Southbank and Montague vote

Candidates from the three major parties put forward their visions for the local area at the Southbank and Montague Meet the Candidates night at the Boyd Community Hub on October 30.

Current member for Albert Park Martin Foley (Labor) and City of Port Phillip councillors Andrew Bond (Liberal) and Ogy Simic (The Greens) each fronted up to locals ahead of the November 24 state election in what was one of the more amicable political events.

In somewhat refreshing fashion, there were very few ill words exchanged between candidates, and across most of the main issues affecting the local area there was general consensus as to what the solutions may look like.

Moderated by former City of Melbourne councillor and political activist Stephen Mayne, the event was attended by more than 80 locals, while hundreds more tuned in via Facebook Live.

Southbank Residents Association (SRA) president Tony Penna kick-started proceedings by asking candidates about the pertinent local issue of Crown and Schiavello’s plans for Australia’s tallest tower at One Queensbridge.

With the developers’ permit expiring in March next year, Mr Penna asked the candidates whether they would push for greater transparency should a renewal be sought for the 100-storey development.

Martin Foley has previously labelled the decision of his cabinet colleagues to grant Crown and Schiavello a permit under the planning exemption of State Significance as an “unmitigated disaster” and he said he stood by those comments.

“If they don’t meet the requirements of their planning approvals, which I think is March, then we need to make sure that things are dealt with on their merits,” he said. “I will continue to prosecute my concerns and my arguments as to what the problems with that process were.”

Andrew Bond and Ogy Simic both agreed that greater transparency would be required come March, with Bond going as far as saying that his party owed Crown no favours.

“They [Crown] made it quite clear which party they were backing when we all saw the conversation caught between Daniel Andrews and Lloyd Williams (November, 2014), who made it quite clear whose side they were on,” he said.

“I don’t think as a result of that conversation that the Liberal Party owe Crown any favours and if it was to come back to us I certainly agree with Martin that it will be judged on its merit.”

Montague Community Alliance (MCA) convener Trisha Avery followed this discussion by questioning candidates on current plans for Fishermans Bend. Holding up a copy of the Labor Government’s recently published planning framework, she said the community was keen to get on with delivering the vision set out in the document.

Andrew Bond and Ogy Simic both reassured locals that they largely agreed with the plans, but also both raised concerns about financing the public infrastructure and timelines for delivering public transport.

“Where will the trams go, where will the trains go? At the moment that is still a very grey area in that Fishermans Bend plan and that needs to be defined, it needs to be funded and we need to have timelines of when that will be built and implemented,” Cr Bond said.

Ogy Simic said: “Overall I think the framework is quite good, but one of my major concerns is that if we want to achieve what’s in the framework with public transport, open space, the community space, schools and hospitals, then all of those things need to be budgeted.”

Other issues raised by locals on the night included AirBnb and short-stay accommodation, education, transport, overdevelopment, homelessness and combustible cladding in apartment towers.

And again across most of these issues, there seemed to be very little separating the candidates, suggesting that based on the Labor Party’s impressive investment into infrastructure both locally and across the state, Mr Foley is well placed for re-election.

However, issues such as cladding and AirBnb could prove to be areas that see local votes shift away from the two major parties, with many residents unsatisfied with the policies and actions of successive governments.

One local from the owners’ corporation (OC) at Elm Apartments on Dorcas St, one of the buildings identified by the state government’s cladding taskforce as containing combustible cladding, said owners should not be liable for rectifying the issue at all.

Mr Foley said he supported the cladding taskforce’s current proposed mechanism, which would see OCs liable for recovering much of the cost of replacing the cladding through a system that “allows risk to be shared.”

Ogy Simic said that, if elected, he would push for a special government levy, which would ensure that owners aren’t lugged with such a burden. He also said that the government’s amendments to the OC Act this year, which sought to provide owners with greater powers over short-stays, didn’t go nearly far enough.

“The only way to tackle the issue properly I believe is to review the planning, building and OC acts together so that we can distinguish between the types of accommodation and regulate the different types of activity,” he said.

According to the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC), Southbank is currently home to 7836 registered voters, which represents a significant 16.1 per cent of the electorate.

Other candidates contesting the seat of Albert Park include Jarryd Bartle (Reason Party), Tamasin Ramsay (Animal Justice) and Steven Armstrong (Sustainable Australia).