New Planning Laws to Save Our Suburbs

A new development proposal in Glen Iris for a three storey block of nine flats was the site of a press release from the Coalition promising to introduce strict new planing rules within its first 100 days of office if elected at the November election.

A full copy of the release is attached above...

This development proposal currently before the Boroondara Council is the result of the Andrew's government changes to the residential zones introduced last year which increase heights and allowed for development of more than two dwellings per lot. When questioned, Richard Wynne, the Current Minister for Planning, reluctantly admitted that more than 10 dwellings on one lot was possible.

At the Restore Residents' Rights Rally on the steps of parliament David Davis promised that, if elected, to restore the protections of the previous residential zones and today's press release honors that promise.

Matthew Guy said that "Victoria needs the right growth in the right places, not allowing anything to be built anywhere"

David Davis said that "a Liberal Nationals Government will put the brakes on this unplanned over development and give control back to residents and their councils".

The Election and Our Problems with Plan Melbourne

Plan Melbourne 2017 - 2050 introduced by the Andrews' government has stripped away many of the protections against over-development that were put in place by the previous Coalition government. The General Residential Zones (GRZ) height has been  inceased from 9 metres to 11 metres, the Neighbourhood Residential Zone (NRZ) from 8 metres to 9 metres and the cap of two residences per block has been removed completely.

Richard Wynne, the Minister for Planning, has admitted under pressure to the Public Accounts Committee, that 10 or more dwellings can now be crammed into one NRZ block. His government has said that 70% of new development will be forced into the middle suburbs and the leafy eastern suburbs have been especially targeted. This means that you could have a three storey block of flats with 10 or  more apartments being built next door and neither you or your council will be able to do a thing about it

There is an election coming and this is an opportunity to get things changed and its up to you to do something about it. We will certainly be seeking changes. David Davis, the Shadow Minister for Planning, at our Restore Residents Rights rally on the steps of parliament, committed the Coalition, if elected,to restore the protections to the residential zones and this has been confirmed in writing.

We will also be seeking changes to VCAT to ensure that it is returned to being an appeal body confined to resolution of legal matters arising form planning law. In other words, to stop VCAT from assuming the role of another Responsible Authority for planning applications.

BRAG and Planning Backlash will be seeking further commitments from those standing at the next election in line with the Residents' Bill of Rights. A copy of this can be viewed on our website  www.brag.asn.au 

AUSTRALIA'S HIGH MIGRATION IS HIDING OUR ECONOMIC DECLINE

We have noticed many more letters to our newspapers raising the issue of high population growth mainly due to immigration. A recent survey by The Australian Population Research Institute has reported that "74% of voters thought that Australia does not need more people". The fillowing points set out some of the reasons why we should be demanding better immigration controls by our governments:

• The main reason why many people feel they haven't benifited from Australia's long stretch of economic expansion is because they haven't.
• Our pay packets haven't increased while many of our essential goods and services have gone through the roof.
• High migration makes it nearly impossible for Australia to fall into recession.
• It's great for business because it keeps wages low and there are more people to buy their good and services
• It looks great for governments because it means that economic growth looks better than it really is, but this is only an illusion.
• It certainly is not good for our ordinary wage and salary workers.
• Business is fairly happy because it means more demand for goods and services for when there is short supply it results in huge price rises (such as housing).
• As the new Governor of the Reserve Bank, Phillip Lowe, has stated "the role of good economic policy should be to raise living standards- not make the population and therefore the economy bigger".
• So why don't our politicians do just that? Political donations influence?  Maybe too many have investments in property and development that require more and more customers and they need more cutomers to kep the pot boiling? (Snouts in the trough).

Our very high rate of population growth is twice the world average  and three times that of the UK, France, the US and similar western customers. Our governments over the last twenty years or so have claimed that this has driven our economic growth without suffering from a recession like other countries. The reality is that our existing citizens have gained no real fiscal benefit from our poulation growth from immigration.

In 2016 0ur intake was reduced from around 250,000 p.a. to about 200,000 p.a. and recently the Minister for Immigration canvassed reducing the intake further by 20.000 p.a. However, our Prime Minister was not prepared to do so. Why not ?

The reality is that since the GFC, Australia has seen per capita income go backwards as evidenced by stagnant wages growth. The slight reduction  in long term arrivals presents a misleading picture because migration to Australia is still  proceeding at a pace with a massive lift  in long term visa holders, which are not included in our official immigration numbers.There are currently around 2 million long term visa holders in Australia right now all needing somewhere to live. Overall our rate of growth has averaged 1.7% which compares with around 0.7% average for UK, France and the US. Right now the rate of population growth for Melbourne is at the record rate of 2.4%. That's four time more than comparitive countries.

It's time for action, There is an election coming so take advantage and confront your local member and push for a real reduction in our intake. If we reduce it to around  70,000 p.a.we would still be ahead of the pack and meet our international obligations. That would give us breathing space  to catch up with the infrastrucure upgrades we desperately need for our existing population and maybe , in time, we  could provide infrastructure to cope with our future migrant intake.

To continue as we are will result in further degradation of our environment, lifestyle and a flat financial position. Ultimately  we would end up living in overcrowded cities with overcrowded high rise ghettos. No one wants that do they?

FUTURE MELBOURNE AT 8 MILLION

Infrastructure Australia has announced plans to intensify Melbourne by forcing high rise development into our suburbs from Sunshine to Box Hill to cope with the predicted future population growth.

Because the Andrews' government has already changed our planning guidelines to remove our notification, objection and appeal rights, your first indication will be when a developer starts building an 8 storey block of flats next door and you and your council will not be able to do a thing about it.

This could happen sooner than later ......see the full story attached above

More on the GDP v GDP "per capita" in the post below....

