Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:56): My adjournment debate is for the Minister for Planning. Amendment C395 to the City of Greater Geelong planning scheme, the rezoning of 3000 hectares of land for residential use, will result in around 40 000 homes and more than 100 000 new residents. Huge pressure will be placed on existing infrastructure. This is not just about roads and utilities infrastructure, it is also about school buildings, doctors surgeries, libraries, sports grounds and swimming pools, not to mention upgrading public transport systems. Increasing property and population will bring greater rates. But while this may provide adequate revenue spending for public services, it leaves an infrastructure gap. Growth area framework plans, the infrastructure contribution plans and the development contribution plans, will not touch the sides, barely covering the internal infrastructure requirements.

The city already faces a backlog of capital funding needs. Just this week I raised the long overdue Bellarine link road proposal, and in the previous sitting the Northern Arts, Recreation and Community Health and Wellbeing Hub. Frankly, I do not want to keep coming back with the begging bowl, and I am sure the people of Geelong do not either. Given the extraordinary increase in land value this rezoning will generate, it seems absurd not to capture any of the increase in land value. This money should be raised in Geelong and spent in Geelong. Former Urban Development Institute of Australia Geelong chair Tom Roe directs more than $200 million of housing development investment in the area. He estimates this rezoning will result in a windfall gain of at least $3 billion to the lucky land owners. This is not a figure plucked out of nowhere; he has received approaches which value the land in question at more than $1 million per developable hectare. This giveaway is criminal. The infrastructure will still be required but will have to be paid for by all of us, not those benefiting from the land sale. It is the very definition of socialising the cost and privatising the profit. As Mr Roe says, it is an act of utter insanity.

C395 has been adopted locally but still requires the minister’s approval, so I hope this disaster can be averted. There is a precedent for a solution. The growth areas infrastructure contribution is a one-off tax which operates on the outskirts of Melbourne and would be entirely appropriate in the similarly high-growth Geelong suburbs. Its receipts would fund the necessary capital expenditure. There is clearly no mechanism for any such levy to be raised by the City of Greater Geelong. So the action I seek from the minister is a commitment to avoiding an unjust, short-term decision to approve the amendment and a thorough review of the situation and the remedy I have raised.