One DAL down, one more to go

16/5/2023

Photo: Jim Worrall

By Neil Daly

ALONG with, I suspect, many hundreds of people, I followed the Bass Coast Distinctive Areas and Landscapes (DAL) advisory committee hearing. It ended on Thursday 27 April, 2023 after 27 days of proceedings, 747 submissions, 72 personal presentations, 32 expert witnesses and 570 documents.

The committee’s report will be presented to the Andrews government and, by the end of this year, Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny will make the final decision, presumably based on the committee’s report.

The Minister’s decision will determine Bass Coast Shire’s future for the next 50 years, thus giving it a head start on the other shires bordering Western Port.

For some time now, I’ve advocated that all shires bordering Western Port should be gazetted as a Distinctive Areas and Landscapes region, for it beggars belief that a distinctive area can arbitrarily end at the border between Bass Coast Shire and Cardinia Shire.

I’ve spoken about this issue in my article Caring for Western Port Country and, following the DAL hearing, I believe my thesis is worthy of further consideration.

Over the past months I’ve been involved in community discussions centring on environmental and economic issues concerning those in Cardinia and Mornington Peninsula shires and the City of Casey. There is a sense of foreboding hanging over these communities. No matter what they say about protecting the long-term wellbeing of the area, they fear adverse decisions will continue to be made by authorities, thus prolonging the ongoing and tiring battle the community must wage to have its voice heard.

The recent Bass Coast Shire DAL process has highlighted that the people can take part in a positive decision-making process and that their views are just as important as those of the bureaucracy, business enterprises and land developers. All have an interest in shaping the future – the same opportunity should now be afforded to the people in the other council areas.

I urge the minister to act now, for Cardinia, Casey and Mornington Peninsula are all part of the Western Port catchment area and all have common economic, environmental, tourism and agricultural interests.

These interests do not stop at council borders and neither should the minister’s vision.

If the status quo is not changed, we’ve learnt nothing from the fact that land, sea and water are interdependent and we are ignoring 70,000 years of custodianship that is pointing the way in how to manage Country and adjust to climate change.

The pressure of an expanding Melbourne urban environment and those seeking lifestyle changes are already affecting Western Port and its region.

Through the DAL process, the Bass Coast Shire has looked to the future; it’s time for the others to follow suit.

6 Comments

Anne Heath Mennell

19/5/2023 03:27:22 pm

As always, Neil, vision and common sense combined, succinctly.
When will the powers-that-be start listening?

Neil Daly link

22/5/2023 03:20:05 pm

Hello Anne. Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to securing Western Port’s future. The “powers that be” are starting to stir. Cardinia Shire Council has advised that a Western Port Strategic Framework notice of motion was passed unanimously by the council group.

Candy van Rood link

20/5/2023 06:56:34 pm

Thank you for this article Neil, you reflect here on exactly a foreboding sense I have had myself about Westernport. When it comes to Esso's gas-fired power station at Long Island Point, approvals were waved through by Sonya Kilkenny with barely any community consultation, and no Environmental Effects Statement. In fact the EPA helped them slide it through seamlessly with their nod too. Is this is a warning of what the government have up their sleeves for the rest of Westernport one cannot help wondering?

Neil Daly

21/5/2023 09:27:10 pm

Thanks Candy for your feedback. I’ve emailed the article to: all Mornington Peninsula, Cardinia and Bass Coast councillors; the Casey Administrators; and the Victorian Greens, the Opposition and the Government. The Bass Coast Shire Council has sanctioned the motion: 253/23 Western Port Strategic Framework (Council Meeting, 17 May 2023). The council will write to the Minister for Environment and the Minister for Climate Action, Energy and Resources.

Julia Stockigt link

23/5/2023 12:32:48 am

Thankyou Neil for keeping this issue in the media and on peoples’ minds.
Concerns about this sense of foreboding that you and Candy have noted was also recently raised by Mornington Peninsula councillor David Gill at a public meeting on the weekend.

Earlier this year, Victoria’s Minister for Planning approved Esso’s application for three ethane generators at Long Island Point in the Port of Hastings.

In an unexpected move, Minister Kilkenny used a Planning Scheme Amendment— something typically only used by shire councils— to approve this unnecessary new fossil fuels project.

News of the approval was so disappointing to our community because, rather than adopting the recommendations of the “Priority Projects committee”, that was appointed to advise the Minister, the use of a Planning Scheme amendment allowed the Planning Minister to ignore the committee’s recommendations, which resulted from concerns about the project’s potential impacts on community safety and the local environment that were detailed in the Esso’s application and presented in evidence at the hearing.

We spent weeks preparing for the hearing, determined to demonstrate why Esso’s application to increase their emissions with this new project are so unnecessary and unsound.

No one predicted that Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny would use a Planning Scheme amendment to approve Esso’s widely opposed plans. It shows the extent of this government’s disregard for the affected residents, and for the local Mornington Peninsula Shire council, which had clearly stated their objection to Esso’s application.

By using the Planning Scheme Amendment, Minister Kilkenny was able to over-rule the council’s rejection, and to disregard the community’s concerns, ignoring the mitigations that we negotiated during the hearing.

This is not the first time the state government’s practice of intervening in approvals on local government matters had been noticed.

In 2019 the Mornington Peninsula Shire council was caught off guard when Victoria’s Planning Minister Dick Wynne used a questionable ruling on Kawasaki’s controversial browncoal-to-hydrogen pilot to test heavily emitting hydrogen from coal for Japan, stating that the proposal was “an essential project for Victoria”.

This allowed the Minister to sideline the local shire council, removing their right to oppose the project on behalf of residents living in the shire.
The wishes of our community were ignored, and a controversial, widely opposed fossil fuels project was given the go-ahead, without any public consultation or scrutiny.

Like that ruling, this Planning Scheme Amendment to approve Esso’s plans ignored community opposition.
This time, the results of a govt Planning hearing, called to make sure public consultation and engagement were possible, we’re simply thrown out.

According to information received by Cr Gill, we should expect the State Government’s determination to sideline our local councils to increase, as the means for local governments to influence Planning decisions becomes more limited, and their powers are diminished by the implementation of more and more Planning Scheme Amendments.

Cr Gill warned us to expect the Minister for Planning to intercede more regularly on matters that have always been the responsibility of local councils, as decision-making powers that have typically been the jurisdiction of shire councils are eroded.

Joy Button

21/5/2023 12:22:53 am

Thank you Neil for a very positive and gentle summary of the DAL hearings. There were times when I despaired about some of the submissions made by wealthy developers. It will be interesting to see what results and recommendations will be made .... I hope it does not take too long.

One DAL down, one more to go

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