CORRECTED VERSION

OUTER SUBURBAN/INTERFACE SERVICES AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

Inquiry into liveability options in outer suburban

Werribee — 24 August 2011

Members

Ms J. Graley Ms L. McLeish Ms N. Hutchins Mr C. Ondarchie Mrs J. Kronberg

Chair: Mrs J. Kronberg Deputy Chair: Ms J. Graley

Staff

Executive Officer: Mr N. Bunt Research Officer: Ms C. Frew

Witnesses

Cr J. Menegazzo, mayor,

Cr G. Goodfellow, councillor, Truganina ward,

Mr B. Forrest, director, advocacy,

Mr T. Cottrell, senior traffic engineer,

Cr M. Mahfoud, councillor, Chaffey ward, and

Mr J. Circosta, manager, early years and youth, Wyndham City Council.

299 The DEPUTY CHAIR — Thank you for making us welcome in Wyndham city. I have had a coffee in downtown Werribee, and it was a lovely experience. It is a nice sunny day, so I think we are in a good space today. I would like to extend the apologies of the chair of the committee, Jan Kronberg, a member for Eastern Metropolitan Region, who is unwell at this present time. I know she would have loved to have been here and I know she made every effort she could to be here, but for today I will be standing in as Chair.

This committee, as you are probably aware, is an all-party parliamentary committee and is hearing evidence today on the inquiry into livability options in outer suburban Melbourne. We have already visited a few councils, and we have decided to come to Wyndham out west to see what you have to show us today. I welcome you to the public hearings of the Outer Suburban/Interface Services and Development Committee and its inquiry. I must remind you that all evidence taken at this hearing is protected by parliamentary privilege, and the comments you make outside the hearing are not afforded such privilege. I gather we are first going to have a presentation by the mayor and Bill. I would like you both to give me your full name and address and say whether you are attending in a private capacity or representing an organisation, and if so, what your position is in the organisation.

Cr MENEGAZZO — Firstly, thank you to the committee for the opportunity to present to this inquiry. My name is John Menegazzo, the mayor of Wyndham City Council, 45 Princes Highway, Werribee.

Mr FORREST — Bill Forrest, director of advocacy, 45 Princes Highway, Werribee. I am wondering, as we are going to get into Q and A sessions and there are some other councillors and officers here, whether you want them to give names and addresses for the parliamentary record now.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — We might do that.

Cr GOODFELLOW — Cr Glenn Goodfellow, Truganina ward councillor. Professional address: 45 Princes Highway, Werribee.

Cr MAHFOUD — Marcel Mahfoud, also a councillor for Wyndham City Council. Business address: 45 Princes Highway, Werribee.

Mr COTTRELL — Tim Cottrell, senior traffic engineer, 45 Princes Highway.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — All your evidence will be taken down and will become public evidence in due course. I begin by inviting you to make your verbal submission.

Cr MENEGAZZO — Thanks once again to the committee for this opportunity. We have introduced the people who are here. In the audience we also have our CEO, Ms Kerry Thompson, and Ms Priscilla Mayne, who is the acting director of community services. I would also like to welcome Mr Bill Strong, who is a community representative and a regular attendee at our council meetings. We have allowed 15 minutes for the presentations by me and Mr Forrest and then obviously time for some questions. I am going to talk about some of the key issues and challenges for Wyndham related to livability in the outer suburbs, then Mr Forrest is going to talk in a bit more detail about the recommendations from council and the context of these recommendations.

The first point to make to the committee is that Wyndham faces significant challenges in managing our rapid growth. In the 12 months to June 2010 Wyndham’s growth was estimated to be nearly 9 per cent, or around 12 500 people. Birth notices are running at around 60 per week. When we combine this with the outer western municipality of Melton, this region is now the fastest growing and largest growing region in the country. While that is a major challenge and it is certainly not a badge of honour, it is not an insurmountable impediment, provided that it is adequately planned and resourced.

Council recently surveyed its residents and asked them what they thought were the top five issues for council to address. The question was open ended, and for this particular slide you are looking at now, we used a clever little computer program called Wordle. You can see from this that a variety of transport-related, safety and infrastructure issues were the most frequent responses. When it comes to the issues of traffic and transport, we are simply not keeping on top of our congestion problems. We think that the outer suburbs are being unfairly treated relative to the inner suburbs and especially that the west is being unfairly treated relative to the east.

The next slide shows transport infrastructure provision, particularly arterial roads, freeways and railway lines within an 8-kilometre radius of Werribee and also within an 8-kilometre radius of Flinders Street. From 300 Werribee or Hoppers Crossing station there is a bus service every 40 minutes; from Flinders Street station to places like Elsternwick, Camberwell or Coburg there are buses, trams and trains, and they all run far more frequently. The black lines on the map are arterial roads that are managed by VicRoads. The grey lines are arterial roads that are managed by council. I think it is immediately apparent that ratepayers are shouldering the major burden for arterial roads here in Wyndham and the state taxpayers are shouldering the burden of arterial roads in the inner suburbs.

