David Feeney (Batman, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month I had the privilege of visiting the Brotherhood of St Laurence Sambell Lodge residential aged-care facility in Clifton Hill. The residents are amongst some of our community's most vulnerable, having experienced homelessness, disability, mental illness or substance abuse. Currently providing 43 beds, Sambell Lodge has plans to expand to 117 beds. This expansion will help meet an already existing shortfall in local residential aged-care beds and it will provide the capacity for more disadvantaged community members to age with dignity.

Sadly, this beneficial project has been put in jeopardy. It has been put in jeopardy by the Greens party, who have blocked it despite their own expert counsel officers recommending that the development be supported. Objections centred on the removal of one sick tree with a life expectancy of only another 10 years and one derelict building which has been unused for 10 years. The cost of this policy lunacy is being felt by real people with real needs and undermines the very values the Greens purport to represent. This is an important local development that Clifton Hill should be proud of and it should not be undermined by nimbyism. The Greens should start practising what they preach.