PARLIAMENT WILL BE VOTING ON GOVERNMENT PLAN TO BULLDOZE GREEN WEDGES FOR SUBURBAN SPRAWL – 27July

 

 

Please will you help us to avert an environmental and community catastrophe that will ensue if the State Government is able to persuade Parliament to approve a planning scheme amendment to take 43,600 ha out of Melbourne’s green wedges and to surround the new urban growth zones with a freeway that will not be needed when we move to a carbon-constrained economy? 

 

Having failed to get the Parliament to pass the State Government’s Planning Scheme Amendment VC67 in June, Planning Minister Madden told a Housing Industry breakfast last week that he will split it in two in order to get it passed by the Legislative Council. Minister Madden predicted that: 

·       Coalition MPs will support the Urban Growth Boundary expansion and the new E6 freeway; &

·       Greens MPs will support increased urban density along tram and orbital bus routes.Announcing

 this to developers an not in a public statement shows who is in charge of State planning policy.

(The Greens have said they will vote against this Clause 12 amendment, which also includes clauses that weaken the UGB.)

 

The Government is planning to table these new and probably re-numbered amendments on Tuesday 27 July and to debate and pass them on Wednesday or Thursday.

 

 

To find out more, please read on, and/or google VC67, which should still be on the DPCD website. You are also welcome to email the Green Wedges Coalition coordinators, Rosemary West; rowest@ozemail.com.au;  Arnie Azaris, arnie.azaris@bigpond.com;

 

If ratified by Parliament these planning amendments could signify a catastrophe for Melbourne – our city will be changed irrevocably forever with green wedges replaced by suburban sprawl.

This State Government plan will unleash unprecedented environmental, agricultural and landscape destruction in the green wedges. It will expand the Urban Growth Boundary to take 43,600 ha out of the western, northern and Cranbourne south green wedges for housing development, freeways and freight terminals. 

 

The UGB expansion will clear for urban development: 5000 ha of environmentally significant Western Basalt Plains grasslands; the grassy woodlands of the Maribyrnong and Merri Creek catchments, with their giant red gums; and 4000 ha of the South East food-bowl, where highly productive market gardens using recycled water double as Southern Brown Bandicoot habitat. (Please see details below and attached.)

 

It will also destroy the certainty on which green wedge protection is based. The developers who will profit from speculative purchases of green wedge land to be rezoned by the renamed VC67 amendments will go looking for more spec purchases outside the next UGB.

 

The Coalition parties have said they will not oppose the UGB expansion, but that they would oppose the E6 freeway, which is close to the existing parallel Craigieburn Freeway and they will oppose amendments to Clause 12, which provides for increased urban density. We call on them to hold firm on these issues and in addition to move amendments to save at least some of the above-listed priority green wedge areas.

 

 Before the 2006 election, Liberal, ALP and Greens MPs surveyed by the Green Wedges Coalition all supported the current Government policy to protect green wedges "including the present boundaries."   Only the Greens have stood by their election policy and have consistently opposed the UGB expansion. We call on Coalition MPs to support the Greens motion to refer this matter to a committee to negotiate amendments to mitigate the damage.

 

The plans also run counter to a report released in May into sustainable agribusiness from a parliamentary committee representing all parties. The report describes the green wedges as area as "a diverse and dynamic farming region" which produces 16 per cent of the Victoria’s agricultural wealth from less than four per cent of the state’s farmland. It recommended "That Melbourne’s Urban Growth Boundary be stabilised to provide certainty to land-holders and agribusiness."  

 

The Government has claimed it needs the extra land to house our rapidly growing population, yet both PM Julia Gillard and Premier Brumby have acknowledged the need to re-think “Big Australia” policies. They should also re-think the need for these planning scheme amendments and for the green wedge destruction.