These next two slides compare Werribee with Bayswater and Dandenong. They are similar distances from the CBD on the eastern and the south-eastern sides of Melbourne. Again, what is immediately apparent is that a significantly greater proportion of main roads are being managed by VicRoads. Every dollar the council is spending on building and maintaining arterial roads is a dollar that is not being spent on parks, recreation trails, playgrounds and recreation facilities, and it is an extra dollar that the ratepayers are paying in their rates, which incidentally, as a proportion of property value, are 30 per cent higher here in Wyndham than the state average.

In terms of public transport, council is pleased with the program of improvements to rail services and the contributions that are being made by the Baillieu government and the Gillard federal government and also the contribution that was made by the former Brumby government. We now have trains at 11-minute frequencies during the morning and afternoon peak on the Werribee line, and we have a commitment to the construction of a new railway station at . We also have the commitment to build the , and we have additional new trains on order. But there is no time to stop and catch a breath. We have plans for another five railway stations here in Wyndham — one in Derrimut on the Werribee line and eventually another four stations on the regional rail link. Arguably there is a need for another station to the west of Werribee.

However, our biggest problems now are a backlog of arterial road upgrades, grade separations across railway lines and bus services. We have 10 sections of arterial road that need to be duplicated to cope with traffic volumes. We need two or three grade separations across the Werribee railway line, and a 40-minute frequency of bus services is simply woefully inadequate.

The next theme I want to talk about is the livability of our suburbs. This next slide shows housing in Point Cook, and I would point out that it is not an isolated example. What we see is a proliferation of black roofs, asphalt and concrete. There is no tree canopy and no private open space. These houses are probably all around 250 metres square or greater. We have an objective in the planning scheme in relation to unit development about the provision of adequate open private space for the reasonable recreation and service needs of residents. This objective is accompanied by a standard that requires 25 square metres of open space, which only needs to be 3 metres wide. That same standard applies to detached housing. In Point Cook, one in every two households has a child under age 15; that represents 52 per cent. Also in Point Cook, 3 in every 10 people are aged less than 15 years old, which is around 9500 children. I do not think, having a look at this slide, there is any way you could conclude that this standard of private open space provision can meet the reasonable recreation service needs of residents where there are significant numbers of children who are under the age of 15.

Your committee has been tasked with looking at health services in the outer suburbs as well, and in terms of public health Wyndham is struggling with higher levels of obesity and people more likely to be eating poorly and less likely to be physically active. In addition, diabetes is increasing rapidly. Livability is not just determined by the capacity to hit or kick a ball in the backyard; a lack of tree canopy also has impacts, in terms of lack of greenness, on psychological health and wellbeing. A lack of shade from canopy trees is also having an impact in terms of an urban island heat effect.

I will make the following concluding remarks that reflect on the terms of your reference. Population growth is having a significant detrimental effect in Wyndham and is proving more and more difficult to manage, primarily as a result of a lack of funding for infrastructure provision. Our residents are sick and tired of the congestion and the poor transport provision for both arterial roads and public transport. This is compounded by a lack of locally based employment. Ratepayers are picking up between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the bill for providing infrastructure to new communities because state and federal governments will not provide sufficient funding. They also will not allow councils to recoup full costs through developer contributions. In addition, there are a range of facilities for which we are not able to access developer contributions at all — for example, aquatic centres and indoor netball and basketball courts.

Housing affordability needs to be measured in terms much broader than just mortgages and house prices. Transport costs, especially in the outer suburbs, are significant, and the time spent away from families is also a 301 significant cost to both families and communities. We struggle to get community leadership and community engagement when people are spending 2 to 3 hours a day commuting back and forth to work. We also have significant problems securing adequate medical and health services in the outer suburbs, and I understand that later on today you are going to be hearing from Werribee Mercy Hospital, which is presenting as well. Our size and growth is such that we need a hospital or health precinct with both private and public provision that is the size of Sunshine Hospital or Dandenong Hospital.

In terms of international best practice for urban renewal as it relates to outer suburbs, council is also very keen to see the decentralisation of employment. You may be aware that the Werribee employment precinct is situated here; there are 900 hectares of state-owned land. That is a classic opportunity for the state government to build jobs in the outer suburbs. In fact we had the Minister for Planning, Matthew Guy, out here recently on a tour. He is quite aware of the importance of that particular site and quite keen for activation of that site to happen sooner rather than later. We are keen for that to happen as well.

Options for enhanced livability for residents in outer suburbs need to tackle congestion, transport, jobs that are closer to home and a much more timely provision of infrastructure. I will now hand over to Mr Bill Forrest, who will talk to you specifically about the council’s recommendations.