Restore Residents' Rights Rally on the steps of Parliament

This report has been updated (see below).

Our "Restore Residents' Rights Rally on 8th June, held on the parliament steps, was well attended with groups from right across Melbourne and beyond supporting the speakers criticising the negative effects of PLAN MELBOURNE 2017-2050 recently announced by the government.

Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 has changed the protection provided by the zones put in place by the previous government allowing for  more multi-storey residential development in our residential streets. The whole emphasis is on cramming 70% of new development into our established suburbs.

The first speaker, Prof. Michael Buxton, from RMIT, explained how this will affect the existing residents in these areas. He was supported by the Shadow Planning Minister, David Davis, who made the negative issues  very clear.  Several other politicians added their concerns while other speakers were mainly group repesentatives from resident groups across Melbourne. 

We estiimated that over 300 attended the rally based upon the number of handouts issued. 

We will keep up the pressure on Planning  Minister Richard Wynne, who is not sympathetic to the concerns of residents, but continues to approve more and more unacceptable developments that are ruining Melbourne's reputation as a very liveable city.

 LATEST: We have recieved a letter from David Davis, Shadow Minister for Planning, committing the Liberals to restoring  NRZ & GRZ protections if elected. A copy of the letter is attached (see above).

NOTE: Under the changes to Plan Melbourne 2017-2050 10 or more dwellings could now be built on a single block in the Neighbourhood Resdential Zone (NRZ). Previously the maximum allowed was only two dwellings per block.

Would you like a 10 dwelling multy- storey block of flats built next door? We don't think so. 

More recently the media has been flooded with arguments from so called experts supporting population growth pushing developing high rise in the inner and middle suburbs. In addition Infrastructure Australia has come out with a plan to pack high rise into suburban Melbourne from Sunshine to Box Hill. 

We make the point that it won't stop there, the push will continue up and out. Ask you local political representatives if they are in favour of all this growth and, if they are, ask them what happens when we double our population in the next 35/30 years. Do we keep doubling up in the following 25/30 years?

Our political masters must be made to back off and come up with a sensible population policy that is sustainable including a reduction of migration back to the 70,000 pa we traditionally accepted. At that rate we would still lead the industrialized nations for accepting migrants and could not be criticized for not meeting our international responsibilities.

Population Growth

To discuss Australia's population boom is to invite criticism from many accusing us of racism. But the subject is about numbers not necessarily racial issues.

 Did you know that Australia has the highest rate of population growth of all the OECD countries and 75% of this growth is in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth with over 24% of that growth in Melbourne. While our natural increase is fairly stable the main growth comes from high migration which has tripled from around 80,000 pa to 250,000 pa in recent years. Note: the nearly 2 million long stay visa holders are never counted in the published population figures which is obviously aimed to mislead us.

While population growth is far too often linked with economic growth, the Productivity Commission clearly states that the growth of  real income per ca-pita is virtually negligible and what there is goes mainly to the new arrivals. Ask yourself are you better off than 10 years ago? Most likely not for the economists say that our incomes have not kept pace with inflation. The government always uses the GDP figure which indicates  steady growth but this is misleading for the real indicator is GDP "per ca-pita" which has been going backwards for some years.

One of the main concerns is that while the development industry does well out of this growth, our attempts to cope with the resulting infrastructure requirements are not keeping up with the demands of the existing citizens let alone with the requirements of  doubling Melbourne's population within the next 25/30 years.

Poor planning controls have lead to developers getting away with constructing vertical slums containing very small micro-apartments of under 50 square meters with no bedroom windows. These would not be accepted in Hong Kong, Tokyo or New York. So why do we accept this shoddy practice here? Recent changes by the Andrew's government have not really improved this situation.

Of course the reality is that developers pay vast sums to lobby our political parties and also make political donations with the result that pretty well all of our politicians tell us they support population growth. 

Its way past time that we banned political donations from the development industry because it encourages graft and corruption.

What we need to do is lobby just as hard to ensure that our politicians carry out their role of looking after their constituents  for the long term rather than looking after the developers who make donations. Ask your local member what happens in 25/30 years when the population of Melbourne doubles?  Does the growth suddenly stop or does it double again in the next 25/30 years?

Our lack of proper planning encourages this "Ponzie" scheme of more and more houses for more and more people until we end up like the masses in the third world .Do our political leaders care? Certainly not for they are investing in land speculation and property as hard as they can to get rich rewards from the propery boom, which results from such high migration. 

And don't forget the nearly 2 million visa holders in Australia right now, all needing to find somewhere to live, but they are not included in our population growth figures. 

The answer is to cut migration to a more sustainable level of ,say, around the 80,000 to 100,000 pa  level which would  be more that the OECD average and would still enable us to meet our international obligations. And we should also cut back on our visa programs.

Think about this: in recent years we accepted more migrants per annum than the UK. Our present rate of population growth is around 1.7% and has been up to 2.2% which is more than twice that of the world average of 1.1% and way ahead of UK, USA, FRANCE and the other OECD countries. 

Melbourne's current rate of growth is even higher at 2.4% pa. To give you some idea what this means - it's like cramming another Ballarat or a MCG at capacity into Melbourne every year. No wonder our roads are clogged and our public transport is struggling to cope. It will only get worse.

There is more on this subject in other posts on this site.

 See above for "The big Australian Illusion". It sets out the reality.

WANT TO BECOME A MEMBER OF BRAG?

ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THE ANDREW'S GOVERNMENT'S PLANS TO INTENSIFY DEVELOPMENT IN BOROONDARA?

OR MAYBE YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE LOSS OF OUR BEAUTIFUL HERITAGE HOMES OR THE PROLIFERATION OF MCMANSIONS OR THE EVER INCREASING RATE OF OUR POPULATION GROWTH?

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