Wednesday, 5 March 2025

Suburban Rail Loop

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:15): (832) My question is to the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop. Community infrastructure needs assessments carried out as part of the SRL East draft structure planning process deliberately did not consider higher community demand for primary and secondary schools. With the government looking to increase the population of the Cheltenham area by 121 per cent, why were primary and secondary schools excluded from this assessment?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:15): Thank you very much for that question, Mr Mulholland, and for your interest in managing growth and managing it well, including in the Cheltenham area. As you have quite rightly pointed out, the population in Cheltenham is going to more than double over the next 15 years, and that requires really careful and considered planning, which is where the release of the –

Georgie Crozier: It has not been done.

David Davis: You are not doing it.

Harriet SHING: All right, I am going to pick up that interjection, because what you have done is given me an opportunity to lay bare the narrative that you are running that we have not in fact been engaging in consultation. Conversations started with communities in 2019. We released a directions paper. There have been just under 10,000 submissions, countless conversations, meetings, discussions. There have been community reference groups, there was a youth panel, and again –

David Davis: Gagged reference groups. They are all on non-disclosure agreements.

Harriet SHING: All right, Mr Davis. I am going to take you up on that interjection. When you say that community groups have not had an opportunity to participate in discussions –

David Davis: No, I said they are on non-disclosure agreements.

Harriet SHING: All right, Mr Davis, I will take you up on that interjection in a moment. But what I will say is that the draft structure plans, which were released on Monday, which are public documents, have built upon, again, just under 10,000 submissions, countless hours of discussion with groups like councils, community organisations, individuals, people who want to know more about how they can participate in the design and the futures of the neighbourhoods around them as they grow. What I am going to do, Mr Davis, is take you immediately to the next part of your interjection.

Evan Mulholland: On a point of order, President, on relevance, I asked why primary and secondary schools were excluded from the assessment. I understand the minister does not want to answer that question, but I ask you to bring her back to that specific question.

The PRESIDENT: I was trying to very closely follow the questions and the answers. The minister knows that she should try not to respond to interjections, but then interjections are unruly. I was listening intently. I believe the minister was relevant, but I will call her back to the question.

David Davis interjected.

Harriet SHING: Sessional order 101, Mr Davis – you have been here for long enough perhaps to have been able to memorise them, but obviously we have got a bit more work to do.

What I would say in relation to the draft structure plans is that we have developed a series of directions around priorities that communities have identified. Those priorities range from open space to wayfinding, access to community facilities and proximity to the sorts of things that make for an opportunity to live and to live well in communities where people want to live closer to where they grew up.

What I would also say to you, Mr Mulholland, for the avoidance of any doubt, is: planning for schools, planning for health care continues across the state as it always has. It is done by reference to demographic information, the acuity of need, the relevant populations that exist in and around certain areas of the state. That might be aged care, it might be retirement living, it might be community-based care, it might be clinical support. In a school setting, we are also looking at the sort of demand that will exist as the population grows – for example, in early childhood learning and development, primary and secondary schools. That is part of all of the planning that we do, Mr Mulholland. It continues alongside this work.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:19): The community infrastructure needs assessment report states that:

The assessment is based on desktop research. No site visits or facility surveys were undertaken, and no modelling was completed.

Why is the government relying on assessments which include no facility surveys or modelling?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:19): Thank you very much for that supplementary question, Mr Mulholland. In my answer to the substantive question, I was very clear about the work that has happened in communities, with communities and from communities. That is happening on the ground; it is happening in homes, in streets, in communities and with councils. We will keep doing that work. What I would offer to you, Mr Mulholland, is the opportunity to talk with people who are part of those conversations, because you do a great disservice to the people – just under 10,000 people – who have made submissions to this process. You do a great disservice to the engagement and the conversations that people are having every single day with the Suburban Rail Loop Authority.

Evan Mulholland: Then you make them sign non-disparagement agreements.

Harriet SHING: I am going to take you up on that, Mr Mulholland. The agreements as part of allocating grants of between $10,000 and $80,000 delivered to around 71 different organisations were the same agreements that you lot had under the east–west link project. They are uniform agreements, Mr Mulholland.