Mr FORREST — I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak today. I will confine my remarks to some of the components of the suite of recommendations that are in the report from council. Our recommendations include the term ‘sustainable and livable cities’ and the state and commonwealth governments agreeing to indicators for such. We are keen to see indicators for active living, active transport and more sustainable environments.

I draw your attention to the recently released draft Creating Places for People — An Urban Design Protocol for Australian Cities, which starts a conversation around how we build those indicators. We ought to be looking at concepts such as canopy tree densities; they are in planning schemes elsewhere in Melbourne. There ought to be a relationship between the size of a dwelling and the amount of private open space or immediately accessible public open space. State planning policies, as can clearly be seen from aerial photographs, are letting us down in this regard.

Basically the only time off-road bicycle paths are being made at the moment is when they are created in creek reserves and drainage reserves; otherwise, they are painted on the road. Council is struggling to secure sufficient road widths in its negotiations with the Growth Areas Authority for decent tree reserves and off-road bicycle paths in addition to footpaths on our arterial roads. Without such, we will only ever have a few committed cyclists using those bicycle paths. Families taking their children to school, to shopping centres or to recreational activities will not use these road paths, and we seem incapable of getting them delivered off road.

We still face pressures from developers to permit a line of back fences along our arterial roads and sometimes compromise with sideages. Council’s submission makes reference to pricing and taxation issues impacting on affordability and livability. I draw the committee’s attention to a few reports that have been released since council endorsed its submission to the inquiry.

The Productivity Commission has undertaken some performance benchmarking of Australian business regulations, particularly planning, zoning and development assessments. It makes some interesting conclusions in relation to what it describes as the moderate and not major impact that the planning system in is having on affordability and compares other states where it has a major impact.

The Grattan Institute produced a report in June of this year entitled The Housing We’d Choose. It makes the observation that the type of housing we say we want and the type of housing that is available in the outer suburbs does not match, or there is a gap between the two and it has not closed over the past 10 years. Further, and interestingly, when the affordability issue is disaggregated from broad trends it shows that in the 1970s the median house price in the outer suburbs, which at that stage was places like Altona, Chelsea, Coburg and Ringwood, was between 4 and 4.6 times household median income. By 2006 the median house price in the outer suburbs, which at that stage had become Cardinia, Melton, Sunbury and Wyndham, was still between 3.3 and 4.3 times median income. Although in those inner suburbs such as Altona it was up at 6 or 7, when you look at the outer suburbs it was still the same sort of pricing.

302 I move on to the relationship between how much houses are growing and the problem of land sizes shrinking. In relation to developer contributions and, more broadly, infrastructure charges per lot, the Grattan report quoted the Productivity Commission as showing that New South Wales councils were charging between $30 000 and $60 000 per lot for developer contributions. It surveyed two councils in Victoria, which were Cardinia and Whittlesea, and the figures were under $20 000.

Finally, on the question of regulation we note the propensity for developers to regulate for particular outcomes via the use of covenants. We gave a particular example in our submission around single-dwelling covenants, but there are many others. There is a process of regulating that the private sector takes on, using those covenants, that is acceptable. In some cases those private interests, when they are regulating for lower densities, are sometimes overriding the public interest while we are trying to get efficient use of land and higher densities, which better supports public transport systems. Council’s submission makes reference to transit-orientated development. Council is making a significant effort to intensify activity around the Werribee activity centre, the central activities district, and we will see that this afternoon as well as produce some material that we have on public exhibition about what we are trying to do in regard to that.

The committee would be well advised to look at what has been happening elsewhere, in the USA and Canada in particular, in terms of redevelopment around railway stations whereby intensification of residential and educational activities on top of main street retailing is funding substantial improvements in public transport systems. We are at risk of our new railway stations in Wyndham being surrounded by a sea of asphalt car parking, and to the extent that there is any commercial activity, it is still hard-top centres, again surrounded by a sea of asphalt car parking. This is not international best practice. Point Cook is an example that is up there in terms of international best practice. We will have a look at that this afternoon, and we will stop and have a look at Williams Landing, where there is a bit of contrasting that can be done.

In conclusion, improved livability in the outer suburbs needs the following: improved public transport provision and active transport — that is, walking and cycling. We need better standards in relation to private open space, public open space and the capacity to build in a tree canopy. It needs more rigorous analysis, and more information needs to be provided to the community about housing costs and living costs, including transportation costs. It was that issue about educating and informing the community about some of their purchasing decisions. Finally, we need a commitment by state government to either directly fund or allow councils to source adequate funds by developer contributions for the necessary infrastructure to be provided at the appropriate time that delivers quality of life for the outer suburbs that is consistent with that available to the rest of metropolitan Melbourne. That is the submission. Thank you.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — Thank you, Mr Forrest, and thank you, mayor, for those very informative and most interesting submissions. Are you ready to take some questions? I will begin by asking a question about your slide on Point Cook. How old is the Point Cook community? When did that development start?

