THE Member for Bass, Jordan Crugnale, is facing the biggest test of her political career and the outcome of Wonthaggi’s alleged “contamination” issue will almost certainly decide her fate at the next election, even this far out from the November 2026 poll.
But everything matters when you are sitting on a margin of 202 votes, in Victoria’s most marginal electorate.
And Ms Crugnale didn’t shirk the issue when 200 people attended a public meeting in the town last Saturday to highlight their concern about the retrospective imposition of a highly-restrictive planning overlay, on upwards of 500 blocks of land, many of them well-established with houses in Wonthaggi’s north-east residential growth area.
Having raised the planning blunder in State Parliament last Tuesday, May 7, with the Legislative Assembly packed before the Budget session, she was also invited to speak at the meeting, repeating her earlier declaration that affected residents “shouldn’t have to foot the bill”.
“As you all know, there's been a couple of statements that I've put out. I just want to acknowledge that this has been really stressful and frustrating for all of you. And I want you to be reassured that when I first learned about this about three weeks ago, now three and a half weeks ago, I raised it with my Minister.
“And speaking with council, I know the council, the VPA, the EPA, the minister, the minister's office and her department are all working with this as a matter of urgency and priority.
“The Bass Coast Shire Council have a website and they post updates. There was one the other day, around their discussions with the EPA, and I just encourage everyone to go onto the website and register if you haven't already for those updates, because it is a communication that's happening very regularly.
“We want this sorted and we're all working in the background, and I want to acknowledge Councillor Tessari is here as well from Council, that we're all working on this.”
Ms Crugnale referred to a letter from Bass Coast CEO Greg Box last Friday, ahead of the public meeting, in which he reported significant progress:
“The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) provided Bass Coast Shire Council and the Victorian Planning Authority (VPA) with an update late yesterday afternoon (Thursday 9 May). They are continuing their work to review the information available, specifically the 2016 GHD background report, to provide advice to VPA about whether the land requires an EAO. The EPA confirmed in this meeting that they will need until May 22 to finish this process.”
“I won't try and summarise it, but just please know that we're actually working on it and I'm here as your local state member, I've been working on this for three weeks now with my Minister and we're in constant communication with the council, the VPA and the EPA as well,” Ms Crugnale concluded.
Asked by the MC for the meeting, former local MP Alan Brown, if she still stood by her view that impacted locals shouldn’t have to pay, Ms Crugnale said it remained her view.
“I know that you are on the public record recently as saying, this is a really unfortunate scenario, which is causing a lot of stress to affected property owners in Wonthaggi’s North East Precinct, ‘and my view is that they shouldn't foot the bill’. I think everybody here will agree with you that it's a very unfortunate situation but do you know yet whether your government will foot the bill for the expense that I know, there's some young people now having assessments done on blocks of land they've bought before their builders are able to start,” Mr Brown put to Ms Crugnale.
“I know that people have lost value on their properties. I know there's a lot of money being spent right now to address this issue. So, is your government trying to compensate these people, do you know if that's supported by your government?" Mr Brown asked Ms Crugnale.
“That’s my view and everyone is working together to make sure that these families aren’t impacted," Ms Crugnale replied.
Earlier the meeting had been addressed by the Member for Narracan, Wayne Farnham, representing Liberal leader John Pescutto, who undertook to chase the government down on the issue in State Parliament, and the Member for Eastern Victoria, Renee Heath who committed to do likewise.
Several residents and property owners impacted by the retrospective nature of the Victorian Planning Authority’s decision provided their own harrowing experiences of how the sudden imposition of the EAOs had affected them.
The meeting passed a motion calling on the government to rescind the decision as a matter of urgency with Mr Brown saying that soil testing in the area had so far reveal “zero contamination across 80 hectares”.
They also formed a representative committee headed up by former local mayor John Duscher, Alan Brown and two local residents, Pru Scholtes and Helen Povall with the power to add. And they plan to launch a new members’ only Facebook page to keep residents and property owners informed.
