Latest news with #VictorianCivilandAdministrativeTribunal
Sydney Morning Herald
14 hours ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
Dismay over heritage-listed Bendigo church that keeps catching fire
One night last week, fire almost destroyed an old pine tree in front of the former All Saints Anglican Church of Bendigo – one of the oldest churches in the historic city. The following night, firefighters were again called to the same property when flames torched part of the building's interior. The fires saddened many Bendigo residents who responded with dismay to videos of the blazes posted on social media. Yet, the fires can have hardly come as a surprise. For the past five years, at least, the disused church has been the target of repeated vandalism and fires. The last service was held at the church in 2015 before it was sold on the private market. Neighbours say the building has been allowed to fall into disrepair and invites vagrancy. But one of its part-owners argues the planning process, complete with objections, has left it unoccupied and vulnerable to repeated vandalism despite efforts to protect it. The building is heritage listed. The Victorian Heritage Database says it dates back to 1855 with a major addition to the original structure 80 years later. A stained-glass window and pipe organ also have heritage protection. Loading The building has been the subject of multiple attempts at gaining planning permits for development. In 2020, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal rejected plans to build a residential development on heritage grounds following objections from neighbours. About four years later, the City of Greater Bendigo refused a planning permit before that decision was appealed in the tribunal. After mediation, the council reconsidered its refusal and decided to support the application. The property owners now have permission to build 14 dwellings on the site.
The Age
14 hours ago
- General
- The Age
Dismay over heritage-listed Bendigo church that keeps catching fire
One night last week, fire almost destroyed an old pine tree in front of the former All Saints Anglican Church of Bendigo – one of the oldest churches in the historic city. The following night, firefighters were again called to the same property when flames torched part of the building's interior. The fires saddened many Bendigo residents who responded with dismay to videos of the blazes posted on social media. Yet, the fires can have hardly come as a surprise. For the past five years, at least, the disused church has been the target of repeated vandalism and fires. The last service was held at the church in 2015 before it was sold on the private market. Neighbours say the building has been allowed to fall into disrepair and invites vagrancy. But one of its part-owners argues the planning process, complete with objections, has left it unoccupied and vulnerable to repeated vandalism despite efforts to protect it. The building is heritage listed. The Victorian Heritage Database says it dates back to 1855 with a major addition to the original structure 80 years later. A stained-glass window and pipe organ also have heritage protection. Loading The building has been the subject of multiple attempts at gaining planning permits for development. In 2020, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal rejected plans to build a residential development on heritage grounds following objections from neighbours. About four years later, the City of Greater Bendigo refused a planning permit before that decision was appealed in the tribunal. After mediation, the council reconsidered its refusal and decided to support the application. The property owners now have permission to build 14 dwellings on the site.
Sky News AU
06-08-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Jacinta Allan ushers in entitled 'leaners' culture in working from home legislation that will drive Aussie jobs overseas
A touch over a decade ago, then federal treasurer Joe Hockey was appealing to the 'lifters, not leaners'. Today, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has decided the leaners are the way to go. She has fired the starting gun on a state election 15 months away by announcing her government will enshrine working from home in legislation. Those who can 'reasonably' do their jobs from home – the definition of which will, I am sure, later be slogged out in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal – shall be entitled to do so at least two days a week. I would say Ms Allan is probably commissioning someone to remake The Beatles' 'Eight Days a Week' as a Two Days a Week campaign song but, in 2025, she'd probably get an artificial intelligence bot to do it for nothing. And that's rather ironic given where this working from home caper is headed. If your job can be done from home then there's also a good chance that it can either be performed by a foreigner for a fraction of the price or farmed out to an AI bot for next to nothing. An acquaintance of mine had exactly this argument with his clerical staff a few years ago after Covid lockdowns forced people to work from home. Some pushed to continue that arrangement – and he told them they were free to stay at home but their jobs would soon be outsourced to someone much cheaper in the Philippines. Funnily enough, they all came back to the office. If you want to stay at home, against your employer's wishes, then you're just asking to be replaced. It is the one thing – apart, perhaps, from trying to understand foreign accents – that makes someone in the office worth employing. They're right there and you can talk directly to them at any time. If you can do your job remotely, then someone else can do it remotely, too, for a pittance. How is it that most people with office jobs spent most of their time in the office without complaint before 2020 but since going through an extraordinary government-mandated circumstance, everyone now expects to be able to work from home as a right? Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, political participation, trial by jury… and working from home. If it's written into the terms of your employment contract that you're allowed to work from home then go for your life – you and your boss have come to a fair arrangement. But if you were never previously allowed to work from home you can either renegotiate your contract or find another job. It should simply be a matter between employer and employee. And how interesting that Labor – traditionally the party of the blue-collar workingman – is now rushing to defend the rights of the middle class white collars. That is what Labor (the clue is meant to be in the name) has become. So enjoy your right to work from home while it lasts because you may soon find yourself at home full time. Caleb Bond is the Host of The Sunday Showdown, Sundays at 7.00pm and co-host of The Late Debate Monday – Thursday at 10.00pm as well as a Contributor. Bond also writes a weekly opinion column for The Advertiser
