Shadow Minister Minister’s decision-making raises questions

At last, the illegal demolition of the heritage listed Corkman Hotel in Parkville has intensified focus on consequences for rogue developers.

Initially, the Corkman Cowboys were slapped on the wrist and ordered to build a park for community use, as an interim measure,before rebuilding the pub. Then, the Planning Minister granted a permit for a tower development, which with the stroke of his pen, significantly increased the value of the land. When I called for the site to be compulsorily acquired and used for community housing, so that the developers would not make a cent from their contemptible actions, we were informed it would be too expensive as the site value was now far too high. (Hopefully their recent stint in gaol will have given the cowboys plenty of time to reflect on their reckless and avaricious misdeed.)

So, I am somewhat bemused – and pleased – to see the recently introduced Planning and Environment Amendment Bill 2021, which seems to reflect a re-posturing of Planning Minister Wynne, to adopt my stance on similar debacles.

This Bill will prohibit redevelopment of a site on which a heritage building has been illegally demolished or allowed to fall into a state of neglect and disrepair. It will prevent the issuance of a permit under the planning scheme for any development, other then reconstruction, reinstatement or repair, and will also provide that the Minister may order the land not be used for up to 10 years if the land owner is convicted for unlawful demolition of a heritage building. I am delighted to see local heritage protections are finally being strengthened, it is only a pity it wasn’t much sooner, and the Corkman might still be standing.

In other news, Planning Minister Wynne called in an application for a used acid lead battery recycling plant in Hazelwood, just 1.3km from the Hazelwood North Primary School. Unsurprisingly, the locals are vehemently opposed to this smelter and the risk is poses.

The plant will be owned and operated by the Chinese Communist state-owned Chunxing Corporation, funded under the China One Belt One Road Initiative (BRI). It has been approved as a project under the Andrews Labor government’s Development Facilitation Program, which has been set up to fast track projects that can help repair the economic downturn caused by the government’s coronavirus lockdowns. The lockdowns are, of course, the result of the government’s failure to manage the hotel quarantine program and a completely inadequate contact tracing system.

The elected Councillors of LaTrobe Valley Council had refused a permit for this recycling smelter. The matter was taken to VCAT and there was a five-day hearing. Before the decision could be

Tim Smith MP Victorian Shadow Minister for Planning

handed down, the Minister intervened and unilaterally approved the permit without requiring an independent Environmental Effects Statement, completely disregarding the Council decision and whatever finding might result from VCAT.

Bizarrely, the Chunxing Corporation was permitted to self-assess the environmental impact of the smelter, and unsurprisingly, they produced a glowing report of themselves.

In Parliament’s Question Time on 2 February, I asked Minister Wynne about him waving through an approval for this smelter. He informed the chamber that the officers at LaTrobe Council supported the smelter.

It is a fact that the site has an as-of-right use in an industrial zone and permitted under the current zoning. But it is also a fact that the community has been ignored by the Planning Minister. Why didn’t Wynne allow the process to run its course to VCAT? Naturally, locals are outraged, with deep concerns about the toxicity of the smelter, and the effect it could have on their lives. A compelling community petition of 1,670 signatures demanding the government withdraw its approval has been tabled in the Parliament.

One member of the community is a single mother from Hazelwood South who plans to send her young daughter to the Primary School a kilometre away from the site and is very worried about any associated health risk to her child.

Another local resident, who lives 1.7Km from the site, expressed her fears, saying “Lead is toxic, persistent (it does not degrade), bio-accumulative and is internationally recognised as a carcinogen… Toxic emissions from the proposed technology will be unavoidable … Super-fine lead dusts can affect workers, their family and the community.”

In responding to my question about this, the Minister rejected the contention of any risk being posed.

For a Minister who is well known for very rarely intervening in local planning matters, his intervention in the LaTrobe Valley is surprising. Is this a sweetheart deal under Labor’s controversial Belt and Road agreement with communist China to build a lead smelter 1.3 kilometres from a primary school?

Would anyone like to have a lead smelter foisted upon them, near where they live and where their children go to school?

I seriously doubt that if this company was owned by any other nation-state that it would be given the same treatment.