MINISTERS STATEMENT: FISHERMANS BEND

It gives me great pleasure to be back here again. I rise to update the house on the government’s work to assess the cost and undo the damage that has been done by the Leader of the Opposition’s calamitous decisions with regard to Fishermans Bend as planning minister. If Fishermans Bend had been planned properly, land could have been acquired by the government at a fifth of today’s price — one-fifth! As early as 2011 the now Leader of the Opposition, the then planning minister, knew this and was advised of this.

If the former Minister for Planning was designing a Monopoly board, passing the minister’s office would cost you dearly and Old Kent Road would increase by a factor of five to acquire. Fishermans Bend is the largest urban renewal project in this country. That is why the department — his department — gave him a plan to sensibly and systematically develop it. Instead, he ignored the advice. He rezoned the land, and the cost of acquisition skyrocketed. Perhaps what is least surprising about this is that all this happened while he was ably supported by the member for Malvern, the Treasurer then.

Dodgy deals seem to have been commonplace when it came to those opposite. The Leader of the Opposition refuses to talk about it but continues to talk about accountability — for everybody else.Speaker, a kakistocracy is a government by the worst possible people. In 2014 that ended. But of course certain people in the development community have been cackling themselves at the expense of those opposite.