Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

A few months ago in this chamber I spoke of the proposed development of the Peninsula Kingswood Golf Course in Dingley Village in the great electorate of Isaacs. This proposal would have rezoned a piece of land zoned for special use, a golf course, to mid-density residential in the form of around 800 dwellings including six so-called superlots that could have been used for even more intense development. The development would have further clogged already congested local roads and robbed the people of Dingley Village of the very open space that attracted them to this great community in the first place. I'm pleased to say that last week the City of Kingston, the local government of the Dingley Village community, decided to abandon the planning scheme amendment that would have allowed this inappropriate development to proceed. The vote to abandon the scheme was unanimously supported by all nine councillors. An important point of planning law was made by the City of Kingston to developers—that is, developments that do not create a community benefit and do not accommodate the community that they wish to be part of can and will be rejected. Special use zoned land, of which there is much in Melbourne's south-east, is zoned this way to ensure open space or special use for their nearby communities. Special use zoned land will not and should not be rezoned to residential as a formality, simply because it was purchased by a developer.

I commend the Save Kingswood Group, which has worked tirelessly. In my last speech I thanked Simone Hardham, Michael Benjamin and Kevin Poulter. I now thank David Madill and Greg and Linda Jones, who have also worked tirelessly for their community. The proposed amendment to develop Kingswood golf course was rightly abandoned by the City of Kingston, but there may in time be another attempt by the developer to change the planning scheme. My message to them is this: talk to the community that you want to be part of, ask the residents what they want and work with them to get it right. Australia's major cities are littered with developments that overrode the desires of the community they were built in, and in nearly every instance a better option could have been taken. I thank the City of Kingston mayor, Steve Staikos, and all of the Kingston councillors for their ongoing work and understanding of the wishes of the residents. Developers need to get approval only once. It's important that communities and local governments hold them to account to get it right. I'll keep standing beside the residents of Dingley Village to make sure Kingswood golf course remains open space and that any development on it provides services and facilities that benefit this excellent community of Dingley Village.

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