More revelations about spin doctoring by Madden and his planning department surfaced in the last week of February in the form of an internal memo from a media advisor accidentally sent to the ABC.
Madden subsequently "counselled" then "re-deployed" the adviser, whose memo detailed, among other things, a plan to release a planning report on the controversial Windsor Hotel re-development and then publicly cite community reaction to support a pre-determined decision to block the scheme.
Listen to the full versions of Madden’s defensive radio interviews on Feb.26, courtesy of the Marvellous Melbourne website – first with
Jon Faine (ABC 774) – www.vimeo.com/9744001
and then
“Jon, er, Neil” Mitchell on 3AW – www.vimeo.com/9752386
The ABC TV news stories on Feb 25 & 26 are also worth checking out: www.vimeo.com/9732178 www.vimeo.com/9771435
And if you want to hear more, there’s Stateline Feb.26 – www.vimeo.com/9758151
The briefing memo by Madden’s now former media adviser confirmed what many have long suspected – community consultation by this minister and his department is window-dressing, stage-managed so the minister can claim he has consulted and listened.
Ironically, this is the minister recently appointed to promote the government’s new “Respect Agenda” to counteract racism and violence by inculcating a greater sense of mutual respect in the community!
Madden lost no time in putting his manipulative stamp on the planning portfolio – in a classic case of “shoot the messenger”, one of his first actions as planning minister in 2007 was to unilaterally abolish the Melbourne 2030 Implementation Reference Group.
This statutory advisory body was the government’s only formal link to stakeholders involved in planning and development, from community groups like SOS, to planning academics, to the Property Council and HIA.
To cap off the coup, all mention of the IRG and its critical advisory reports were deleted from the Department website over a year ago!
Since then we’ve had more side-stepping of community consultation, more ministerial call-ins, more confusion over the Urban Growth Boundary and more attempts to introduce undemocratic and poorly conceived legislation on issues like the Growth Areas Infrastructure Tax, New Residential Zones, Development Assessment Committees, the Planning and Environment Act… the list goes on and on.
Victorians desperately need a new government to represent the people with integrity – trouble is, can the Liberals be trusted to do much better with urban planning and local government?