Protectors of
Public Lands Victoria Inc.
MEDIA RELEASE
Protectors of Public lands Victoria Inc. (PPL VIC) sees Wednesday 2 May 2007 as a red-letter day for Victoria’s environment and heritage, as the day brakes were applied to the Government’s fire sale of public land and heritage assets to developers.
The motion put by Shadow Minister for Planning, Matthew Guy, and supported by
Liberals, Greens, Nationals and the DLP member to establish an Enquiry into
Public Land Sales was passed in the Legislative Council. An Upper House
Committee of seven members is to be appointed to enquire into “the
sale or alienation of public land for development; the sale or alienation of
public open space for the purposes of private use or development and the sale
and development of public land and the relationship to Melbourne 2030 policy
and the green wedges.”
The Enquiry will
get underway almost immediately with the 7 members (2 Liberal, 2 ALP, 1
National, 1 Green and 1 DLP). They were
to be appointed within the week, with the first Committee meeting to be held no
later than 21 May 2007. The committee will advertise its terms of
reference and call for submissions hence community groups will have an
opportunity to raise urgent issues relating to land sales or alienation.
Members of Parliament spoke most eloquently about the need to maintain and protect our public open space and heritage. Mr Guy (Northern Metropolitan) opened with general comments about the loss of open space “… since the turn of the century it is clear that public open space has come under attack. It has become a commodity to sell or develop, rather than to preserve. As land prices have risen dramatically across the city over the last few years, principally near central activities areas, and moreover due to the establishment of a rigid urban growth boundary, the state government appears to have become a land speculator with its public land holdings…once open space is lost, as we all know, it cannot be replaced. Further, it is clear that the Bracks government is disposing (of) public land across the state in order to get a quick financial gain with little or no regard to the open space that is being lost forever.” (Extract from Hansard report.)
Julianne Bell PPL VIC Secretary
says: “The past eight years under a Labor Government has seen the phenomenal
growth of new community and environment groups battling to defend and protect
significant parkland and heritage sites from alienation by both State and local
Government and the depredations of
private developers. We have seen the
loss of the former heritage-listed Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital in a deal
whereby 20 hectares of land worth up to $350 million was gifted to a private property
developer in return for use of the development by Commonwealth Games athletes
for two weeks; the loss of the Greater Shepparton Botanical Gardens with
wetlands and a bird sanctuary, flogged off by VicUrban for a housing
development; and, more recently, the loss of Kew Cottages for a real estate
development on 27 hectares of Crown Land with heritage listed buildings and
significant trees, immediately adjacent to Studley Park and Yarra Bend National
Park. In addition, it forms part of the
Yarra corridor. These are only a few examples of the myriad cases on our
inventory of public land gone missing. It should come as no surprise that our
PPL VIC mantras are “Save Your Parks from Sharks” and “Keep Public Lands in
Public Hands.”
Hopes are high that the new Parliamentary Public Land Sales Select Committee may “fireproof” our public land and open spaces plus heritage sites against further land grabs by Government, property developers and land speculators.
MEDIA CONTACT: Julianne Bell
Secretary PPL VIC 98184114 or 0408022408