Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the good work of the Northern Melbourne Regional Development Australia (RDA) committee;

(2) condemns the Government for shutting down the Northern Melbourne RDA;

(3) recognises that Melbourne' s northern suburbs are a significant growth area, which has not received its fair share of vital infrastructure support under this Government and that this is adversely impacting on productivity and liveability; and

(4) calls on the Minister to reconsider amalgamating the RDA committees in Victoria.

For the seventh year in a row, Melbourne has been acclaimed as the world's most livable city by the Economist Intelligence Unit, amongst other bodies. But our celebration as proud Melburnians, Deputy Speaker Vamvakinou, must be tempered. We must ask ourselves: livable for who and for how long? As you would be well aware, Melbourne is one of the fastest-growing cities, not just in Australia but right across the OECD. While this growth takes place right across Melbourne, it's particularly concentrated in areas of the northern suburbs, including in the electorates of Scullin, Batman and McEwen, and also in the electorate of Calwell, Deputy Speaker! This presents great opportunities for our communities—great opportunities which are being recklessly squandered by the decision-making of this government.

This government's failure to support Melbourne and its failure to consider the needs of Melburnians is presenting a massive handbrake on our productivity as well as our livability. It's impacting on too many lives. We see this in the obscene decision to allocate only a fraction of the necessary Commonwealth infrastructure spends to Melbourne. We see it in the neglect of urban policy from this government generally—no matter what the present Prime Minister might say. But all of these decisions are being compounded by the decision this motion seeks to highlight—that is, to turn the present four Regional Development Australia committees, reflecting the diverse needs of Melbourne, into one. I am particularly concerned about the impact of this in terms of all the communities of the northern suburbs of Melbourne, because it is clear that Melbourne's northern suburbs form a distinct regional economy—and a distinct community at that, comprised of more than a million people, and local government areas, such as Banyule, Darebin, Hume, Mitchell shire, Nillumbik, Yarra, Whittlesea and Moreland. There has been some fantastic work done by the RDA which covers northern Melbourne, recognising the diversity of interests here. I'd like to take this opportunity in this place to acknowledge the great contribution of Tony Coppola, who has done extraordinary work, and that of his committee.

The government has formed a series of views about how urban Australia should be treated. We saw under previous Liberal administrations the dominance of the National Party, through such discredited programs as 'Roads of National Party Importance', when it came to our national government's involvement in infrastructure. More subtly, we see the same thing play out here, under Prime Minister Turnbull, as was the case under his predecessor, the member for Warringah. We saw a series of reviews of our RDAs which really shifted a focus—showed a thinking that regions economically in Australian are defined by this government as those areas which aren't our major cities. This is short-changing millions of Australians and denying the reality that we live in Australia, the world's most urbanised nation and, in particular, the world's most suburbanised nation.

Our communities, particularly those in growing outer-suburban regions, require the active engagement of a national government. A critical part of that is establishing lasting partnerships. That has been the role of the Northern Melbourne RDA. It has drawn together local, state and national government stakeholdings and those policy priorities to build a shared vision for our region in concert with community and private enterprise. We have seen really important work done. I think about the regional plan from last year on to 2019, a framework for balancing the opportunities and meeting the challenges of our region; the Food and Beverage Growth Plan; the future workforce plan; and, of course, the vital Northern Horizons vision, a 50-year vision for infrastructure to sustain our communities and our economy. These are pieces of work that will be lost through the government's reckless decision to turn four Melbourne RDAs into one. It is a government which continues to turn its back on Melbourne—in particular, the northern suburbs. I note that no government speakers proposed to contribute to this debate. This government adds insult to injury when it comes to Melbourne's northern suburbs. It has made a decision, without due process and without due consideration, that will short-change the lives of more than a million Melburnians, for which it should stand condemned. The government needs to reconsider this decision.

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