Latest news with #StephenJolly
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Apartments for the rich': Developments fast-tracked with no affordable housing
Fast-track planning powers meant to deliver developments that include affordable housing are being used to build luxury properties as developers sidestep requirements to provide cheaper apartments in some new projects. Critics say the Victorian government's Development Facilitation Program (DFP) has failed to deliver enough projects with attainable homes, pointing to a loophole that allows developers to make a cash payment instead of providing a proportion of affordable homes. Real estate listings from recently approved developments through the program reveal some apartments are being sold for millions of dollars – even achieving suburb records – and marketed as luxury properties. Experts say these high-end projects are the most likely to be financially viable, as their profit margins can absorb the cost of affordable housing provisions. Expanded in September 2023 as a key part of the government's Housing Statement, the DFP was designed to deliver Victoria with more affordable housing. Under the program, the planning minister can fast-track residential projects – which cannot be contested by communities or councils at VCAT – on the condition that at least 10 per cent of new homes are affordable. However, a planning provision allows developers to bypass this requirement by paying a 3 per cent levy on the project's value into a government housing fund. David Hayward, an emeritus professor of planning and economics at RMIT University, believes the payment option is being used as a way of getting around the policy's core promise. 'I have no doubt many would much prefer paying this than including affordable housing,' he said. Among the DFP developments recommended for approval is a 134-home apartment complex by the Yarra on Victoria Street, Abbotsford. It will have no affordable housing; the developers will instead pay the 3 per cent levy to the housing fund. Yarra City Council Mayor Stephen Jolly said the provision showed developers could use the program to create 'wall-to-wall expensive apartments for the rich'.
The Age
5 days ago
- Business
- The Age
‘Apartments for the rich': Developments fast-tracked with no affordable housing
Fast-track planning powers meant to deliver developments that include affordable housing are being used to build luxury properties as developers sidestep requirements to provide cheaper apartments in some new projects. Critics say the Victorian government's Development Facilitation Program (DFP) has failed to deliver enough projects with attainable homes, pointing to a loophole that allows developers to make a cash payment instead of providing a proportion of affordable homes. Real estate listings from recently approved developments through the program reveal some apartments are being sold for millions of dollars – even achieving suburb records – and marketed as luxury properties. Experts say these high-end projects are the most likely to be financially viable, as their profit margins can absorb the cost of affordable housing provisions. Expanded in September 2023 as a key part of the government's Housing Statement, the DFP was designed to deliver Victoria with more affordable housing. Under the program, the planning minister can fast-track residential projects – which cannot be contested by communities or councils at VCAT – on the condition that at least 10 per cent of new homes are affordable. However, a planning provision allows developers to bypass this requirement by paying a 3 per cent levy on the project's value into a government housing fund. David Hayward, an emeritus professor of planning and economics at RMIT University, believes the payment option is being used as a way of getting around the policy's core promise. 'I have no doubt many would much prefer paying this than including affordable housing,' he said. Among the DFP developments recommended for approval is a 134-home apartment complex by the Yarra on Victoria Street, Abbotsford. It will have no affordable housing; the developers will instead pay the 3 per cent levy to the housing fund. Yarra City Council Mayor Stephen Jolly said the provision showed developers could use the program to create 'wall-to-wall expensive apartments for the rich'.
Sky News AU
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly plots council revolt over Fire Services Levy, accuses Vic Premier of getting councils to ‘do her dirty work'
A local mayor from Melbourne's inner city is plotting a council revolt against the Allan government's controversial Emergency Services Levy. The new levy has sparked outrage in regional communities, with critics claiming it will see some property owners pay 150 per cent more than under the previous fire services levy. Property owners across the states will have to pay the levy through local council rates, and many regional councils are reluctant to collect the tax, worrying residents will simply refuse to pay. They have been joined by Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly, who is backing a motion for his inner city council to stand up to the state government. The motion, to be debated next week, seeks legal advice about whether the council can refuse to collect the tax or mount a legal challenge against it. It also calls for Yarra Council – which covers the inner city suburbs such as Richmond, Collingwood, and Fitzroy - to 'build a mass alliance' against the levy. 'We're trying to get a bit of a bandwagon here, so that the council to actually say to the government, no, we're not going to collect it,' Mr Jolly told 3AW on Tuesday, adding that he had recently spoken to the mayor of Hobsons Bay. "Because… somebody needs to stand up to this Premier, and if it has to be me, well, we'll do it.' The City of Yarra Mayor hit out at Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan over the levy, accusing the Labor leader of attempting to get local councils to 'do her dirty work for her'. 