submission

This article describes, among other things, the relationship of the property development industry with war. The Independent Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) recently asked for public submissions to its “People’s Inquiry Exploring the case for an Independent and Peaceful Australia.” It called for a “a people's-led national conversation about the US-Australia Alliance, including the social, political, military and defence, economic and environmental impacts.” The concept of a “people’s inquiry” implies a new attempt at democratic representation, assuming that Australians cannot be sure of being represented in a government-run inquiry, which will always be influenced by powerful groups. This article is based on my submission.

Planning scam, or should I say, planning scam juggernaut. The speed of so-called consultations for new development proposals is overwhelming democracy. No-one, except wealthy professional developers, with dedicated teams of staff, can keep up with the proposals. Maybe that’s the point. Still recovering from two recent surgeries, and on the heels of an unavoidable community organisation event, involving time consuming preparation and sequelae, I was looking forward to taking a break. I could see about 3 weeks of "clear sky" ahead of me, in which I could deal with an issue of mutual concern with my neighbour, do my tax return, prune the lemon tree, wash the curtains, and organise the hard rubbish for Friday. This feeling of relative freedom lasted about two days, before yet another "opportunity" for consultation from Melbourne Planning reared its head.

Planning Policy, City of Melbourne, has recently solicited submissions and submissions about submissions ostensibly to establish guidelines for minimum sunlight for parks. Whilst it claims to be protecting the parks, it is obvious that it is really seeking to establish minimal sunlight rules so that it can continue to add to the bristling thicket of skyscrapers that is presently engulfing the city in shadow at the behest of the property development and immigration lobby/state government and town hall. We attach a submission from the Secretary of Protectors of Public Lands Victoria on sunlight and public parks. It's a fairly simple matter, but can be made complicated. There has been one round of submissions. Now there is a call for verbal submissions on those submissions [1] and for an 'independent' committee to evaluate those submissions, presumably until the opposition to sunlight-theft falls away from exhaustion in the face of the well-paid forces of darkness. [Ed. See update here: https://candobetter.net/node/5934"]

“This is where we have got to with government-engineered breakneck population growth that also puts property developers and associated professions in charge of planning. 110 golf-courses, which occupy green, treed spaces, in all kinds of areas in Melbourne and its suburbs and another 374 in Victorian regions, now carry hugely increased potential resale value if speculators can get them rezoned for more intensive use. Predictably, golf-course owners and probably management committees are now complaining that they aren’t making enough money. Some of their complaints will be well-founded, because state-imposed population pressure has caused demand for land, water and power, hence their costs, to rise rapidly. If nothing is done, either to reduce population growth, or exempt golf-courses from paying these charges, they will skyrocket.” (Sheila Newman, Population, environment and land-tenure systems sociologist.)

After a 2017 discussion paper that not many of us heard about, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, has again discreetly invited people to provide feedback to draft guidelines for their Golf Course Redevelopment Standing Advisory Committee, which is composed of property development industry professionals

[Candobetter.net Editor: This submission was made available as a pdf attachment to an earlier article. It is such a useful document that we have converted the pdf version to a web document for easier reading.]

It is a peculiarity of Australian policy making that a decision with major import for our society, economy and environment — namely the size of our annual intake of permanent migrants — is made in virtual secrecy and announced in an obscure line of the annual budget papers and an equally obscure line of a Departmental press release. The decision is important because our prescribed annual migrant intake (last year it was set at 190,000) makes a large contribution to Australia’s annual population growth.

According the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in the year to 30 June 2017, our population grew by 388,100 to 24,598,900 people. We are adding people in numbers equivalent to a city the size of Canberra, every year. Net overseas migration (NOM) contributed 245,400 or 63.3% to this increase, while ‘natural’ increase was only 36.8% or 142,700 people. NOM is overwhelmingly the biggest contributor to our annual population increase, which at an annual growth rate of 1.6% is one of the highest in the OECD, in third place after Luxemborg and Switzerland. These facts are worth re-stating here because many people may not be aware just how much immigration is contributing to our very high rate of population growth (including a red-hot 2.3% in Victoria).

In turn, this population growth is putting pressure on housing prices, infrastructure, services and the environment.

However, a small change has occurred this year. For what is probably the first time, the Department of Home Affairs (formerly Immigration) has sought public submissions on the question of what are the ‘right’ settings for migrant intake. I have contributed a submission here (PDF). It is possible that this new step has been taken as a result of the recommendations of the Productivity Commissions report on Migrant Intake into Australia. This report, to which yours truly contributed two submissions, is a major work of synthesis which draws on a wide range of community and expert evidence.

It is important that the findings of this report be fully studied and the major recommendations implemented. One of the most important is Recommendation 3.1, for the Australian government to develop an explicit population policy to serve as a context for making decisions about migrant intake. A significant part of the Commission’s findings and recommendations are for more public consultation and input into the development of the proposed population policy, and into decisions about migrant intake in particular. In short, the Commission is calling for an injection of democracy into this whole policy area.

