John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was very disturbed to discover, between Christmas and the new year, that government departments have been responsible for trampling on my constituents' town planning rights. The offending project is a transitional social housing development in Deakin Avenue, Mildura. It is funded under the federal government's stimulus package. I understand that the member for Dunkley had a similar issue in his constituency in 2010 but managed to achieve a better outcome than my constituents have endured.

It is true that social housing is a much needed investment. Indeed, it is one on which I have made strong representation in the past. I stress that my objection is based not on it being 'not in my backyard' but on the simple principle that adjoining landholders' rights to be consulted have been usurped. This project is an architectural disaster in my view—I challenge anybody to look at the photographs. It has come about because the state government in Victoria has a policy of not air-conditioning public housing, so this building is completely enclosed by a steel mesh cage to shade the building. The cage is eight metres high and it goes right over the building.

Conservatively, this steel structure would have cost at least half a million dollars, probably more. You could have bought and installed a lot or reverse-cycle air conditioners for that sort of money. It astounds me that a 'no air conditioning' policy exists in an arid desert climate like Mildura.

The project consists of 28 accommodation units and is two storeys. Its construction is now finished. It is completely surrounded by residential housing. On the eastern side is a 30-unit motel; on the northern side are residential dwellings, acting as homes; and on the western side are two private dwellings and two separate strata title unit developments. It is completely surrounded by domestic accommodation. It is very disturbing that when my constituents went, rightly, to the Mildura Rural City Council to ask what this project was about they were rebuffed. In fact, they were told that because it was a federally funded project it did not have to comply with conventional town planning or development application procedures. This is patent nonsense.

This project is now completed and these residents are confounded at the intrusive aspect of this building. The privacy of the motel swimming pool is compromised from the second storey, as is the privacy of the backyards of dwellings. There are 56 rubbish bins stacked within metres of residential bedrooms. Each unit has two rubbish bins—a recycling bin and a conventional bin. The clamour and din that collection is going to create—early in the morning, I presume—will be an incredible intrusion. A 28-space carpark is floodlit from evening to dawn with daylight intensity only metres from strata title bedrooms.

I was very disturbed to be advised of all this and quickly wrote to the Hon. Robert McClelland, the Minister for Housing in this place, on 5 January 2012 to try to establish what the Commonwealth's role in this travesty was. To this date I have not received a response to that letter. This is very poor form from the Minister for Housing. I find it extraordinary that government departments can ride roughshod over people's town planning rights. Having practised as a consulting engineer for so long, I know that these are rights that are enshrined and that parliaments have protected people's next-door privacy.. The Victorian town planning procedures require adjacent landholders to be notified and be involved in the design. Privacy, amenity, noise, stench and other such matters are very relevant.

It subsequently transpires that the Victorian government deliberately did this with a V6 planning amendment that made the Victorian Labor Minister for Planning the responsible authority for town-planning issues. He now relies on the defence that he relied on the Mildura Rural City Council to provide the town-planning advice. But that did not happen. This is not totalitarian Communist China, where 20 million people can be shifted to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. This is democratic Australia. My constituents are demanding an explanation. They are certainly looking for natural justice and they are certainly looking for compensation for the intrusion and loss of amenity they have suffered.