VIC government announces rezoning of 5,800 hectares to become industrial zones

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The state government has announced a decade-long plan to rezone 5,800 hectares of land across Victoria to be industrial zones. The Planning Minister claims it's to secure future jobs, but experts say a 'zone it and they will come' policy won’t work.

Transcript

00:00In Melbourne's booming north, future jobs are front of mind.

00:07We've got 10,000 people moving into our community in Hulme.

00:10We've got a city the size of Adelaide, one and a half million people

00:13that's going to call the north of Melbourne home,

00:15and we need industrial land as well.

00:17Now the government has detailed an ambitious plan

00:20to rezone 5,800 hectares from greenfield to industrial land.

00:25This is about setting a pipeline,

00:28a supply of affordable land for industry to develop over the next 10 years.

00:35The government's setting sights on areas including Merrifield North,

00:39Derrimut Fields, Altona North and Hastings, with more to come.

00:43There's advanced manufacturing, there's technology,

00:46there's e-commerce, there's digital,

00:48so catering for where we know industry is heading.

00:52And so we really want to make sure that when this comes through

00:55that we also have some of those high value jobs as well,

00:57because logistics is important but it doesn't always provide

01:00the ecosystem of further jobs.

01:02Hulme City Deputy Mayor Nyam Kurt is worried infrastructure

01:06won't keep up with industry.

01:08One of the question marks that I'd have is,

01:10how is the value going to be captured here to make sure

01:12that the roads are duplicated, the freeway exchanges are built,

01:15and then also those train stations and public transport infrastructure

01:18are supplied as well.

01:19The government needs to do more than just make land available.

01:23The land is already there. The government's just repackaging it

01:26in a media release and saying that's a policy. That's not a policy.

01:32Experts are criticising the announcement today as vague,

01:35instead calling on the state government to create a comprehensive plan

01:39to attract and retain industry before the land is zoned.

01:43The government seems to have this view that if you zone it they will come,

01:49but that's a poor substitute for having an industry policy.

01:58Thank you

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