Sustainable Australia Party's Southern Metropolitan candidate and former Mayor of Bayside City Council, Clifford Hayes, has denounced the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) due to its developer bias. The party, which is running in all Upper House regions in the Victorian election, is now calling for a Royal Commission into why decisions have been so biased in favour of developers.
"VCAT does not represent the interests of residents. It's decisions overwhelmingly favour the interests of the development and planning industry. VCAT is staffed by unelected bureaucrats who seem to have a bias towards developers rather than communities and councils," said Mr Hayes.
"We need to return real planning power to local communities through their local councils, informed by consultation through local citizen juries. Governments should also ensure that new community infrastructure is delivered before more housing developments.
"We also need to reduce population pressures by lowering annual immigration from 200,000 back to the long-term average of 70,000. Our State Government should strongly lobby for this population policy reform."
"It's time to bring back democracy to our planning system and save our natural and built environment from developers. We need better planning to stop over-development," added Mr Hayes. | Ends
