Many including myself, my Councillor colleagues and community members advocated for this type of solution previously and during the hearing, but only Cr Swivel wrote a letter to the minister accusing us of being “ignorantly anti-business” and “self-indulgent”, rather than discussing these views as part of the debate. Further, if you read his letter, he never suggested this type of solution to the planning minister, but rather that we drop it altogether and get our own “policy house in order”, and completely backed Astra’s version of events, complete with their rubbery statistics around job losses which have been shown to be blatant misrepresentations.

What became clear through the hearing is that we do have our policy house in order, and are way ahead of the curve when it comes to future planning for housing. The call from the commission is not how you characterise it at all Michael, but actually urging the State and Federal Governments to support Council in its endeavours and instigate the urgent reforms required to address and alleviate the housing crisis across the country.

Nice try though.