Cr MENEGAZZO — I will defer to my Truganina ward councillor; it is his area.

Cr GOODFELLOW — Thank you, Mr Mayor. Deputy Chair, you are looking at Point Cook. We went back there seven years ago. There would have been about three farmhouses there, so all that development has happened over the past seven years and is still continuing to develop. Point Cook will be developed to around about 50 000 persons. Currently it is sitting at around 30 000 persons.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — If you were doing the Point Cook development again, how would you do it differently? Or how could you see it improved?

Mr FORREST — There are some real challenges around getting landscaping in. Some communities, where there is existing vegetation, protect it as they develop. We did not have much to protect in the first place. I think building envelopes that have some regard for orientation and protection of adequate open space on all subdivisions rather than just not allowing them would be one way. It is interesting; I do not know the answer to this, but in unit developments we require landscaping plans and then you have obligations around building those landscaping plans. We have not quite come to terms with that.

Whilst the intensity of the built form is getting up to what you see with units, we actually have not managed to translate the standards we expect around medium-density housing, particularly landscaping and that relationship, back. I think we are seeing some good use of recycled water and third-pipe systems up in places 303 like Manor Lakes, so part of the issue around the harsh microclimate that I think is talked about in some of our submissions, or might have been raised this morning, and our capacity to water the trees would be addressed by such systems, allowing us to build more street tree capacity.

The other thing we are trying to come to terms with is much better water-sensitive urban design, which would also help us green up the streets. Council has had an experience of that that has not been good in terms of the quality that went in, and we will probably pass a little bit of that this afternoon. We are still struggling with how you do that well, and I think we need to do more work on that. There is a range of things that I think we would be looking at.

Cr MENEGAZZO — Also with the planning system review by the government that is under way at the moment that has been announced by the minister, I think some of the things that we will be making submissions on are questions of diversity and design principles for housing and open space, and hopefully that will lead to better outcomes in the future in terms of not creating what you see on the screen at the moment.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — What about road width in there? I think you mentioned road width in your submission. Is that an issue in this environment?

Cr MENEGAZZO — Our traffic engineer, Tim, may be able to answer that one.

Mr COTTRELL — Road width is an interesting issue. There is a diversity of expectations in terms of one side pushing to narrow the streets down and slow them down and reduce speed, while on the other side a number of older residents tend to want wider streets in order to have cars parked and so forth.

One of the big issues we have had is that we have gone with fairly standard streets of about 7 metres with pavements, but when you get lots being subdivided further you end up creating more driveways and crossovers and you lose the ability to park on the street. Then residents issues arise, and there are arguments and so on.

In summary, there is no clear ‘it should be this wide’; there is a link between what you develop in terms of the density of housing and the type of housing that you get and the driveway spacing and what you can actually provide for visitors and so on. We tend to go for the narrower streets in terms of the 7 metres; we are certainly going away from the very wide ones. We do find that if you go too low, at around 5.5 metres or 6 metres abutting parks et cetera, you end up with problems because although you expect that people will walk to the parks, they do not. There is still a lot of parking adjacent to those park areas, and therefore with the narrower pavement you end up with a number of problems with residents. They park along one side, and then you end up with parking adjacent to the housing — therefore you end up with it being very difficult to get through. People do slow down, but you have problems physically getting through because somebody hates somebody else or dislikes somebody else and they start causing angst and deliberately doing some things. You do end with that situation sometimes.

The other issue is around schools. Again, we have gone for slightly wider roads on collector roads and in the residential streets to enable school parking on both sides in those areas, so those roads are slightly wider.

Mr FORREST — I will give a couple of other examples. The standard cross-section that we are getting for arterial roads is allowing a 6-metre median, but at an 80-kilometre speed limit, traffic standards are saying you need a 6.5-metre clearance to a tree, so we are getting a median that we cannot plant a canopy tree in. It has to have a maximum diameter of 100 millimetres. Allowing for services, we are getting GAA producing material that is saying, ‘We will give you 4.7 metres’, and we need 5, but the servicing authorities will not bulk their trenching up. We need 5, and if you are putting in recycled water, we need 5.5. If we end up with that, what goes is the width of the trees and then the trees end up losing out, so we cannot get sufficient space for some of the canopy trees. If we have 66-kilovolt power — so big power going through there — there are no allowances for that if it is coming down some of the arterial roads. We will see some of that on the tour this afternoon; you cannot put trees in. The power comes in, and as soon as you build the road the utilities can just put it in. They do not have to underground it, and we lose the capacity for canopy trees.

