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Dear Taxed Out landholder,
The Green Wedges Coalition has backed Taxed Out solidly in your efforts to defeat the GAIC. We congratulate you for the changes you have been able to achieve and commiserate with defeat of your principal goal to have the GAIC shifted to the development approval stage, due to the Liberal Party's decision to backdown and vote for the GAIC last month.
While your campaign until now has focussed on your common policy goal to beat the GAIC, we are aware that in fact many of you would prefer to stay in the green wedges and/or would prefer that the UGB not be moved. For many landholders, the windfall gains do not compensate you for the loss of your homes, properties and livelihoods or heritage.
This week the battleground has shifted with the tabling of Planning Scheme Amendment VC67 in Parliament. VC67 will include details of:
* the proposed UGB expansion;
* the Outer Metropolitan Ring Road and E6 freeway reservations to be covered by Public Acquisition overlays;
* Urban density measures including high rise along the tram, train and bus routes;
* proposed new grassland reserves (to be covered by PAO - please note we understand our submissions for landholders in these reserves to be allowed to stay on their properties and to be supported to manage them for conservation may have been successful).
Detailed maps & provisions etc are now available. Please check the proposed (UGB) boundaries to see how your properties and neighbourhoods are affected as there will be some changes.
If you - or any landowner you know ( ideally close to the UGB) would like to make a case for keeping your/their land in the green wedge, please:
* Contact your local MP and ask them to make a stand on your property or area. Especially the Liberal MPs, as their votes will determine this. We know the ALP MPs will vote for VC67 and the Greens, bless them, will vote against VC67 as they did with the GAIC legislation. Remind the ALP MPs that you remember Planning Minister Madden saying on TV that people should write & let him know if they did not want to be part of the UGB expansion.
* Write a letter or email to all MPs outlining your circumstances and your reasons. Please email me a copy:
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* Write to the local and metropolitan papers along the same lines.
When voting for the GAIC, Liberal Planning spokesman Matthew Guy said the Liberal Party would oppose the bill if Clause 12 is still included, so the Libs may oppose it, if is not rolled again. It is likely to be debated in the week beginning Tuesday 22/6. There is a proposal for a Parliament House steps rally on the day so keep 1pm free in your diary.
Some of you have family homes and properties that have been passed down from your parents and grandparents, some have heritage properties into which you have put your heart and soul, some have carefully cultivated farmland and prized native remnant bushland that you have cared for. None of you will be able to purchase broadacres so close to Melbourne ever again and if the State Government's proposed Urban Growth Boundary extension goes ahead, no matter how far out you purchase, you will have no guarantee that you won't be displaced again the next time a few big developers lean on the government to give them more land for development.
There is also the broader matter of the importance of retaining certainty about green wedges for the sake of future generations and for keeping Melbourne as a livable, sustainable city with green wedges to protect our rural landscapes, sustainable agriculture and remant bushlands, wetlands and grasslands.
Also remember, the only way of avoiding the GAIC now is to stop the UGB expansion. Some of you - with properties of 10 ha or less - may have been told you are exempted from the GAIC, but it is only deferred until development approval. Those with more than 10 ha will still pay 30% of the GAIC upfront, whenever you sell, whether to a developer or not. This will guarantee a buyers' market from which the developers will benefit.
Allbest,
Rosemary West
joint coordinator
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