Epoch Times
29-07-2025
- Health
- Epoch Times
Christian Doctor Censured for Online Posts on Abortion, Gender, and Vaccines
A Melbourne-based Christian doctor has been found engaging in 'professional misconduct' after sharing and writing—sometimes crudely—online content reflective of conservative beliefs. Dr. Jareth Kok was reported to the Victorian Medical Board via a 'confidential notification,' where the Medical Board of Australia later filed the action against him at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
Sydney Morning Herald
28-07-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
How a century-old ‘zombie subdivision' became Melbourne's ‘worst case of urban blight'
The intergenerational failure to develop Solomon Heights has been blamed on a tangle of planning problems, according to Brimbank council analysis: it's hard to reach, with one road in and out of the precinct; its residential-sized lots are unsuitable for large-scale industry; and its neglected expanses are a refuge for several critically endangered plants and animals, including the striped legless lizard and the golden sun moth, which are protected under federal and state environmental laws. But the century-long campaign to develop Solomon Heights has never stopped. Glen Ora, a company that owns the undeveloped roads in the southern half of the precinct, has launched legal action to try to connect the area to water and kickstart development. The company has gone to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, appealing Greater Western Water's refusal earlier this year to grant water connection permits in the precinct. A statement of contentions seen by The Age says the refusal 'would stifle and prevent the future creation of infrastructure works in the subdivision'. The company has also approached the Department of Transport and Planning about developing Solomon Heights for housing, but it has been told there are no plans to rezone the area from industrial to residential. Glen Ora director Ron Silverstein was reluctant to comment to this masthead about his company's legal bid to force Greater Western to plumb the estate before VCAT has made a decision. 'What I'm prepared to say is there's an enormous amount of green tape involved in a transaction like this … from the Commonwealth, state and council,' he said. 'There's a huge regulatory system, which is complex, very expensive, and you need very deep pockets to do something like this.' The company is fighting to develop the Solomon Heights as it awaits a separate judgment over whether it is liable for rubbish dumping on the land. The Commonwealth-run Australian Rail Track Corporation, which owns land in Solomon Heights, has sued Glen Ora for more than $828,000, plus costs and interest. According to a statement of claim filed in court, subcontractors hired by Glen Ora dumped contaminated construction spoil, including asbestos, copper and lead, on ARTC-owned land. Loading Glen Ora has denied liability for the dumped spoil and a judgment is pending. When The Age visited Solomon Heights last week, it was clear rubbish dumping was a persistent problem. There were piles of old tyres, a rusted car body, mounds of mangled wires and rotting timber. The flat, grassy terrain is also choked with artichoke thistle and prickly pear. But Silverstein was eager to show this masthead something else that grows hidden among the weeds, and which is key to the precinct's future. 'One of the features of this property is that it's got a critically endangered plant and I don't want you to laugh when you see it. It's extremely valuable,' he said. In an overgrown corner of the estate near the Melbourne-Sydney railway line, eight spiny rice-flower plants grow, although only a trained eye would spot them. Each critically endangered plant is marked by a stake tied with a ribbon. The delicate yellow-flowered plants are protected under environment and biodiversity laws. There are 240 spiny rice-flowers in the estate, according to ecological surveys. 'People look at them and they can't understand why they're so important, and the answer is, I don't know either,' Silverstein said. Brimbank City Council has spent several years in a state of planning paralysis over Solomon Heights. In a 2019 report, it named the existence of protected plants and animals as a key impediment to development, along with the difficulty of getting property owners in the precinct to agree on a way forward. In 2022, it completed a feasibility study into creating a conservation reserve in the northern part of the estate. The Age sought a copy of the study via a freedom-of-information request but was denied, with the council saying the report is confidential. 'The document contains land use planning information, being information that, if prematurely released, is likely to encourage speculation in land values, which can be commercially sensitive,' Brimbank said. Individual lots are currently listed for more than $230,000 each. Loading The council said it has no plans to pursue public acquisition of any part of the estate. Lancashire argues that the southern part of the estate should be developed into an industrial estate that would boost local employment, and the northern section converted into an environmental reserve. 'There is a way forward,' he says. 'To see that this has been going on in my community for 100 years is gut-wrenching … we've done environmental study after environmental study. We need to stop the delays, we need to come back with a report on how to actually do it.' Monash University senior lecturer in urban planning Dr Elizabeth Taylor has studied Solomon Heights and other 'zombie subdivisions' like it, which are 'the living dead of the real estate market', seemingly trapped in time and unable to be developed. In her research, Taylor wrote that many potential solutions have been posed for the estate but 'a default position of inaction has defined it for nearly a century'. This is partly because current planning laws were not written with a 99-year-old riddle like Solomon Heights in mind. But mostly, it comes down to the cost of fixing the problem and the likely gap between what the council would be prepared to spend on compensation versus what the private landowners would demand. 'You can imagine Solomon Heights maybe being a cool park or something like that, but it just gets stuck because nobody wants to pay for it,' Taylor said.
