Extracts From (draft) Hansard 5 October 2005
(Posted 7/10/05)
Re: MRRA and Macedon Ranges
*** DAILY HANSARD *** PROOF VERSION ONLY *** DO NOT QUOTE ***
1 Rural and regional Victoria: planning and natural resource management
The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Savage) --
Order! I have accepted a statement from the member for Shepparton proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:
That this house condemns the government for its failure to honour its undertaking to govern for all Victorians by ignoring the needs of country Victorians, particularly with regard to the application of laws pertaining to planning and natural resource management.
Mr BAILLIEU (Hawthorn) --
That was a devastating defence from the member for Ripon. I will begin by commenting on remarks made by the Macedon Ranges Residents Association, remarks made several times on several occasions but most recently at a hearing of the Outer Suburban/Interface Services and Development Committee. Christine Pruneau, the secretary of the MRRA, said 'people feel absolutely powerless'.
That is what has happened in this state under this government. This government has destroyed trust and confidence in the planning system. The rights of Victorians have been removed and eroded, and the reality is that what we have from this government is detours, deceit and deals. Let me quote also from the Planning Institute of Australia magazine. Carolyn Whitzman, an urban planner at the University of Melbourne, said:
Outcomes include: lots of planning lawyers making money, widespread disillusionment with the planning process, stress and burnout for local planners, and developments that do not necessarily improve the State government's stated goals of improving the environment, economy and social equity.
Mr BAILLIEU [Hawthorn]
The attitude of the minister to the concerns of the Macedonian Ranges Residents Association is one of seeking to abuse those people who have expressed their concerns. The failure of the government and the local member to fulfil their promises in the Macedon Ranges has been a joke.
Mr. NARDELLA [Melton]
The honourable member for Hawthorn misled this house because he misread and misquoted the two people from the Macedon Ranges Residents Association. I was there; he was not. These two people were talking about their council, not the government, which he would know if he read the transcript properly. I do not support the motion before the house.
Ms DUNCAN (Macedon) --
Getting back to the member for Hawthorn, what a little ripper that contribution was. It is quite frightening to think that this man could one day be the Minister for Planning. I guess it is the luxury of opposition.
An honourable member interjected.
Ms DUNCAN --
Perhaps he wants to be the leader so he would not be the Minister for Planning, but it is absolutely frightening. He has made the mistake that many people do -- or some people do -- that is, to believe things that he reads. He has absolutely no qualms in stating very stridently things that have occurred at meetings that he was not present at. It does not worry him in the slightest that he was not present.
An honourable member interjected.
Ms DUNCAN --
Exactly, so that he can stand there and not let the facts get in the way of a good story. He can stand up in this chamber and say that at a meeting that occurred between members of the Macedon Ranges Residents Association and the planning minister that somehow the planning minister was abusive to members of the MRRA. I know where he has got that. He has got that from the MRRA's own web site. I am not saying that that was not stated.
Honourable members interjecting.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Seitz) --
Order! The honourable member for Macedon without assistance.
Ms DUNCAN --
The problem with some members of the MRRA is that they do not like to be contradicted. Some of its members believe they know a lot about planning -- and they do -- but do they actually suggest that they know more about planning than strategic planners with 30 years experience. Many of the people in the MRRA are bush planners. They know lots about planning, but they are not planners, and they can sit there and argue with people who have 30 years of planning experience.
Mr Baillieu --
Are they wrong?
Ms DUNCAN --
They are absolutely wrong in their suggestion that anyone was rude or that they were abused.
But some people do not like to be told that they have got their facts wrong. Again, it is the luxury of opposition that allows the member for Hawthorn to sit there and criticise absolutely everything, but he has never come up with one suggestion of his own, one contribution to any of this. We have heard again his taunting of members by saying, 'Where has a council made the changes to the rules' own translations?'. He might like to read all of the MRRA web site. I notice he quotes it selectively.
Mr Baillieu --
I have.
Ms DUNCAN --
He says he has. If he had he would have seen that the MRRA is wanting these rural zones introduced, and its view -- and let us not forget who put the current zones in place -- is that if these new zones were in place now, instead of the zones that were introduced by the previous government, many of the developments that the MRRA has opposed and continues to oppose would not have gone ahead. Members of the Macedon Ranges community ring me fairly constantly and ask, 'Where are we up to with the zone translations?' and then say, 'We want these zone translations implemented'. My view is: thank goodness the council has just recently completed the work that it needed to do in order for these translations to occur.
Again, it goes back to the previous government where it did not believe councils had any role in planning. This government believes local councils are the appropriate local planning authorities.
The opposition and The Nationals criticise us when the minister says to councils, 'If we just did a direct translation of these zones, would there be any unintended consequences as a result?'. I think it is a very reasonable position for a planning minister to put, but we have heard the Leader of The Nationals use that as an example of the arrogance of this government. This planning minister is trying to get councils to do the work that is necessary for us to protect and to continue to protect our farmland and our rural zones in country Victoria because we do care about country Victoria. Let us not forget that people are judged by what they do, not by what they say. (MRRA emphasis added)