Jacinta Allan’s suburban towers will destroy our communities

From her home in Bendigo, 150 kilometers away, Jacinta Allan announced that as Victoria’s population soars, she has a plan to sacrifice our city’s liveability and turn Melbourne into a metropolis. It is very profitable for the Prime Minister to destroy our city, although she does not even live here.

As the Prime Minister continues to say, by mid-century Melbourne will grow to the size of London. With Melbourne currently home to 5 million people and London 9 million, Allan will oversee our city doubling in size.

Therefore, the premier mega-Melbourne needs to be crammed with towers up to 20 storeys high in our suburbs. Of the announced growth in activity centres, half is in three council areas – Bayside, Boroondara and Stonnington. This is instead of properly addressing the housing crisis through decentralization and moderate growth distributed equitably across the state.

Well no, I don’t support the government’s plan, it’s bad policy and bad for our future. I hate to break it to the bulldozer Prime Minister, but no one has asked Victorians if they want to turn Melbourne into a metropolis, and the government certainly doesn’t have a mandate to do so. There will be a price to pay for massive growth. You can’t double the size of our city without sacrificing our livability.

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It is rightly said that our nation’s greatest strength is our diversity. But our other great strength is our habitability. From 2011 to 2017, Melbourne held the title of the most liveable city in the world according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. This is the title we have lost.

This livability is built into our suburbs. Each suburb is a unique community. Where I live, we call it our village. Our unique communities are created by the people who live in them. They build homes, run businesses, volunteer for community groups, and take care of neighborhoods. In case the Prime Minister didn’t get the message when she first announced her hubs. According to the plan, no government has the right to destroy these communities. Especially when they don’t live in them.

It’s time to have a real conversation with Victorians. It’s time for the government to ask itself whether we want Melbourne to become a metropolis. Do we want Melbourne to double in size and sacrifice its livability? Do we want this government to allow the demolition of houses in our suburbs and the construction of skyscrapers on our streets? I don’t.

The Prime Minister can call people like me blockers as much as he wants. I’d rather be a protector of our suburbs than a Prime Minister who destroys them. Because, unlike the prime minister, I live in this city. Just like my family and my children. I want Melbourne to return to being the most liveable city in the world and to keep it that way. When the Prime Minister embarks on her plan to destroy Melbourne, she can count on me to stand in her way.

James Newbury is the Liberal MP for Brighton in the Victorian Parliament and Opposition Spokesperson on Planning.

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