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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Red tape cut for farmers looking to build small on-farm abattoirs in Victoria
The Victorian government will change the state planning rules for micro abattoirs, allowing farmers to fast-track the construction of small processing facilities on their properties. On Thursday, the Victorian government tabled its response to the inquiry into the food security in Victoria report. The inquiry, which delivered its report in November, found demand for fresh fruit and vegetables was increasing as the state's population grew, and urban encroachment into farmland was making it difficult and expensive to grow food close to Victorian cities. The report made 33 recommendations and, in its response, the Victorian government said it would support in full or in part 29 of the recommendations, including the suggestion that it should be easier for small producers to access kill facilities for livestock. Small producers have faced limited options for processing their animals after large, often foreign-owned, abattoirs stopped taking small orders. In its response, the Victorian government said it would amend its planning provisions "to make it easier to establish micro abattoirs in appropriate rural and regional areas". This will mean that on most rural and agriculture-zoned land, small abattoirs will not require a planning permit. Those abattoirs will still be subject to health and environmental laws, with the Environmental Protection Authority and Victorian meat regulator Primesafe sign-off needed. Central Victoria farmer and spokesperson for the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance Tammi Jonas said it had taken her several years to get the planning permits for her micro abattoir, but the change would substantially lower the red tape. She said the facilities were important for small businesses like hers that did not process large numbers of animals to supply farmers' markets, local cafes and restaurants. Chinese-owned abattoir Kilcoy Global Foods stopped taking small orders last year, forcing Ms Jonas to drive more than three hours to get her animals processed. "It's going to be a massive relief for everyone to hear that we won this because the access has been diminishing rapidly across Australia, not only in Victoria," Ms Jonas said. She said small-scale abattoirs on farms could provide better welfare outcomes for animals, with less travel and stress on livestock prior to processing. Ms Jonas said she knew of at least six similar small abattoir projects that, once the changes were made by the Victorian government, would face minimal planning processes. Ms Jones said she thought other states should follow suit. A Victorian government spokesperson said they hoped to make the planning amendments by the end of the year. "Micro abattoirs will soon be treated as part of a full range of farming activities on those located in farming, rural activity, and green wedge zones — this aligns with the way boning rooms on farms are already treated," the spokesperson said. "This will make it easier for small-scale producers to control their whole supply chain while continuing to meet Victoria's high food safety and animal welfare requirements and environmental protection and community amenity standards." Victorian Farmers Federation livestock president Scott Young said the farming body would be "closely watching how these planning reforms are implemented" and wanted to make sure food safety, animal welfare, and traceability systems were maintained. "We must ensure any new micro abattoir approvals uphold those standards, not create loopholes that could put markets or community trust at risk," he said. "Supporting local processing is a good thing — but it must be done right, with appropriate oversight and a level playing field for all producers."
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Adelaide City Council plans for 50,000 CBD residents without 'destroying the city'
South Australia's first appointed town planner, Charles Reade, was a prominent exponent of "garden cities" — an early 20th century urban planning movement that emerged in response to the overcrowding in British cities during the industrial revolution. Mr Reade, a New Zealander, envisaged cities surrounded by green space, combining the best of urban and rural living. In 1914, before his appointment by the SA government, he toured Australia to spruik the concept, and the Adelaide City Council gave him access to Town Hall to deliver a lecture. Unbeknownst to the council, the title of Mr Reade's presentation was: "Garden cities versus Adelaide slums and suburbs". It was to be an exhibition of the poor state of the city's housing with images of dilapidated alleys and overcrowded backyards projected to the audience on lantern slides. It caused outrage. "NO SLUMS IN ADELAIDE," read The Advertiser front page the next day, quoting an indignant Acting Mayor of Adelaide Alderman Cohen. "We have long held the reputation of being the Garden City of Australia," Mr Cohen reportedly said on October 5, 1914. "I therefore give this statement as to the existence of slums in Adelaide a most emphatic and strong denial, and I defy Mr Reade or anyone to point out the existence of any slums in our city." The slums controversy came in a year when the population of the Adelaide CBD had swelled to a record 43,000 people – more than double the population estimated to be living within the CBD today. Now, the council wants to return to its 1910s population peak. Town Hall adopted a "City Plan" last year that targets 50,000 residents living in the CBD and North Adelaide by 2036. Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said the target reflects "the need to repopulate the city". "Setting a target of 50,000 means we'll be going back, back to the future, back to the sort of numbers we had in the last century," she told the ABC. Returning to 50,000 residents does not mean returning to the days of slums, Dr Lomax-Smith argues. "There's always progress in building development and the way people live," she said. But the population growth will, according to others, require a fundamental change to Adelaide's skyline. A 2023 council report found that accommodating even just 46,300 residents by 2041 could require building thirty-six 36-storey towers. The city currently has three. Meanwhile, the City Plan outlines that 1,000 new dwellings a year — or 2.7 homes a day — will be needed to reach the 2036 target. "If we were to achieve a doubling of our population in just 11 years, there would have to be cranes in the sky all over the central part of the city," said Greg Mackie, former chief executive of the History Trust of SA and a former city councillor. "But there's a massive amount of potential latent developable sites in the CBD, particularly if you think