THE GREEN WEDGIE

Talk about the thin end of the wedge. Actually, there’s no thin end. And it’s not a wedge –it’s a wedgie. I’m talking about the latest urban planning for Melbourne. Or the lack of it. And the latest government attack on the so-called Green Wedge zones.According to the experts the long term plans to contain Melbourne’s urban sprawl are ‘stone dead’.

The much-vaunted, and expensive, Melbourne 2030 blueprint is ‘stone dead’. And on another front local councils are taking full page ads in the newspapers protesting about  the Brumby Government riding roughshod over their municipal planning powers.

Professor Michael Buxton, from RMIT, who was on the Melbourne 2030 advisory committee, says the government has lost it’s way on urban spread.

He says: ‘We have Rafferty’s Rules led by the development community and the Government just rolling over.’

This is prompted by the Government’s plans to officially expand Melbourne’s urban areas by more than 20,000 hectares—with much of it ear-marked for existing green wedge areas.

And that takes me back to the dreaded GAIC.  The Growth Areas Infrastructure Contribution.  Doesn’t sound important does it? But, as I have warned several times in recent weeks, it’s a killer of a tax that is costing small farm owners hundreds of thousands of dollars they don’t have. In fact  $95,000 per hectare if you sell your place. Even if you don’t want to sell it to developers. And it’s backdated to December last year.

As I said last month: There is a growing army of people, who thought they were country dwellers, now being treated harshly. Now being treated as if they are all clever, hucksters and speculators and entrepreneurs about to make millions from land deals.’

And to make it worse, property prices inflated by the $95,000 per hectare will mean only developers will be interested. They know that and they’ll screw you.

As one of a flood of emailers said: ‘I should not be penalised by a retrospective legislation that forces me to pay a levy for a supposed benefit that I will never realise, as I am selling and moving out of the area without receiving an increased sale price or enjoying any of the benefits of any proposed new community infrastructure.’

And when Premier Brumby was asked at a media conference for details about the new growth areas tax  he said: ‘I don’t know’.

All I know is that it is a clumsy, unfair, badly thought out retrospective tax grab and the only thing definite is that it will get worse and affect more innocent people as the sprawl spreads.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009