is time for the minister to come clean, it is time for the community to see these plans and it is time for local democracy to be reinjected.