Our plan for East Melbourne
As we emerge from COVID-19, we can’t continue with the broken politics that rewards pollution and favours donors at the expense of the genuine public good. We need a Council that puts the people of Melbourne first, and we need Councillors who will work with and fight for the people who live here.
Our plan for East Melbourne in 2020-24
Since the City of Melbourne Act was introduced in 2001, The Greens have been the only councillors who publish policies and keep them published throughout the term of Council. We are serious about transparency and accountability.
Our policies are for a more sustainable, affordable, healthy and prosperous East Melbourne:
- We will halve rates on East Melbourne’s cafes, restaurants, bars and cultural venues (those places people gather that have been hit hardest by COVID-19) and provide rate relief to residents. We will pay for this by changing our rating system from NAV to CIV which allows for flexible differential rates to be applied, and doubling the rates on gambling premises for 5 years to help the city as a whole get through the recession. (See our Fair Rates For Everyone policy initiative for details.)
- We will fast-track organics, recycling and waste options without a new waste charge. The City of Melbourne’s waste rates are far too high; we have a plan to support communities to greatly reduce waste and to recycle what we can. We will partner with local networks that are already working hard on composting and resource recovery. (See our Recycling For Everyone policy initiative.)
- We will update (and keep updated) our Fly Neighbourly Agreement, to minimise unnecessary aircraft noise over East Melbourne, and strongly advocate to the Commonwealth Government for meaningful reform to aircraft movement regulation.
- We will commission and complete an East Melbourne Heritage Review, to renew our 35 years out-of-date local heritage controls.
- We will implement Conservation Management Plans for all of our parks and gardens, to ensure that our public open spaces are preserved and prioritised for community use. (See our Parks For Everyone policy initiative.)
- Our municipality-wide inclusionary zoning policy will deliver hundreds of new affordable homes in urban renewal areas, in new medium and large developments. (See our Homes For Everyone policy initiative for details.)
- We will crack down on illegal late night construction by seeking major reforms to the way construction noise is regulated. (See our Good Night’s Sleep For Everyone policy initiative for details.)
- We will work hard to keep Council honest and ethical on all planning and development issues. We never take donations from developers or gambling interests and we will fight for transparency and accountability in the policies and decisions of Council.
Our achievements in East Melbourne
In East Melbourne, The Greens have:
- Introduced a Fly Neighbourly Agreement to minimise unnecessary aircraft noise over East Melbourne. The Greens started this in 2014, have improved the voluntary agreements with operators since, and recently overturned a delegated decision to phase out the agreements. We will stay vigilant: the health and wellbeing of East Melbourne residents is important.
- Proposed and secured new heritage policies to make it harder to demolish the front part of ‘contributory’ graded heritage buildings, while making it easier to ensure that energy-saving infrastructure like solar panels can be built on lower graded buildings.
- Led the charge against the State Government’s poor planning adventures in East Melbourne. The Greens stand with the East Melbourne Group and East Melbourne residents against the sell-first plan-later approach in Treasury Square (see The Age) and we stood with the East Melbourne Group and East Melbourne residents on unaccountable Peter Mac redevelopment process.
- Secured a redesign of the Albert Street bicycle lanes to improve safety for East Melbourne locals and all road users.
- Protected and increased funding for our world class parks and gardens, while introducing new Sunlight To Parks planning controls to minimise the impact of new development on our prized public land.
- Led world class water saving infrastructure in Darling Street and surrounding parks and median strips.
- Ensured that the Collingwood Football Club redevelopment provided access to residents and applied pressure on the club to reduce its reliance on pokies revenue.
Vote for an East Melbourne resident
All eight Greens candidates live in the City of Melbourne. We are the only major team that can say that. The City of Melbourne routinely produces a majority of councillors who do not live in the municipality – the only Council in Australia that does this. Council is too far removed from the communities it seeks to represent. To overcome this, vote for local residents with a plan.
Greens Councillor candidate Charlotte George lives in East Melbourne.
You can read more about Charlotte and our local candidates here.