Cr GOODFELLOW — Deputy Chair, you asked the question ‘What would you do differently?’, and I was sitting here thinking about it as the ward councillor for the area. One of the things I think should be entrenched in it is that when we do a new subdivision or anything like that, there should be an underlying transport management plan that is attached to that. For Point Cook, for example, there is one way in and one way out at

304 the moment, and that also causes the congestion that we are seeing on our roads. It is putting undue pressure on local government roads, so I think there needs to be a broader view in regard to that infrastructure. Also, as Mr Cottrell and Mr Forrest said, the reserves that we do have are not adequate enough to actually provide those main arterial roads, so, if we take the analogy of a body, we are actually squeezing it down to just pump it very slowly whereas our arterial roads should be able to move freely and move residents from one end of this city to the other end of the city.

If we had to do it differently again — and hindsight is a good thing — my personal opinion would be that we would need to have a look at the arterial road network in there first and actually plan that better than just allowing a subdivision to happen and then saying, ‘Oh, by the way, we have to think of how we get in and out’. I think that should be a core component of any new subdivision as you move forward to actually think about those services — roads and public transport — and not make them a later fact. They need to be right up-front at the start.

Ms McLEISH — Before, when we were talking about the Grattan report, you mentioned that the housing we want is not necessarily the housing that is available. You also talked about the diversification of housing. Can you expand on that a little bit more not only in relation to what is available now but also what you think should be available?

Mr FORREST — The report then goes on to look at the supply of essentially medium-density housing, saying that the relationship between demand and supply is not there and that there is a much greater demand for medium-density housing than is being supplied. There are some challenges in terms of how you manage medium-density housing for any council, so I think good design and good location become very important in that. Essentially, my reading of the Grattan report is that it is making the observation that the demand is not matching supply. The development industry is very good at producing a product they feel safe with, so you have this issue of limited enforced choice. The report goes on to talk a bit about that as well.

Ms McLEISH — Following on from that, how do you think developers could be encouraged to provide diversified housing?

Mr FORREST — We are seeing a process with a bit more master planning and precinct structure planning whereby you are identifying medium-density sites. I think part of it is a process through the precinct structure planning whereby we are asking for them to have regard to greater diversity in housing, to look for those sorts of medium-density sites and to be very clear from the outset that that is what they are. Sometimes we have found that they are not so good about being clear about what sort of sites they are — that is, they may not be developed for medium-density housing immediately but ultimately they will become medium-density housing. People build around them not knowing that, so I think there needs to be some clarity around that. I think there probably needs to be a bit more engagement with the industry in relation to identifying those sites. I am not really well versed in terms of how we do that, but there are clearly issues there.

Ms HUTCHINS — Just referring to your written submission, could I get the council’s opinion on how local social and legal services — local services like police, the court system and council services — are coping with increased mental health issues and domestic violence?

Mr FORREST — I am not really an expert to speak to that. John is in the audience, but I do not know if we can get him back up here and swear him in now.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — We can do that.

Cr MENEGAZZO — Someone else may be able to answer that a little bit better. John?

The DEPUTY CHAIR — Sorry John, I have not caught your surname. Would you like to identify yourself, the organisation you work for and the address of that organisation?

Mr CIRCOSTA — My name is John Circosta. I live in Caramar Avenue, Brighton East. I work for Wyndham City Council, and I am the manager of early years and youth.

Ms HUTCHINS — Just to repeat the question, how are the local social and legal services coping with the issues of increasing mental health and domestic violence, in particular the police, the court system and also services that council provides? 305 Mr CIRCOSTA — It would be fair to say that all our services that provide support for those sorts of issues are incredibly stretched. We have very good relationships with the police. They allocate officers who work with council and with agencies, and there are numerous advocacy efforts that we are involved in that look at those mental health issues, such as violence, assault, sexual assault, et cetera. The common theme is that we just do not have the number of agencies and support services located here in the interface area — the metropolitan area. Many of the services are in the inner suburban areas; the services that are here struggle to find locations to put staff in. It is a common theme throughout all of our agencies that are dealing with those sorts of issues.

Cr MENEGAZZO — In terms of police numbers and those issues, this council has been quite vocal in recent months about the lack of police numbers in this community. In fact we have met with the police minister, Mr Ryan, about this particular issue, and just recently we met with assistant commissioner Stephen Fontana and others regarding this particular issue. We believe that we are seriously underresourced, and the police union has said that we are, per capita, around 100 officers short. I think the state average is about 1 per 400 residents. We have around 1 per 1200 residents, and given that we are increasing at a rate of around 12 000 people per annum, obviously that ratio is going to keep being stretched further and further out unless we get adequate numbers. We have been quite vocal in that particular area because we believe we are seriously underresourced.

