Bill: Planning Amendment (Better Decisions Made Faster) Bills 2025

BILL:

‘PLANNING AMENDMENT (BETTER DECISIONS MADE FASTER) BILL 2025.’

Thursday, 13 November 2025.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (12:07):

I rise to speak on the so-called Planning Amendment (Better Decisions Made Faster) Bill 2025.

This Bill is an utter disgrace. It is an absolute, utter disgrace, and Victorians will msee it, just like when I started talking about crime a few years ago and the Premier held his press conference to tell me that I did not know what I was talking about. Victorians have now seen that, and they have seen what a pig of a man that Premier was.

They know with this bill –

Members interjecting.

James NEWBURY: Defend the pig of a man? Are you serious?

Michaela Settle: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, that is very unparliamentary language.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): Member for Brighton, I would ask you to ensure that your language remains parliamentary.

James NEWBURY: I appreciate that. I notice the member did not use the factual point of order and did not take issue with the fact of the comment that I made.

But on this bill, Victorians will see what a shameful Bill this is being rammed through this Chamber. It is a total fake, a total lie. You read the Bill, and it says things like it is going to increase transparency. What a joke. Under this Bill you as a neighbour no longer have the right of a say over what is built next to you. You no longer have a say. Parliament is having its rights stripped away in terms of oversight. Your rights as a property holder, in terms of covenants, will be stripped away, and all under the cover of ramming this legislation through, trying
to push through this legislation while covering with other issues in this State, with the Premier announcing new laws that have not even been drafted yet. This Bill is an absolute disgrace. How did we ever, as a State, get to the point where a Government thinks it is all right to take away property rights, to take away the rights of community? This issue will turn, because what you will see is people building bad things and neighbours finding out bad things are being built and asking why they were not notified, why they did not have a say in the process. People who live in communities – not the Premier in her taxpayer-funded tower; I am talking about real people on the street – will start to say, ‘Why didn’t we get a chance to be notified? Why didn’t we get a say?’ These are very fair and reasonable questions which are being stripped away.

In fact, as a neighbour, not only do you not have a say, but you will have to notify, for certain applications, registered Aboriginal parties. So, your neighbour does not know, but the Aboriginal parties do. What does that show you about the treaty circus? The treaty circus.

Members interjecting.

James NEWBURY: The treaty circus. You did not hear me the second time? The third time? The circus. Now a neighbour does not know what is being built next door, but you need to notify the registered Aboriginal parties of what is being proposed to be built. It is absolutely disgraceful what this Bill does, and there is no wonder that affected communities are calling it out.

This Bill will actually end up affecting everybody. This is more than just the Premier attacking certain areas that she thinks are Liberal and she does not like and proposing 20-storey towers in those areas to take on all of the population growth of Victoria. This Bill will affect everybody, and everybody is going to start to ask, ‘What happened to my right to a say on the future of my community?’ Because that is what is missing in the Government’s socialist ideology. They do not understand that communities have been built by the good people in them.
They have not been built by Spring Street. Communities should have the say over what happens around them. This Bill, by definition, takes out the right of communities to have a say. That is what the Bill does in its very, very core across the entire State.

I understand – and I have said it before, and the Premier does not like it – because she is not from Melbourne, she does not understand the issues in Melbourne, and I stand by that. She does not understand the issues in Melbourne. The Government do not like it when I say that, but it is true.

Members interjecting.

James NEWBURY: Is there is any question that the Premier does not –

Natalie Suleyman: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I think the member needs to speak through the Chair and stick to the point of order. You are straying away from the issue.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): I will rule on the Point of Order. The Member for Brighton is germane to the subject matter. But Member for Brighton, can you make sure you are referring your comments to the Chair.

James NEWBURY: As I have said before, this bill shows the Premier does not understand issues in Melbourne – clearly; I have said it over and over again – just like she did not understand there was a crime crisis. It turns out the only time she understood there was a crime crisis was when there was a protest in her electorate. Until then it did not exist. We heard Member after Member, Minister after Minister, deny it existed, literally on the record denying there was a crime crisis. Now she is trying to outflank from some kind of ‘Let’s put as many people as possible on life sentences’ –

Belinda Wilson: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, he is straying very wide from the bill.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): Member for Brighton, return to the Bill and continue your contribution.

James NEWBURY: What this Bill proves is the point that I just made, because nobody who has any sense of how Melbourne has been built will think the pathway forward for our great communities is to take away every possible say from the people in those communities, and that is why there will be a lot of people in my community on Sunday meeting to talk about this very issue.

Last time this happened there were 3000 people there. It has been written about – in Church Street, Brighton – in fact by the good Age, and they would never tell a lie. Thousands of people turned up from all over Melbourne. There were a lot of people from Bentleigh there, there were a lot of people from Essendon there and there were a lot of people from a lot of Labor seats who were there, who were coming and saying, ‘What is this all about? What is this 20-storey tower policy all about? This is disgraceful.’ And not just that: ‘What is the policy of putting six storeys in leafy suburban suburbs about?’

The Member for Frankston has walked in. I tell you, in his community, they are not gagging for this policy. I tell you what, there are a lot of people in Frankston who are contacting me concerned about the great wall on the beach that this government has approved.

Paul Edbrooke: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, as is the normal practice in this house, I think members should stick to telling the truth.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Iwan Walters): Member for Frankston, I do not think there is a point of order on this point.

James NEWBURY: I can understand why the Member would be touchy, because his community are contacting me, and I have not come into the Chamber and read out the string of emails I am getting from his community but I am more than happy to find myself an opportunity to do that.

This Bill is absolutely disgraceful. It is not the only disgraceful Bill, it is one in a string of disgraceful decisions by this Government, a decision which says, ‘We in Spring Street know better than anybody who lives in the community. We know better than what you know about what your neighbour is proposing to build.’

The idea that your neighbour does not have a say over what is being built next door but you must notify registered Aboriginal parties – how could anyone other than this ideological left-wing Government think that that makes any sense for Victorians? It does not, and they have not been asked about it. None of these policy decisions were put to an election, not a single one of them. The stripping away of property rights is disgraceful. The 20-storey tower policy is disgraceful. This is an absolute disgrace. Victorians will absolutely turn on this like they did on crime. It will happen because we have a series of policies this Premier who does not understand Melbourne drives in to impose upon us, and Victorians know that it is an absolute shame and an absolute disgrace. Victorians in their thousands are now seeing this, and they certainly will in my community on Sunday. I would certainly encourage everybody who wants to come to come along.