That expresses the exasperation and frustration I feel with the current Victorian Government. Planning issues have been in the news again this week, and the Brumby Government (especially Planning Minister Justin Madden) continue to force their overcrowding and overdevelopment agenda, irrespective of how residents feel. Some articles from The Age:
- “Brumby tackled on urban sprawl”, 9/6. The “Green Wedge” zones supposed to retain open space are to be developed to accommodate a projected population of 5 million in Melbourne and surrounding suburbs. The Open Letter from councils is reproduced below.
- “Wedge politics”, 9/6. Some of the open areas are part of the diminishing Victorian Volcanic Plains Grasslands and include some of the last remnants of the plains grasslands, which are being smothered under housing estates.
- “Threat to grab power off councils”, 13/6. Justin Madden – whom I have come to despise (and the building industry as well), and who has been Planning Minister for far too long – is to override councils’ decisions on planning.
This Labor Government is just as bad as the previous Liberal Government under Jeff Kennett (who began the planning reforms that have led to this); I would not vote for either of them.
Dear Sirs,
Governments have to make difficult decisions. We understand that. However recent planning reforms have gone too far. In the past few months your Government has:
- Introduced legislation to deprive local communities of their normal rights to have their own elected Councillors make decisions on development applications in their larger shopping centers;
- Planned to appoint a government-dominated committee to
- make decisions,
- require local residents to write a blank cheque to pay for the committee, and
- demand Councils pay the cost of defending the committee’s decisions even where residents and Councillors may strongly oppose these decisions.
- Removed the rights of residents, Councils and VCAT to make decisions on development applications which are deemed important economy-boosting opportunities. The normal rights of residents have been taken away. Applications are now decided behind closed doors.
- Removed both the rights of residents to be advised of applications next door to them, and to express concern about applications involving social housing and private schools where government funding is involved.
These measures demolish the cornerstone of this state’s planning system – the rights of residents to have a say about their neighborhood. These rights are at the very heart of our democratic system of governance. The use of the economic downturn to justify the denial of these fundamental rights is short-term thinking with disasterous long-term consequences. How can communities have any confidence in a planning system where the ends justify the means?
It is time to reinstate residents’ rights. It is time to return democratic planning processes to the people who elected you to respect and protect those rights in our society.
All of this is attributable to a growing population. If the Federal and State Governments would have the foresight to restrict Australia’s population growth such pressures would be alleviated, but they are hopelessly addicted to growth.
“Australia turns back the clock to baby boomer era”, The Age, 5/6. A dismaying report of the current high rate of Australia’s population growth, due to both immigration and birth rate increase.
“The Top 10 Most Absurd Time Covers of The Past 40 Years”, Reason Online. This site has a byline of “free minds and free markets” which sounds suspiciously like it is a Libertarian site. №8 is “August 6, 1984: The Population Curse”, reproduced below:
Why So Worried? Using an upcoming U.N. conference in Mexico City as its hook, Time engages in some Paul Ehrlich-style doom-mongering about overpopulation.
Cue Ominous Music: “The consequences of a failure to bring the world’s population growth under control are frightening. They could include widespread hunger and joblessness, accompanied by environmental devastation and cancerous urban growth. Politically, the outcome could be heightened global instability, violence and authoritarianism.”
Oh, Just Settle Down: Since Time’s 1984 cover story, the world’s population has increased from 4.75 billion to 6.78 billion people. This year, the World Bank’s Poverty Analysis reported, “Living standards have risen dramatically over the last decades. The proportion of the developing world’s population living in extreme economic poverty…has fallen from 52 percent in 1981 to 26 percent in 2005… Infant mortality rates in low- and middle-income countries have fallen from 87 per 1,000 live births in 1980 to 54 in 2006. Life expectancy in [low and middle-income] countries has risen from 60 to 66 between 1980 and 2006.” According to the peace advocacy group Ploughshares, the number of armed conflicts across the globe has generally been in decline since the mid-1990s (PDF). As for “authoritarianism,” with the fall of the Soviet empire, a far greater percentage of the global population lived under such regimes in 1984 than do today. Even the massive population in China is freer (if not actually “free”) than it was in 1984.
Well, we are already seeing the consequences of overpopulation (hunger, joblessness, environmental devastation, etc.), so what reality are the article writers living in?
“Pop the Pill and think of England”, New Statesman, 4/11/2002. An older article that explains why an aging and declining population is not something to be feared.