I had the occasion about 18 months ago to go out with one of the police officers in a divvy van on a Friday night, and I was horrified to find that ours was the only divvy van available that night. Those are the sorts of resources and facilities that we really need in the city here, so we have been quite vocal on that issue.

Cr GOODFELLOW — A question was raised in regard to social services. One of the things we spoke about in our submission was public health. I said in the inquiry we were at yesterday that one of the things we are seeing here in Wyndham is a rise in obesity and health issues. I would just like to share one with you, which is the rise of type 2 diabetes. In 2008 there were 4126 people with diabetes in Wyndham. That equates to around 3.8 per cent of our population. It is not much, but between 2001 and 2008 we had a 137 per cent increase in diagnosed cases of diabetes in the city of Wyndham while our population through that period only increased by 52 per cent. We are seeing a great rise in type 2 diabetes in Wyndham, and that comes down to urban design, lack of public transport and lack of proper social infrastructure. That is another area that this council is trying to address, but there is also a lack of education, including a lack of diabetes educators or professionally qualified staff, to actually deal with that. A lot of our residents cannot actually get treated within our own city; they have to go outside our city to address those issues.

It will only get worse, especially in my ward, where we have the highest humanitarian intake in the Truganina-Tarneit area. We are seeing a great rise in diabetes in those people coming to live in our country. That is another issue that is very important, and it is important to me because I was in that 4126 who had been diagnosed. That is a big increase that we have here. That is just something I wanted to share with the committee.

Mr ONDARCHIE — Just touching back on something the mayor said, I hope you were in the front of the divvy van and not in the back of the divvy van!

Cr MENEGAZZO — I was.

Mr ONDARCHIE — Having spent some time in a former life serving on the board of the west Melbourne WREDO, I have watched outer western Melbourne grow exponentially. Based on my back-of-the-envelope calculation Wyndham is growing by about 240 residents a week. I am interested in what comes with that, particularly the different cultures, religions and backgrounds that come into the city as a result of that growth. I am interested in how the city is dealing with any issues — the welcome issues or the diversity — that come with both multiculturalism and a growing indigenous population.

Cr MENEGAZZO — Mr Circosta is probably more qualified to answer this, but close to around a third of our residents were born overseas. I think we are probably around the second highest in terms of refugee intake in this city too. Mr Circosta may be able to add further to that.

Mr CIRCOSTA — Your observation about the growth is certainly spot on. Our maternal and child health figures actually indicate that we have 59 babies born here each week at the moment. That is a very large number when you translate that to how it impacts on kindergartens, how many primary schools we need and so forth.

306 In terms of diversity, we are certainly seeing large numbers of people from Africa as well as Karen people from Burma and Thailand, and more and more they are becoming a regular part of our community. You walk down our main streets and through our shopping centres, and you see a beautiful conglomeration of colour and the different ways that families move about our community. There are enormous challenges with a lot of those humanitarian and early settlement-type issues that we are facing. We have some excellent support services, but as I said previously so many of those services are stretched.

Council has a cultural diversity officer who works very closely with representatives of the community. We have a cultural diversity-type officer also in our youth services. Virtually all our council services in some way, either directly or indirectly, are connected with aspects of the community as it is becoming more and more diverse.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — Would any councillors like to add to that?

Cr MAHFOUD — We do have a large multicultural population, as has been pointed out. As in many other areas, we have like ethnicities moving in as they move in with families and friends. Probably the English is the largest at the moment. There are large Indian cohorts, Sudanese, Somalian and a large number from the Karen community. It has been pointed out that we have a huge intake of refugees, so people from countries that are obviously having a few problems — like the Karen coming from Burma — have generally been attracted to the area. They have got their own networks within themselves, and they set up their own community centres. They are a very well organised community, and they work well with our cultural diversity officer, as has been pointed out by Mr Circosta.

We have identified this and we need to be putting in some work around this and creating a cultural diversity policy so that we can ensure that they are included within the community. We have also put out, as you may have seen Moreland City Council has put out, storyboards to try to engage those communities, which is basically comic book pictures with simplified images to show to those people who cannot speak the English language clearly. We are still trying to express what we would like to see. We would like to see them assimilate with our community and understand the services around the community: to understand our recycling service, our garbage service and things of that kind.

We are on the right path to engage the community, but it is so broad and there is such a huge need. We are in a bit of a catch-up at the moment, but once we get that policy out and get another cultural diversity officer, we will be on the right path.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — Thank you for your contribution. I would like to ask you what you think is the appropriate role for the state government in the provision of services and infrastructure in the residential developments in the outer suburbs?

