Matter of Public Importance: Activity Centres

MATTER OF PUBLIC IMPORTANCE

‘ACTIVITY CENTRES’.

Wednesday 14 May 2025.

The member for Albert Park proposed the following matter of public importance for discussion:

That this House condemns the Opposition for failing to support reforms that deliver more homes for Victorians close to transport, jobs, schools and parks.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (17:21):

I rise to speak on the Government’s Matter of Public Importance, effectively on
major activity centres, and I will start by asking: so far the mover of this motion,
the Member for Albert Park, how many activity centres are in her electorate?
Zero. The next speaker, Sunbury? Zero. The next speaker, Eureka? Zero. The
next speaker, Narre Warren South? Zero. Each of the four Members have been
getting up and telling the communities that have an activity centre the advice they
would like to give them – the free advice they would like to give those
communities – about what they think about towers in their communities. What a
pack of hypocrites. We have not even had one speaker who has an activity centre
in their electorate. Not one Government speaker who has got up has an activity
centre, which just goes to show what a sham this Matter of Public Importance is.

Now, who has got activity centres from the Government side – because most of
the activity centres are in Liberal electorates. Of course they are, because it is all
politics. It is all politics with this Premier, and that is how she has decided where
the activity centres go. But where do the activity centres go in the small number
of Labor seats? When you look at the list, it is interesting. It is in the Deputy
Premier’s seat – leadership rival; Minister Williams’s seat – rival; Ros Spence;
Paul Edbrooke; Minister Carbines, the Deputy Premier’s numbers man; Kat
Theophanous – family challenge –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member, correct titles.

James NEWBURY: I mean, seriously, when you look at this list, you can see
exactly what the Premier is doing. These are factional hits. Not only is it in Liberal
seats, but there are factional hits across where these activity centres are based. If
you look at the names, it is just true. That is what the Premier has done – I forgot
Member Halfpenny; I do not know which seat she has got. When you look at the
list, you can see what the Government is doing.
The other thing that the Government Members who have spoken today – all of
whom do not have an activity centre, every single one of them; we are waiting
for one with an activity centre to speak – have all spoken about is consultation.

Consultation – how good has consultation been? Well, firstly, how would they
know, because they do not live in any of the areas affected? How could they
possibly know? Well, guess what has happened in the shadow of the Federal
Election? No-one has picked up on this yet.
Consultation has started on what the Government intends to do in 25 of the areas
that are getting an activity centre. Did you know? No-one knew that consultation
had commenced in the 25 areas. Why? Because the Government did not tell
anybody. They have told no-one that consultation has commenced. Have we
heard a Minister talk about it in this chamber? No. Have we seen a press release?
No. Has the Premier come to Brighton to announce it? No. Has the Premier said
anything about it? No, and neither has the Minister. Why? Because it is a sham.

And it gets worse – this sham consultation gets worse. Number one, you cannot
find the consultation – I went onto the website – by searching for your own suburb
affected on the Engage Victoria website. You cannot find the consultation session
on Engage’s website. You have to click backwards, effectively, through another
link to find it. I have got four activity centres in my community. The fact that you
cannot search by the suburbs affected to find the consultation tells you how hard
they are trying to hide it. But it gets worse again. Within an hour of the
consultation sessions opening in my community, they were filled. Within 1 hour
our consultations were filled. And guess what? There are no more, so my office
is being inundated with people who cannot register to attend a consultation
session, which is online. Why do they need to cap an online session? They have
capped it at a thousand, and we filled it in an hour. The Government is denying
the community access to their sham consultations, and no additional consultation
has been announced.

I am waiting to hear the Government Members get up and talk about that one. How can you block thousands of people who want to attend a consultation session from attending? And what is worse is that the consultation sessions are not for each area. It is not like the Middle Brighton community has a right to attend a Middle Brighton consultation session about what the Premier plans to build in our area in Middle Brighton. They have packaged six activity centres into one consultation session and capped it, so we know it is a scam. And what is worse – I have not even got to the worst part – the community is being asked in these consultation sessions to have a view on what the Government is proposing to do in the areas and is refused a release of any mapping. If you can get a spot in a consultation session – which you cannot, because you are all being blocked – you turn up, and you will not even be given a map for the six areas you are supposedly there to ask questions about. This is a total scam, and the community knows it.

What this Government is doing is wrecking suburbs, and we know why: because the Premier does not live here. The Premier does not understand Melbourne. The Premier does not understand Melbourne – you can see it across multiple policies – whether it comes to wrecking suburbs, whether it comes to crime. The only time the Premier caught on there was a crime problem was when there was a protest in Bendigo. Before there was a protest in Bendigo the Premier did not even think there was a crime problem. No wonder the swing in her seat was so dramatic. It was because the community knows she does not get it. Anyone who comes in and says they are going to wreck the uniqueness of the communities in Melbourne should stand condemned.

What is so bad about the activity centre plan – set aside the outrageous addiction of Labor to taxes and set aside everything else – is that it wrecks the character of Melbourne. Every Council has already come up with a plan to suit their community and enhance and encourage growth. Councils have done the hard work, and when you look at the numbers the Councils have proposed to enable growth in their communities and you add them up by municipality, there is no difference to what the Government is doing in the very small number of communities it is about to trash. What does that tell you? What it tells you is it is just stupid policy. But we know what it is about; it is about politics, and it is about attacking certain communities. You can see it. I mean, 10 activity centres in Malvern – how could you possibly think that is going to keep the character of Malvern? – and four in Brighton. As I said before, when you look at the hit list of Labor MPs you see leadership rival, leadership rival, disgruntled factional opponent, factional opponent, Minister on the outer. This is what the list is. There is no great supporter of the Premier on that list. There is no Minister for Planning. I mean, the Minister for Planning opposed three storeys in her own seat. What a captain hypocrite. I mean, it is just outrageous to think this Government is trying to pretend it has a fair plan. It is a plan of politics. It is a disgrace. Victorians will see it. They absolutely will see it, and the polling, for what that is worth, shows that before anything has been built, they have seen it. The community will turn on this Government, and rightly so, because this Premier does not live in Melbourne, and she does not understand it