about the western end." The City Plan forecasts that the West End, including areas around Grote Street, West Terrace and Whitmore Square, can accommodate more than a third of the population growth needed to reach 50,000 residents. But other areas like North Adelaide, North Terrace and the East End are earmarked for much less growth, partly due to their high-level of heritage protection. "To get to 50,000, we don't want to destroy the city," Dr Lomax-Smith said. "It would be easy if we just demolished every building in the city and built tower blocks — 50 tower blocks, easy, get to 50,000 — but they would probably be mainly single-person units, and it would damage the character of our city. "One of the most important things is to protect the quality of life." Finding space for 50,000 residents is one thing — getting them to live in a city is another. "Australians on the whole have not been used to living in a house without a garden and off-street parking," Dr Lomax-Smith said. In the decades after Charles Reade lectured Adelaide about its slums, families flocked to the suburbs in search of more space. From 1947 to 1972, the city's population dropped from about 35,000 to 14,000, according to the council's archives. "Everyone was concentrated on building a house on a quarter-acre block and having their own place to live with their families," said Professor Emma Baker, director of the Australian Centre for Housing Research at the University of Adelaide. "So, there was kind of a gutting out of the city over those years, and it probably reached the kind of peak in the 1980s." While the CBD's population is growing again, it is more to do with migration and international students than suburban families attracted to city living. Most City of Adelaide residents either live on their own (40.8 per cent) or with their partner (25.6 per cent), according to the 2021 census. Just 8 per cent of city households — 970 in total — are couples with children. "The city has become a place where young people live maybe temporarily while they're studying," Ms Baker said. "About a quarter of the people who sleep in the city every night are students, so that's roughly the same proportion that Cambridge has. "So, we're a student city, we're a rental city, and people tend to … move into the city, live there for a while and move out later on as they get older." It's a vastly different picture than the early 20th century when big families lived in small city houses, or "slums". The average size of an Australian household in 1911 was 4.5 people; it is now just 1.7 in the City of Adelaide. Planning Institute of SA president Cate Hart said without families in the city, "what the city council is trying to strive for won't occur". "Single bed apartments to meet a student demand is not going to reach your 50,000 people," she said. "You actually need to build development that will accommodate three and four people per household." Ms Hart, who supports the council's plan, argues the public and private sector need to drive a "culture of living in the city" through good design and a diversity of housing. "Apartment living is not for everybody, and cookie cutter apartments will not drive a new culture," she said, adding that the city would need townhouses, "shop top living" and mid-rise development. The council will need help from the private sector to reach its target, but pulling off a major housing project within the CBD is not always easy. "It's not enough to just zone an area and think 'job done'," said Planning Minister Nick Champion. "Because the nature of private development is it comes in fits and starts, they have to get feasibility and capital, and they have to struggle against construction costs which are quite high at the moment." Further complicating matters is that the City of Adelaide is not the only local government area with housing growth on the horizon. The whole of Greater Adelaide will need another 315,000 houses by 2051, according to the state government's 30 Year Plan released last year. Around a third of this growth is earmarked for the sprawling northern suburbs. Jamie McClurg, executive chair of a real estate developer, said the suburbs are "typically a safer investment" for developers. "Certainly, those sort of markets are easier to produce and deliver stock," he said. It comes as his company nears completion on a major mixed-use apartment development on the former North Adelaide Le Cornu site. The land stood vacant for more than 30 years after various development plans fell over. "There's available land that can be just developed on straight away — it tends to be caught up in a lot of conversations and not probably enough action to my mind," Mr McClurg said. He is sceptical that the 50,000 population target will be reached. "I think that we have seen through the last couple of decade people set targets and not be responsible for achieving them," he said. "I just would expect the people that are leading us to understand the math that they're committing to and deliver on it."
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Victorians' right to work from home will be protected by law as part of plan from premier
Victorian workers' right to work from home will be protected by law as part of a plan from Premier Jacinta Allan that threatens to spark a fight with employers. Ms Allan will use the Labor Party's state conference on Saturday to outline her government's plans to develop legal protections for workers who want to work from home at least two days a week. Industrial relations is the domain of the federal government, but Ms Allan will ask her cabinet and department to draft laws to enshrine work from home under state law. Work from home laws were a major issue at this year's federal election — the Coalition's opposition to work from home rules contributed to Peter Dutton's election loss, and has caused consternation among party ranks. Ms Allan says under the proposed Australian-first laws, if a Victorian could "reasonably" do their job at home they would be able to do so for at least two days a week, regardless if they were in the public or private sector. "Day after day unions are being contacted by workers who have denied reasonable requests to work from home. "Across the country, Liberals are drawing up plans to abolish work from home — and force workers back to the office and back to the past." While Ms Allan is focusing on work rights, the conference will debate motions for Labor Party members on recognising Palestinian statehood — which is expected to win majority support. The conference is also set to be targeted by pro-Palestinian protesters, who last year stormed the event at Moonee Valley Racecourse. Other items on the agenda include debating the merits of the AUKUS alliance, with some Labor operatives working to minimise the impact on deputy Prime Minister and Victorian MP Richard Marles.
