SUBI EAST REDEVELOPMENT
PROJECT
780. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Minister for Planning:
I refer to the 2 000 signatories,
including the Subiaco mayor and three former mayors, to the petition opposed to
the Subi East redevelopment, who presented their petition at Parliament
yesterday.
(1) Can the minister provide a single example of a high-rise
apartment building being constructed immediately adjacent to a public
school and its oval that is not separated by a road?
(2) Can she
provide a single example of an apartment or any other building that includes
venues that sell alcohol that has been constructed immediately adjacent to a public
school and its oval that is not separated by at least a road?
Several members
interjected.
The SPEAKER:
Order, please, members!
Ms R.
SAFFIOTI replied:
(1)–(2) I
thank the member for Cottesloe. I ask him to turn left and talk to the member
for Roe, who, as a former student of Wesley College, knows that there are
high-rise apartments right next to Wesley College overlooking the school
grounds. A lot of schools —
Dr D.J. Honey: So, a public school?
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER: Order, please!
The only person I want to hear from at the moment is the Minister for Planning.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI: This whole
concept that people cannot live near schools is completely ridiculous and
ludicrous. In respect to Subi East, we went through a very detailed planning
process. We kept Subiaco Oval. When we came to government, I remember my first
meeting with the appropriate agency and it had no plans to keep Subiaco Oval; it was going to dig it up. We kept Subiaco Oval for
the school, the community and local sports groups. That is what we did.
Then we had a detailed planning process and we sought feedback from the
community. Do members know what the members
of the community said? They asked for a number of things, such as more public
open space on the railway side. Unlike at Claremont, where the
residential buildings abut the boundary fence, the residential buildings in
Subiaco will not abut the boundary and will be set back. We have created, as I recall,
another hectare of public open space.
In
respect of the planning for the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children site—this
is what the member was alluding to—we sought community feedback
and the community feedback was that it wanted the height on the PMH site to be
set further back from Roberts Road, so we have done that. We have basically
worked to develop what I think is one of the
best master plans for any community redevelopment. We have kept the height at
Subi East around the oval down at the Haydn Bunton Drive area and we
have again made sure that we have specified in the planning guidelines that
that is where the height is going to be. This whole idea that people cannot
live near schools is something that I do not think the majority of the
population supports.
Dr D.J. Honey: The 2 000
signatories disagree with you.
Ms R. SAFFIOTI: The idea
that children should be scared of residents living next door is a fear that I am
not going to support. As I said, my kids played in the playground and
there was a multistorey tower next to them. That is what happens all over the
world.
Dr D.J. Honey: You don't
even know your own policy, do you?
Several members interjected.
Ms A. Sanderson: What are
you saying about people who live in apartments?
Ms R. SAFFIOTI: That is
exactly right. The whole idea is that somehow we should fear those who live in
apartments. That is the concept—that renters are somehow bad
people. That is the fear that members opposite are sending out. I have heard it
from people in the community. I was at a forum—I think I was just
elected and in opposition at the time—and,
I am not kidding, someone stood up and said, ''There's a building
happening and it's going to be full of renters'', and
that was it. That was what they said—that somehow someone who rents a one-bedroom
apartment is a bad person. There is fear about one-bedroom apartments.
Three-bedroom apartments are fine because only good people live in
three-bedroom apartments. A four-by-two is okay because only good people live
in four-by-twos. The whole idea that only
bad people live in one-bedroom apartments is a theory that I do not subscribe
to. This view that somehow we should not have people living near schools
is wrong.
I know that in relation to the new
state planning policy, we are talking about back fences backing onto schools,
and that is something that is out there. But this back fence will not back onto
the school. There will be countless examples, and I know of one in particular.
Highgate Primary School, member for Perth, shares a fence with the residences. Mercedes College is another. There
will be countless examples of where we have multistorey developments
adjacent to or across the road from schools.