Mr FORREST — Probably from an officer’s perspective the biggest challenge is the issue of cost shifting. The roles are not too bad in terms of what local government is responsible for and what the state is responsible for. I think generally there are not major issues around that. The bigger issues are by far the inexorable erosion of financial support and the pressure that is putting on councils. That plays out in relation to libraries, maternal and child health, even the grants commission — I know the states had trouble with that in terms of the federal allocation in the last 12 months — the new centres the mayor mentioned in his speech and some of the issues we have around trying to get indoor recreation facilities and any sort of subsidy for that. So the service mix is good, but I think it is more a question of the challenges of the continued pressures to finance that.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — What about the role of developers’ contributions?

Mr FORREST — We see that as critically important. We know there are some pressures in relation to affordability. We think that needs to be unpacked, because the houses are getting bigger and bigger, and the issue about people making informed choices and knowing what is available, and how it performs in terms of things like sustainability and energy ratings, can be much improved, but they are a very important part of the financing mix for the council. They are not, comparatively speaking with other states, particularly onerous, so we are particularly keen that we do not see those eroded, because without government grants, which have been difficult to secure, we then have the existing rate base picking up what we believe to be an unfair percentage of the burden of the costs of growth.

307 Cr MENEGAZZO — I think infrastructure funding is the single biggest issue that needs to be addressed by not only state government; obviously federal government plays a big part in that too. We understand the pressures that both the federal and state governments are under. But it is an issue that cannot be overlooked in terms of providing for the infrastructure needs, especially for the growth that is appearing in the outer suburbs. The issue you mentioned, of developer contributions, I know is being looked at the moment. I think our officers will be making submissions on that, but if the wrong decision is made in that, it can seriously impact on what we can provide in terms of infrastructure going forward.

Related to that, I think the single biggest issue facing this particular community going forward over the next few decades is really job creation. That is the single biggest thing that we want addressed. We are keen. That is why we have had so many meetings with DPCD and the Minister for Planning. I think we have more meetings planned, because that employment precinct that I mentioned before has the potential to create 50 000 to 60 000 jobs over the next 25 to 30 years. We want to see that activated sooner rather than later, because that will go a long way to solving not only social problems in terms of avoiding being away from home 2 or 3 hours a day travelling but also congestion and public transport problems. That will have an effect right across the board. In terms of job creation and infrastructure funding, I think this is the single biggest issue that needs to be addressed by the state government.

Mr CIRCOSTA — I would like to add, if I may an example that the council is currently involved in in relation to education and co-locating community facilities, particularly kindergarten facilities, on school sites. There is an example where the role that we see the state government can play is to work with us on a coordinated and integrated approach. The rhetoric has been there for many years, but we are now just starting to see that put into practice. We are now getting to the pointy end of talking to the regional director and key people in the department and realistically and practically looking at how we can work together in resolving some of the challenges we have got with the growth we are dealing with. There is just that simple example. For years and years we have all had the discussions, but the state government at the moment is playing a very key role — that is, DEECD — in making that happen. It is quite a challenge and an interesting experience.

Mr COTTRELL — In terms of the transport and traffic side of things, one of the issues is over the years state government road projects are done on an annual basis. There is no ability to say, ‘Okay, in two years time we are looking towards putting in this road or going towards this road’. We can quote, for example, that one of our roads, Dohertys Road. It was originally supposed to be funded about seven years ago, but the money was taken from that project, put into another project and the project was then put up every year for seven years, which really does make it very difficult to, firstly, get a project in, and secondly, it reflects the lack of planning in terms of: if you are trying to stimulate or facilitate development in particular areas, one way of doing that is to implement a road project or public transport project et cetera. There needs to be a bit more consideration of those aspects, rather than saying, ‘Which road gives us the best cost-benefit ratio? Let’s go through the whole list of the metropolitan west, then compare that to the east and work it out that way’. It is really hit and miss.

Ms McLEISH — My question is about the factors you think contribute to the sense of place, community and identity. The reason I ask this is the submission talked about that you have identified areas where there are strong communities with a sense of identity and place located around transport services and activity hubs, and Point Cook was one of those, but also when you were talking about Point Cook, you said the width of the roads and no bike paths and areas with walking tracks and things were an issue. What are the factors that you think have contributed to that sense of place, community and identity?

Mr FORREST — I might let the councillors go first in terms of this. They live it and breathe it.

Cr GOODFELLOW — Point Cook, or do you want generally what makes Wyndham —

Ms McLEISH — Generally, but I was — —

Cr GOODFELLOW — or the suburbs the place to be. I can speak as a councillor, but I could probably speak as a resident of 44 years here, who has actually seen this place grow from the small country town that it was to what it is now. In terms of a sense of community, Wyndham has always had a sense of community. It has always prided itself on being the country suburb in metropolitan Melbourne where if you walk down the street, you know everybody. We still have elements of that today. But I think in terms of creating communities, and Point Cook is a good example, you will go down and see we have got the town centre and we have got a community centre plus the library right in the heart of the town centre. So it actually brings the town together; it 308 makes them come. You can come down for shopping, you can take the kids over to the library and you can do whatever. That is a sense of community.

