Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to express my outrage and that of my local community at the decision of the state planning minister, Richard Wynne, to call in and approve the Deakin University bridge plan without going through any proper consultation with the local community. This bridge has been on the drawing board for in excess of 20 years. For 20 years the community has been saying, 'We do not want or need a massive, great big bridge built across our beautiful open parkland'. For 20 years we have been in discussion about how to resolve this issue. Then, in the dead of night over Christmas, the state planning minister called in and approved this bridge whilst it was actually going through the proper process of planning approval through Whitehorse Council. Whitehorse Council had put out its notice, it was calling for objections, the community were putting together their objections, there were meetings planned with the local community, there was a stall set up in the middle of Gardiner's Creek for people to come by and see what the bridge was about, and, without a jot of consideration to my local community, the planning minister has approved this bridge. He has only listened to the concerns of the university.

Whilst people understand that the university has concerns that they have two sites which are on one side of a creek and another, and that they need to get students across that creek, they do not need to build a massive bridge, 70 metres high, across our creek area. The university has cited disability access and concerns about safety. If there are concerns about safety, why is my community still safe walking on the ground while the students have to be safe 70 metres above the ground on a bridge? This just does not add up and it is a complete slap in the face to community concern and outrage. I, along with my Liberal state colleague in the state seat, have put out a petition to our local community, calling on the residents to say, 'We do not want this bridge.'

This is an area that the community rescued. They reversed the degradation of this area, they have managed to create a beautiful bit of parkland in the middle of busy suburbia. I, like many residents, use it on a regular basis as an off-lead dog walking path. It is a beautiful part of our community. We do not want it beautified; we want it left as a bit of bushland for us to utilise and walk along. We understand that the university is there, but actually the residents were there first. Deakin University have continued to say that they want to have a great relationship with their community in Burwood. They do not. They have no relationship with their community in Burwood. They may have a great relationship with their community in Geelong; indeed they do. But they have not built that relationship with my community in the suburbs. There are more students in the Burwood campus than there are anywhere, and I understand that they need to move resources. But this was not the way to do it and the minister should stand condemned.

See this speech in context