Hawthorn needs more homes that people can actually afford, close to public transport, shops and services. Young people, essential workers and older single women are being priced out of this community, due to rising housing and rental costs.
The Victorian government's Activity Centre changes were sold as the answer. Right now they are not delivering it. There is no evidence the reforms will improve affordability or increase housing supply and communities are being excluded from decisions that affect the liveability of their neighbourhoods.
What is going wrong
As Deputy Mayor and Boroondara councillor, I support more housing in the right places. But the state government planning reforms are being rolled out with serious problems.
Community notice and appeal rights have been removed or limited. Councils and residents have been left out of decisions that shape their own neighbourhoods. The new Housing Choice and Transport Zone allows bigger and taller buildings, even in heritage areas, without weighing the impact on liveability. Trees and tree canopy – which are vital in our warming climate – are being lost. And Boroondara council is left to pay for the roads, parks and services a growing population needs.
Camberwell Junction, and the Hawthorn, Glenferrie, Auburn, and Riversdale/Willison Stations precincts are all targeted for major growth. Our community deserves a plan built around local knowledge, not a ‘one size fits all’ template approach to planning.
My plan
As your Independent, I will fight for a pause and review of the Activity Centre planning changes, to ensure that they meet the needs of our growing community. That means:
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Removing the Housing Choice and Transport Zone from areas covered by Heritage Overlays
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Removing the Development Facilitation Program (DFP) to ensure genuine consultation with communities and local councils, not changes imposed from above
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Fixing the Townhouse and Low Rise Code and the new Mid Rise Code so they protect trees, canopy and the quality of what gets built
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A place-based approach to planning for the communities of Camberwell, Canterbury, Hawthorn, Hawthorn East and Surrey Hills that reflects local character and builds on the precinct plans Council has already prepared
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A fairer, expanded Infrastructure Contribution Plan, so new development pays its share of the infrastructure it relies on
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Genuine measures to increase affordable, social and public housing, using government owned land and minimum affordable housing requirements on private development
My record
I have worked on this at Council, not just talked about it. I served on Boroondara's first ever Social and Affordable Housing Committee, and we are actively investigating how Council can deliver more social housing locally. I have advocated strongly for affordable housing at development sites in Boroondara.
I led Council's response to the State Government's sweeping planning reforms, fighting to protect heritage precincts from overdevelopment, and I helped secure heritage protection for individual homes. I also renewed Council's Homelessness Protocol, and I have added hundreds of trees to the significant tree register.
I believe in more homes, done well. I have approved hundreds of new quality dwellings, because growth and neighbourhood character are not opposites. What we need is genuinely affordable homes, medium density development, strong design standards, and infrastructure that keeps up with population growth.
For Hawthorn: The major parties have treated housing like an investment market for too long. As your Independent in Parliament, I will take Council's work to the state parliament and fight for housing that serves our community, not just developers.