Statement.
The Statement covers four priority areas: • Experiences – sports, creative, major events (one thing we have remained great at) • Ideas – health, medical, education & tech • Manufacturing – manufacturing, agri & logistics • Building – housing & infrastructure
Aspirations to foster investment won't turn to reality without suitable land supply or allowing industry to get on with delivering it. So the Economic Statement comes with several promises that could positively impact #planning and #development.
Some notable bits: ✅(finally) identifying the acute lack of suitable #industrial land, with promise of a 10-year plan on delivering more. ❓Sounds positive but mirrors the residential #greenfield land announcement which actually slows down release, sequencing it more, over a longer timeframe, making things net worse.
🟰Restatemement of existing projects in the pipeline – Officer South, BIFT, Arden, Fishermans Bend, East Werribee. All have been discussed for years or decades, held up in planning approval mire. ⛔Nor does this address the dire, existing lack of supply in key areas like South-East Melbourne's manufacturing heart in Dandenong South.
✅Invest Victoria becomes a key body to work with businesses to help identify land sites and streamline approval pathways
✅Using the new "greenfield concierge" on industrial sites (in addition to residential, announced before)
✅New Investment Coordinator–General from 2025, promising to bring referral agencies and statutory authorities to heel on timeframes
❓More market led proposals to "unleash creativity" in private and superannuation sectors for major residential developments
✅ A Future of Housing Construction Centre to train worker in prefab/modular construction. (Doing this at scale remains a long way away in Australia)
✅A (tiny) $10m investment in trunk #infrastructure to unlock regional industrial land
✅✅Expanding the Development Facilitation Unit to rezone significant underutilised land faster – approvals on repurposing and redevelopment of former industrial or institutional sites, golf courses or racing tracks, and university-owned land that is surplus to educational needs.
As a noted advocate of rezoning underutilised sites I can't help feel I influenced that last one🏌🏻♂️⛳
🤔 Lots of promises, but if the Housing Statement outcomes are a guide, this suite is likely to fall short. Proof will be in the pudding.