3AW Drive with Jacqui Felgate - 7 October, 2026 - Full Show

Good afternoon. Thanks for your company on Drive. Coming up on the program today, the government's sneaky move before the election to push through high-rise developments that will very much change the face of Melbourne. And the issue here, I think, is what is the point of so-called community consultation for any significant high-rise development? Uh, just to increase the population of inner Melbourne. So you know the government's policy here. They have all of these activity centers where they say it's basically a free-for-all for high-rise development, and that's one thing. But now we have this. We have the planning minister, as we are literally about to go into caretaker mode. So Sonya Kilkenny uses her powers, and they're pretty unprecedented, these changed a while back, to pass these controversial developments, and it's all happened over the last two weeks. And you've got communities right around Melbourne who are absolutely furious, who have lost their voice. So The Age was reporting on the front page about this today. So one of the b- um, developments is this apartment complex in Surrey Hills, so that's number one. That will rise above local height rules. So the planning minister, Sonya Kilkenny, says, "Don't worry about that." Passed. The second one, a 15-story apartment tower in Oakleigh, three levels higher than the government's own limit. Don't worry about that, too. Passed. She's also approved planning changes so work can start on a seven-story hotel in St Kilda, 1,100 new homes in Oakleigh South, and another parcel of tw- 200 homes in Nagambie. Now, councils don't want these, and the majority of residents are opposed, but the issue here is they have no rights and no powers. They have essentially lost their voice. In this state, what the planning minister says goes, and we're now less than a month into, until we hit caretaker mode, which means no government business gets done anymore. So is this what we want? Power held in the hands of one person who, in a month's time, may or may not be in government. So 133693, drive@3aw.com.au. And do you know what I find remarkable about this story is isn't it interesting when the government wants something, it just gets a big, fat green tick, but if you wanna put a new garage up at your house, if you wanna put an extra window in your property that sits over the overlay of your existing home, if you wanna make a small extension, or if you wanna build, say, a granny flat out the back, how long are you waiting in planning? How many hoops do you have to jump through to get even the smallest thing done? And if you're, like, a little builder in the suburbs, what's business like for you right now? 133693, drive@3aw.com.au. Because we have a situation where you don't have a say anymore here. The planning ministres- minister just says, "Yes, yes, yes, yes," despite the objections of council and the people who live there. So is this happening in your area, and how do you feel about the changing face of Melbourne being held in the hands of just one person rather than the community? And maybe some of these developments are good, but how can one person just come in and go, "Right, we're coming up to an