I have said in the council chamber before many times that the heart of the city is its soul. You will probably see through a few other things today of what we are trying to create here, especially in Werribee. There is the linking of it with the employment precinct. We are trying to bring back that heart and soul to give that community that feel of connectedness around the community. I know that on this weekend coming my fellow councillor Cr Mahfoud and his fellow board councillors have got for their area a community fun day to bring the community back together. All of these are here, but we need to have that infrastructure to actually bring it.

For Point Cook residents, and I will use them, they are the most vocal of our municipality. They say, ‘We have not got this, we have not got that, we have not got this and we have not got that’. We acknowledge that. Let us acknowledge that. We are doing the best we can as a council to actually deliver on those. In Point Cook we are delivering on a new sports facility on Point Cook Road, 3 AFL ovals, 4 soccer fields, 12 netball courts and a couple of other things. We are making big investments in that to provide areas where new community groups and new sporting facilities, that you can come to, can start and create a sense of community, because we need to have those groups there and that infrastructure there to actually create a community. If we do not have it, all we find is we just have — as in the picture still up there of Point Cook — a row of houses with no sense of community nor a sense of belonging. We are about making a sense of belonging. If you have a community which feels it belongs, you are going to have a vibrant, healthy and harmonious community. That is part of our mission statement in our health and wellbeing plan to have all of that.

This council is going along that avenue, but we cannot do it ourselves. For governments of any persuasion, Liberal, Labor or whatever, to actually keep saying, ‘You need affordable housing’, is good and well, but with all due respect it cannot just be lip service. It has to have tangible ends and tangible means at the end so we can say, ‘Yes, we are going to do this’, but we cannot just have a cost shift on to local government because the local government revenue base is something that is small.

If we are going to do something, we need to do in partnership. That is the key word — partnership. If we go back, and if I can just go back, with your indulgence, Deputy Chair, we have got some facilities here that we need to do — a new sporting complex which we are upgrading which is going to be in excess of $54 million. But the funding you get from SRV is $500 000 to $700 000 of $54 million. The council has to somehow make up the difference.

If we actually want to have healthy communities and if the government wants to engage communities and have healthy communities, we need to look at working together in a partnership. I think we are on the right to do that. As the mayor said before, we have got the employment precinct out here which is the biggest piece of land that the government owns. I think is a good opportunity to actually do something worthwhile.

Mr FORREST — The Manor Lakes Residents Association is presenting this morning as well. That is a terrific question for them. I think the critical issue is the timely provision of infrastructure of a good quality and that it is across a range. But these are places where people can assemble and meet and interact, so our community centres are being used. They are important. On Sundays they are churches, so they are needed in a timely way and they need to be of a quality that people can enjoy and really appreciate them. We also need commercial centres at a reasonable place because people will congregate around those, education facilities locally at an appropriate time and more multipurpose venues. John has suggested your leisure, both active and passive. Those sorts of things are all part of the place-making we need.

Ms HUTCHINS — I just have one more very quick question. Are we able to get a copy of the breakdown report from the residents survey that you mentioned?

Cr MENEGAZZO — Yes, that can be arranged.

Ms HUTCHINS — It would be really valuable for us to hear what the residents prioritised in their top five.

Cr MENEGAZZO — Yes, we can arrange that.

309 Mr ONDARCHIE — There are some areas of Wyndham, as you know, that are doing it tough — Heathdale, Woodville and places like that. I am interested in your job creation strategy. Where are these jobs going to come from?

Cr MENEGAZZO — Ideally, once we get the employment precinct activated we would like to work with federal and state governments in terms of relocating some departments down into that precinct. It is also about working with developers, investors and property owners in terms of encouraging private investment. We see that area being developed into precincts — a health precinct, a justice precinct and an education precinct. We will work closely with education providers in terms of bringing them down here as well. So it is mainly white-collar jobs that we are talking about creating in that precinct.

Mr FORREST — There are transport and logistics opportunities up around Laverton. We have not given up on manufacturing. There is food, food technology and agricultural activities still based around Werribee and Werribee South as well, so there are a mix of things we can build on there. We will also look at corridors down to Geelong and relationships through that whole corridor down into Avalon and what might happen with the development of Avalon. They are the sorts of employment futures that we will be pursuing.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — Thank you. I am going to conclude this part of our hearing today. Thank you very much for your contributions, both the staff and the councillors of the City of Wyndham. It has been a most informative experience. We thank you for putting in a lot of effort into presenting today. I am sure we are all the wiser for it, so thank you.

Cr MENEGAZZO — Thank you once again. Thank you for the opportunity, and enjoy the tour around this afternoon.

The DEPUTY CHAIR — We shall.

Witnesses withdrew.

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