Green Wedges Coalition - A vision for Melbourne

I was shocked to see the  article  "Green Wedges face the chop"  and interview with Matthew Guy. (Sunday Herald Sun, 23/1)

It looks as though the "new" developments he is talking about are all inside the new expanded Urban Growth Boundary put through by Brumby and Madden with Coalition support, but I am concerned that Matthew seems to think they need more green wedge land land to be rezoned for urban development to bring house prices down.

Your graph shows that rezoning 43,600 ha last year did not halt the rise in house-lot prices. Clearly other factors are at work, such as land-banking by developers.  If Matthew seriously wants to bring house prices down, he needs to tell the developers he wants to see  results from last year's rezoning in the form of lower prices. And that they cannot expect an endless supply of
land for suburban sprawl.

Unfortunately it looks like he is just looking for ways to justify allowing a developer free-for-all in the green wedges and maybe the suburbs too. As Peter Rolfe pointed out, the new government also has to ensure Melbourne's urban expansion does not destroy the character, environment and liveability of our city.

The Coalition should remember that an important reason for the Brumby and Kennett Government's downfall was that they put  developer profits ahead of community interests. Failure to learn from this piece of history could mean repeating it.

Rosemary West