The much vaunted ‘Objector’s Bill’ has been passed and is currently awaiting gazetting. Both the Liberals and the Greens did not oppose the bill; nor did they introduce any amendments – despite the countless criticisms. It remains to be seen whether this legislation will have any effect whatsoever.
Glen Eira Debates 
August 21, 2015 at 6:27 PM
Might help in regard to large scale developments but don’t see how this can possibly be of any use to objectors in regard to, for example, 12 apartments and a basement car park on a 700m2 block.
August 21, 2015 at 8:29 PM
Agree, but even more importantly, if I recall correctly, Glen Eira Council consistently refer development applications with more than 5 objectors to DCP or higher. It means absolutely nothing if they consider objections and then reject them or ignore them. In any case that is not the greatest problem in Glen Eira, which is the lack of proper and consultative planning.
August 21, 2015 at 10:55 PM
Very doubtful whether this will even be useful for larger developments
August 21, 2015 at 9:13 PM
“where appropriate” ” significant social” blah, blah, blah, paul burke could have written this piece of useless junk, it’s so full of loopholes that it will be of little use
August 22, 2015 at 7:11 AM
Sadly, all that matters is that bill has been presented and passed.
The fact that this bill is utterly useless and can cheerfully be ignored by Councils and VCAT is irrelevant.
What’s relevant is that this was an election promise that gained traction and has now be delivered within the first 12 months of taking office.
August 22, 2015 at 9:56 AM
The change is useless, but it least it means the government and opposition has publicly acknowledged just how flawed the operation of VCAT’s Planning and Environment List is. Supposedly the Government is preparing external “guidelines” which of course won’t be binding, and the application of which won’t be tracked or monitored. And what if VCAT or Council did consider significant social effects, and decide something had a significant social effect—then what? There are no “decision guidelines” concerning significant social effect. It’s not even mentioned in the Planning Scheme. For so long as “consider” has the same effective meaning as “ignore” and VCAT can’t be held accountable for its decisions, problems will continue to fester.
August 22, 2015 at 3:57 PM
This legislative change is clearly just a small initial change. Much more important, highly significant and imminent changes are those proposed for rate capping of council’s rates. Here is GECC submission http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/epc-rates/Submission_7_-_City_of_Glen_Eira.pdf . If you read that you will find that GECC is the best governed and performing council. So, if any of you have complaints to make because you think GECC provides the worst outcomes for residents then you need to make submissions, either individually or as a group, particularly if you are part of a residents group. You do have to counter the arguments presented and suggest solutions/recommendations. Otherwise this blogsite is largely irrelevant and we will just continue the same merry way.
Another way to contribute is to the Essential Services Commission. Past submissions on rates capping http://www.esc.vic.gov.au/Local-government/Local-Government-Rates-Capping-Framework-Review/Consultation-Paper-Local-Government-rates-capping/Submissions
give a lot to think about. I can’t see any submissions from Glen Eira. We must be pretty satisfied!
There is still time till the end of this month to make a submission to the Draft Report http://www.esc.vic.gov.au/Local-government/Local-Government-Rates-Capping-Framework-Review/Draft-report-local-government-rates-capping-variat/Draft-Report-A-blueprint-for-Change-Local-Governme/Submissions