TREAD CAREFULLY ON LAND STRATEGY: MIRABELLA
22-August-2011
Federal Member for Indi, Sophie Mirabella MP has warned the Council and residents of the Alpine Shire to tread carefully on the proposed Rural Land Strategy and to heed the lessons of other council’s failures.
Mrs Mirabella, a vocal opponent of Wangaratta’s draft land strategy, said that Council must be very careful to ensure that ‘real’ consultation is conducted or risk huge community uproar.
Mrs Mirabella said that all too often, Council’s engage ‘expert consultants’ to develop their strategies and forget to speak to the people whose lives will be affected by the plan.
“Alpine shire residents need to understand that this strategy will inevitably lead to greater regulation and more red tape. Everyone understands the importance of retaining valuable agricultural land and protecting the environment, but ratepayers usually take a different view to Council’s on how best to achieve these objectives.
“The Wangaratta Council thought the best way to protect land was to increase the minimum lot size for an ‘as of right’ to a house from 40ha to 250ha. Understandably, this didn’t go down well with ratepayers.
“I would urge the Alpine Shire to look carefully at where other councils have failed to ensure they don’t make the same mistakes. These strategies can cause a lot of heart ache and a lot of uncertainty to rural communities, so it is absolutely vital that the community is on board with any plan.
Mrs Mirabella also warned of unintended consequences that can stem from rural land strategies.
“The core objective of a rural land strategy is to increase the minimum size of a farming lot. This makes it more difficult for local families to purchase farms and encourages greater investment from large overseas companies.
“There are always unintended consequences and people need to think carefully about what this strategy could mean for them,” Mrs Mirabella concluded.
Mrs Mirabella spoke with the Mayor of Alpine Shire, Nino Mautone on Monday night to express her concerns and will be writing to all residents in the Alpine Shire to ensure they are aware of Council’s proposed land strategy.