Lawyers for Animals have sent in this very interesting submission to the Victorian Inquiry into the RSPCA. (See link to inquiry here: "RSPCA Vic Inquiry about to close but you could make a late submission".) It will be helpful to some of you who want to make submissions and generally informative about the role and duties of the RSPCA. Basically it argues for a new dedicated Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad (or similar) within Victoria Police and the removal of the RSPCA's Inspectorate powers and funding, permitting it to refocus on animal care and to engage in public advocacy for animal welfare. Among the reasons given are that the RSPCA has not got the funding to attend to the thousands of complaints it receives and that it lacks financial indemnity against being sued. The submission mentions a case where the RSPCA was recently sued for over $1m in farm losses, which has caused it severe financial problems. We have republished this interesting and useful submission from Lawyers for Animals with some slight changes to layout but none to content.

"Home ownership is a means to an end. It is not necessary for all people in all places. What all people want is housing affordability, security, and autonomy. A place they know they can come to, where they are in control of their own lives, which can be arranged to best serve their interests, tastes and lifestyle, and which will not enslave them financially. It is these values which have been so steadily undermined in Australia over the past decade in particular.

In some European countries like Germany, only about half of all households own their home. Many people have cited them, in an effort to wean Australians off their preference for ownership. However, the situation here is very different to that in Germany. There, tenants have substantial rights protecting their tenure and enabling them to decorate and to a certain extent modify their abode. Most importantly, the housing market is not inflating, so there is no expectation that rents will outstrip inflation into the future." (Dr Jane O'Sullivan) [1]

The policy and position of Australian government with respect to population issues is the most influential factor likely to impact on Australia’s future sustainability and hence the prosperity of current and future citizens. Because of the bipartisan government position on population/immigration numbers it is all but impossible to engender an effective public debate on these issues. I therefore welcome this opportunity created by the Productivity Commission to have this debate in a manner that is untarnished by vested interests and scaremongering about perceived xenophobia.

This current strategy will be the sixth strategic plan for Melbourne in 25 years... Increasing energy costs ... The role of the construction sector in the State's economy is directly related to repeated extensions to the urban growth boundary. Housing affordability. Food security... ensure all suburbs have access to back up food supplies that are not reliant on transport. Framework for regional linkages should be based on consideration of the protection of environmental and ecological systems. The '20 minute city' and 'Unlocking capacity in established suburbs' proposal is code for high population density and high rise development in existing suburbs and suburban streets; pressure on existing infrastructure to cope with higher population demands but without system renewal; further vegetation clearance and ecological impacts; decline in living standards ...and should be withdrawn.

The Australian Wildlife Protection Council (AWPC) is gravely concerned by the ‘use and commercialisation of Australian native animals’, their extinction rates, cruelty inflicted on them, and recreational hunting. Even more so, given that Australia has the world’s highest extinction rate. Instead of apologising for crimes against nature, the Victorian State Government seeks to extend further exploitation.

Sustainable Population Australia takes the State of the Environment report 2008 as a warning of the unsustainable path that Victoria is on as the government recklessly engineers its population at a rate about twice the level it would naturally be at present. This state government and its predecessors have actively encouraged population growth through the artificial means of seeking increasing numbers of migrants from overseas to settle in Victoria, using the website "Liveinvictoria.com.au".

On the northern coast of N.S.W. adjoining the Gold Coast and S.E.Queensland lies Tweed Shire, christened as the Green Caldera by once Environment Minister Peter Garrett. This area is famous for one of the highest biodiversity levels in Australia and infamous for the greatest level of biodiversity loss in N.S.W. thanks to the fact that the vast majority of Tweed councillors are pro-development. But in the case of Kings Forest, a massive housing development for 15,000 people worth $2 billion, NSW State Planning took control under the massively unpopular Part 3a legislation, depriving the council of all controls.
If this development is approved, it will be goodbye koalas on Tweed coast within 5-10 years. HAVE YOUR SAY!!

PLEASE make a brief Submission urgently. Under the heading of Competition and Efficiency, economists easily dispense with democratic objections and humane values. Only the strictly illegal is out, and authorities are always willing to change the law if money is involved. The campaign to slaughter kangaroos for their meat in Victoria has been building over the years, despite its unsustainability and the distress it produces in kangaroos and the many people who love this species. The Department of Sustainability has shown itself to utterly lack science or responsibility in monitoring and protecting our native wildlife. More often than not it awards permits to kill kangaroos without checking their justifications. The Auditor General's report in 2009 showed that the Victorian government did not know what it was doing with regard to wildlife. It would therefore be a serious error to change laws to reward kangaroo killing and to make it easier.

Response to Planning Minister Justin Madden's undemocratic and destructive goals and values in his Draft Planning and Environment Amendment (GAIC) Bill by one of Australia's oldest organisations dedicated to native animals.

What do children, bandicoots, Melbourne's Green Wedges and the Garden of Eden have in common? This poignant submission to a developer-dominated government about a children and bandicoots' garden goes right back to the garden of Eden, retold again and again, this time in Uno's garden and a garden with 'protected' bandicoots near Clyde, Victoria, on the edge of the Green Wedge.