Macedon Ranges Residents’ Association

 

Evidence to Outer Suburban and Interface Services and Development Committee

35 Spring Street, Melbourne

30th September, 2005

 

 

About MRRA

 

The Association is a not for profit, volunteer-based, non-party-political group.   We provide a copy of the Association’s purposes for the Committee’s information.

 

 

Relevance of Evidence to Inquiry Terms of Reference

 

We welcome the opportunity to speak today of our experiences in Macedon Ranges relating to Item 11, along with Items 1, 2, 3 and 8, particularly as they relate to Item 11.

 

 

About Macedon Ranges

 

Shire of Macedon Ranges:

 

.      Rural Shire abutting the metropolitan area  (rural interface)

.      An acknowledged area of State significance (water catchments, recreation and tourism, and conservation).

.      Strong rural character, diverse and valuable landscapes.

 

 

What Do People In ‘Non-Urban’ Areas Value?

 

People often live away from capital cities and suburbs because they want to live differently.  The things that are important to these people include:

 

.      Personal space

.      Privacy

.      Feeling safe

.      Belonging

.      A sense of place, and ownership

.      Being known

.      Being valued

.      Being part of community decisions

.      Rural (more relaxed) ambience

.      Rural surrounds, heritage and environmental features

 

These values touch something deep inside.  People travel hours every day or put up with fewer services because they feel the benefits of where they live well outweigh any disbenefits.

 

Vision 2025 (Macedon Ranges Shire Council, 2003) articulates 4 fundamental community values in Macedon Ranges:

 

Historical surveys show that these values, and the bases for them, have remained virtually unchanged for 30 years.

 

 

A Community in Crisis

 

In Macedon Ranges, development and urbanization pressures (primarily from Melbourne) were recognized as damaging, and substantially resisted, from 1975 (Statement of Planning Policy No. 8).

 

This produced high levels of community cohesion based on:

.      shared values and expectations,

.      community ownership over, and certainty about, what would and wouldn’t happen.

 

Since 2000, when Macedon Ranges adopted its Victoria Planning Provisions planning scheme, the Macedon Ranges’ community has been in crisis.  The Shire:

 

.      Has lost its ability to resist damaging growth and development.

.      Has lost all sense of certainty and shared expectations.

.      Has been under siege’ from developers and speculators.

.      Has experienced continual conflict and disruption.

.      Has lost elements and characteristics that attract people and sustain well-being in our community.

 

A fundamental element of strengthening and empowering communities, and building social capital, is knowing and respecting what people value, and understanding the impact on communities not only of losing those values, but also the way they are being lost.

 

Most people will accept much change, but not when it is seen as being forced on them, not when it takes away what they value.  In Macedon Ranges, an additional consideration is that things our community value also often have value in a broader, State-level context.

 

People want to live in Macedon Ranges because they want the ‘rural’ lifestyle.  They know they like it but bring with them metropolitan values.  They don’t understand what makes that lifestyle ‘tick’, or what the existing community values.  If too many new people come too quickly, their values begin to dominate, and erode the very things they came here for.   Instead of the place changing people, people change the place.

 

Most developers, and often Councils, are seen to not care.  Duplicating suburban values is easier, and cheaper, than respecting and preserving rural ones.

 

 

Impacts On People

 

The Association receives quite a lot of calls from people wanting help.   They have usually already gone down the path of trying to get help from Council and other agencies, asking the same questions, getting different answers.

 

We know the depths of community anger and anguish when something they haven’t agreed to, something that takes away what they value, affects them.   It is hugely distressing.

 

We ask you to please try to understand how personal and damaging the impacts are on individuals, and communities.  People feel absolutely powerless.  There is a deep sense of loss, including loss of identity, of belonging.

 

People are confronted by things they don’t understand, and they don’t know what to do about that.

 

.      They aren’t familiar with, and are often intimidated by, complex ‘official’ processes.

 

.      They don’t know their rights.

 

.      They often don’t know or understand the jargon and technical terms that are commonly used to ‘communicate’.   They don’t get the message and so are shut out of the process.   Plain English, please.

 

.      Some become so disillusioned they can’t cope, and move away, often feeling betrayed and having been forced out.

 

 

Some Contributing Factors

 

 We have a planning system that insists on the same for everyone, even though communities aren’t all the same.

 

.      We are being told what we will have by people who don’t live where we do, who don’t know or understand what we value.   For example, what recognition does ResCode give to what our rural communities value?

 

.      Governments are seen to put economic growth and gain before people and environment.  Minority aspirations are seen as over-ruling majority values and views.   People feel ignored and let down by ‘the system’ which is seen as promoting ‘one rule for some’ over what’s best for the broader community: ‘dollars over democracy’

 

.      Focus is often on what the ‘new’ will deliver, not what it takes away.

 

When change becomes movement for its own sake, when ‘I want’ prevails over ‘we value’, something fundamental to our social structure is diminished:  the capacity to care about and respect other people.

 

In building new communities, it is critical that existing and new communities move forward together.

 

Most people need to have some sense of ownership over change and how it happens.   Without a sense of ownership, can there be meaningful community cohesion?

 

MRRA believes the single most cohesive element in our community is a desire to ‘Keep Macedon Ranges Rural’.  Based on feedback we receive, this is a unifying objective shared by most residents.

 

But what type of social cohesion do we have when the dream becomes a nightmare and life becomes a series of battles defending what most people think is important?   It disrupts lives, wears people out.

 

We all agree volunteer groups are the lifeblood of our communities, particularly in rural areas.

 

We ask the Committee to consider how much stronger our communities could be if the energy, effort and time that is directed towards conflict was instead available to be directed towards achieving common goals, and building community strengths.

 

Conflict wastes human resources.   I repeat, conflict wastes human resources.

 

As a society, we cannot afford to continue to measure wealth and ‘progress’ in economic terms alone.   Without social justice, change cannot reasonably be considered sustainable.   Communities know this but it seems governments aren’t yet taking that message on board.   They must.

 

 

MRRA Website

 

MRRA has its own website (www.mrra.asn.au).   We started the website to become more accessible to, and provide a focus for, our community.  We wanted to let people know they aren’t on their own.

 

We also use the website to encourage people to get involved in what’s going on around them, to give them some exposure to unfamiliar processes, and to alert them to actions they can take on various issues.

 

.      Since becoming operational in March, the website has had some 12,000 ‘hits’.

 

MRRA also has a sizable email network which extends well beyond its membership.   We use this network to send alerts and updates on issues affecting our community.

 

To date, we have enjoyed very positive feedback on, and appreciation for, the website and our email messages.

 

Consequently, MRRA’s experience is that internet and email services significantly improve communication capabilities, and access to information.

 

However, we have also found it doesn’t answer everyone’s needs.  It is easy to assume that if something’s on a website, everyone’s got it.  Not true.  Great care is needed to avoid the very real risk of leaving those who don’t have these services ‘out of the picture’.