Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier this year I responded to the federal government's Our cities, our futurediscussion paper. The national urban policy that has followed is the first long-term national framework to guide policy development for public and private investment in cities. Unfortunately, it is not working fast enough for the electorate of Melbourne, which is experiencing increased development to house an expected 20,000 additional residents in the next five years. The national urban policy highlights the need to improve the planning of our cities by facilitating a whole-of-government approach and integrating planning systems and infrastructure delivery. Currently, the residents of the electorate of Melbourne are frustrated as they watch 17-storey apartments gain planning approval with scant regard for integrated planning.

I recently surveyed residents in the Docklands high-rise precinct and initial results show real concerns about the complete lack of parkland or community, sporting, educational and health facilities. Staggeringly for a major city CBD residential area, less than 20 per cent of residents said they had access to good reception for free TV. Something as simple as free TV reception has not been planned for in this residential development. There are multistorey developments across the electorate, including in North Melbourne and Abbotsford, where good planning is subservient to developer dollars. The broken planning system in Victoria shuts out the views of residents and ignores coherent infrastructure planning. In North Melbourne, for example, the Errol Street primary school and University High are at capacity and there is no planning for primary and secondary schools to accommodate planned population growth. Melbourne requires immediate attention under the national urban policy to ensure our liveable city grows in a sustainable way with integrated planning.