'I think this fire service levy is an absolute disgrace, but have some balls. If you're going to bring it in, collect it yourself,' he said. Mr Jolly was previously elected as a Socialist Party councillor and ran as the Victorian Socialists' lead candidate in the 2018 state election. However in 2024 the long-time Yarra councillor ran with a group of independents called 'Yarra for all' and has repeatedly taken aim at the woke policies of the previously Greens-dominated council. Speaking to 3AW's Russell Howcroft and Ross Stevenson, Mayor Jolly said the new Emergency Services Levy would undo the work the current Yarra Council had done to reduce the cost of living for ratepayers. 'We've done all this great work in the last six months cleaning up from the greens, fixing up the council area, fixing up the budget, and having a rate bill that people can afford to pay, and they're messing up this work because we've now got to add to our rate bill the fire services levy fund,' he said. 'It's nothing to do with us. We're collecting it for them, and if we don't collect it, they're telling us that we have to pay them anyway. 'Your average person on the street is going to pick that up and go, 'Oh, that Stephen Jolly is full of nonsense. He's on 3AW banging on about how they turned the ship around, and here we have a rate spill bigger than we've ever received. 'And they're not going to read the small print that it's not us that's collecting it, it's for Jacinta.' Mr Jolly added that combined with the government's other reforms, the Emergency Services Levy raised questions about what the Victorian Labor Party thought councils were for. 'They're making us collect their unpopular taxes. They're telling developers they don't have to pay developer contribution if the building build to rent,' he said. 'So what's the bloody point of councils at all? I mean, be done with it. Just cancel it if that's what you think.' The Allan government has defended its new Emergency Services Levy by pointing out that all funds raised will be used to pay for the state's emergency services. And on Monday, a government spokesperson told the Herald Sun that local councils had for years been collecting the previous fire services levy, which was introduced by the former Liberal government.
Arab News
15-05-2025
- General
- Arab News
Australia removes repeatedly vandalized James Cook statue
MELBOURNE: The Australian city of Melbourne will not replace a damaged monument to British explorer James Cook, the mayor said, for fear it will inevitably be vandalized again. The granite-and-bronze memorial in the southeastern Australian city has been a favorite target of vandals, who tore the monument down last year and scrawled 'cook the colony' on its surface. It was similarly defaced in 2020 with spray-painted slogans of 'shame' and 'destroy white supremacy.' Stephen Jolly, mayor of Yarra City in Melbourne's inner suburbs, said the Cook monument would not be replaced because it would just be 'damaged again.' 'I'm not in favor of demolishing statues of people in the past, even problematic ones, but don't think if we put it back up, it wouldn't be just damaged again,' he said in a statement Wednesday. 'It would be ongoing. How can we justify that?' Vandals poured red paint over a different statue of Cook in the lead-up to Australia Day earlier this year. Statues of colonial figures such as Cook are frequently targeted by vandals to draw attention to the plight of Australia's Indigenous peoples. Cook sailed into Botany Bay in 1770 and claimed eastern Australia for Britain under the doctrine of 'terra nullius' — land belonging to no one — brushing over tens of thousands of years of Indigenous history.
News.com.au
14-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
City of Yarra in Melbourne to remove Catptain Cook statue after repeat vandalism
A Melbourne council will permanently remove a Captain Cook memorial from a public park. Yarra City Council announced on Wednesday it would not restore the bronze and granite monument to avoid further repair costs caused by repeat vandalism at the site. The statue has been missing from Fitzroy's Edinburgh Gardens since January 2024, when it was last vandalised. It was toppled and graffitied on the Australia Day long weekend, and is currently in council storage, The Guardian reported. It would cost $15,000 to repair the memorial and put it back on site, according to a costing report. The council said this cost was not justifiable. More than $100,000 has been spent over the past 25 years to maintain the statue. The report described the statue as of 'little or no significance'. It stated the site was 'contentious within the community and Cook is a contested figure in relation to First Peoples'. Speaking on Wednesday, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she was 'disappointed' the City of Yarra had been forced to make the decision. 'I think we have seen enough … we have seen enough division,' Ms Allan said. 'It is disappointing if Yarra have made the decision based on those reasons (Cook being a contentious figure). 'When times are tough … we have an obligation to work harder to bring people together, not use platforms like this to divide, but to use them to make sure we are building social cohesion.' Yarra City Council Mayor Stephen Jolly labelled the decision a 'boring economic issue' and denied caving to vandals. 'I'm not in favour of demolishing statues of people in the past, even problematic ones, but don't think if we put it back up, it wouldn't just be damaged again,' he said. 'It would be ongoing … how can we justify that?' The memorial has been vandalised several times since 2018. In 2020 it was spray-painted with 'shame' and 'remove this'. A similar statue of Captain Cook was hacked off in St Kilda last year. The council will explore an 'appropriate institution to take ownership' of the monument.
