Plan for Victoria

The Plan for Victoria must first and foremost be a forward-looking document. It must enable an abundance of built-form outcomes and housing typologies, delivered primarily through deemed-to-comply rather than discretionary pathways.

To do this, the Plan will need to first and foremost establish a hierarchy of priorities. The current planning system places every one of its goals on equal footing, which is not a viable way to manage cities poised for significant growth.

Bold choices will need to be made within the new Plan, such as explicitly prioritising climate resilience and housing affordability for all, over and above heritage and neighbourhood character for the few.

Accountability must be introduced to the planning system, with all policies being subject to rigorous cost-benefit analyses prior to implementation, in order to avoid inadvertently (or, indeed, advertently) blocking the delivery of new housing and infrastructure.

‘Zoned capacity’ should be based on demand-driven economic models of housing delivery, rather than the on-paper declaration of the zoning schedule. The planning system must have higher exposure to the real world than it currently does, and work to measure and manage outcomes through better collection and utilisation of data.

The consultative methods used by both state and local institutions must move away from biased processes of self-selection and toward representative consultation that uses modern statistical methods to ensure a valid cross-section of the population is heard, including renters and people in non-traditional forms of housing.

The state must understand that no amount of education will magically lead communities to accept the construction of social housing in their area, and open up strong deemed-to-comply pathways for all Homes Victoria projects to ensure that those most in need have well-located homes within Melbourne and across our state.

Finally, we emphasise that the planning system should be set up to be permissive rather than adversarial. Clear rules should be set up in advance, and all projects that comply with those rules should be welcomed by default, rather than blocked.

It is time for a planning system that, across all of Melbourne and indeed all of Victoria, says yes in its backyard.