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Laying the Foundations: Victoria’s 30 year infrastructure Strategy VCOSS submission to Infrastructure Victoria March 2016
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About VCOSS
The Victorian Council of Social Service (VCOSS) is
the peak body of the social and community sector in
Victoria. VCOSS members reflect the diversity of the
sector and include large charities, peak
organisations, small community services, advocacy
groups, and individuals interested in social policy. In
addition to supporting the sector, VCOSS represents
the interests of vulnerable and disadvantaged
Victorians in policy debates and advocates for the
development of a sustainable, fair and equitable
society.
Authorised by:
Emma King, Chief Executive Officer
© Copyright 2016
Victorian Council of Social Service
Victorian Council of Social Service
Level 8, 128 Exhibition Street
Melbourne, Victoria, 3000
+61 3 9235 1000
For enquiries:
Llewellyn Reynders
Policy and Programs Manager
llewellyn.reynders@vcoss.org.au
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Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Respond to population growth and change ..................................................................................... 3
Reduce Disadvantage ..................................................................................................................... 5
Enable workforce participation ........................................................................................................ 7
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Introduction
VCOSS welcomes this opportunity to respond to contribute to the development of a thirty year
infrastructure strategy for Victoria. This is a brief overview of some of VCOSS’ interest in this topic.
We are happy to provide more detailed feedback in the future.
Infrastructure can improve people’s quality of life and expand the opportunities available for people
experiencing disadvantage. Well-designed facilities can maximise the effectiveness of community
services, good urban design can enhance community cohesion and support healthy, safe
communities, and strong transport links can provide more opportunities to access employment and
services.
An infrastructure strategy should:
Have clearly articulated objectives including social objectives
Address the increasing spatial socio-economic divide and concentration of disadvantage
Address housing affordability
Consider the necessary social and community infrastructure required in all communities
Consider future mobility patterns and match planning with public transport needs.
VCOSS notes that the Laying the Foundations paper includes many of these aspects and we
welcome the broad ranging objectives and needs identified in the paper.
This submission recommends some additional needs that could be addressed in the strategy. It
focusses on the objectives that will most assist vulnerable and disadvantaged Victorians:
responding to population growth and change
reducing disadvantage and
enabling workforce participation
This submission outlines broad recommendations for a thirty-year infrastructure strategy. We look
forward to working with Infrastructure Victoria and the Victorian Government to achieve better
infrastructure for all Victorians.
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Respond to population growth and
change
Recommendations
Address infrastructure deficits in areas of social and economic disadvantage
Identify the need for community service and post school education and training
infrastructure.
VCOSS welcomes the focus on population growth and change in the development of the
infrastructure strategy.
People living in some parts of Victoria experience greater disadvantage than others as the 2015
Dropping off the Edge report highlighted.1 Disadvantaged communities are characterised by poorer
outcomes in children’s development, lower educational attainment, higher unemployment, and
more criminal convictions. This disadvantage arises from a range of factors including uneven
distribution of employment opportunities, spiraling housing costs in areas with access to
employment and services, transport inequality and government policies that deliver services,
programs and economic benefits unevenly across Victoria.
The infrastructure deficits in areas of disadvantage exacerbate that disadvantage. Addressing
these deficits would go some way to reducing the disadvantage experienced by many
communities. Laying the Foundation highlights infrastructure deficits in high growth areas. The
extended lag between infrastructure development and population growth is one cause of an
increasing spatial divide occurring in Melbourne. Priced out of job- and service-rich inner suburbs
by spiraling housing costs, lower-income are more likely to settle in the outer suburbs. The lack of
infrastructure for employment, services, as well as social and sporting activities in these areas
exacerbates the disadvantage experiences by these more vulnerable communities. Timely
infrastructure development would assist in reducing disadvantage in high growth areas by creating
employment opportunities and supporting the development of services in these new locations. It
should also improve mobility for people to access services and opportunities elsewhere.
“Interface Councils represent only 10 of Melbourne’s 31 municipalities and yet are expected
to accommodate over 60% of Melbourne’s population growth to 2026… The extent of the
current infrastructure lag in the outer suburbs has been estimated at $9.8 billion. Over the
1 Vinson, T., Rawsthorne, M., Beavis, A. & Ericson, M., Dropping of the Edge 2015: Persistent communal disadvantage in Australia, Jesuit Social Services and Catholic Social Services Australia, 2015.
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next 30 years it is estimated that $36 billion will be required to provide all the infrastructure
needed in greenfield sites”.2
The same logic applies to other disadvantaged areas outside the high growth corridors of the
urban fringe. Some towns and cities in regional Victoria are experiencing significant population
change and growth and their infrastructure needs should be considered in the 30 year
infrastructure strategy. Others, particularly smaller towns and rural areas, are suffering from
population decline. Their infrastructure needs are no less deserving, and often the infrastructure
needs of communities change, and different types of service infrastructure is required, such as
greater demands on social infrastructure related to health and ageing. These areas still need
access to schools, hospitals and other services via good transport links.
VCOSS notes that Laying the Foundation highlights the needs for health and school infrastructure
in response to population growth and change. These are important but are not the only services
infrastructure needed in communities. Community services support people when they need help to
overcome challenges and help prevent isolation, disadvantage and poverty. Community services
help create the foundation of a strong, cohesive and inclusive community, where everyone is
supported to overcome barriers and fulfil their potential. By having a community infrastructure
pipeline for new and growing communities, these communities can be supported to thrive, and
avoid risks of becoming locations of entrenched disadvantage. Often purpose-built infrastructure
can maximise value to a community, by co-locating embedded services that wrap around
individuals and provide an integrated service response.
Case study: Neighbourhood Justice Centre
The Neighbourhood Justice Centre was established in 2007 and is Australia’s only
community justice centre. It is located in Collingwood, Melbourne, and serves the City of
Yarra. The Centre is committed to resolving disputes by addressing the underlying causes
of harmful behaviour and tackling social disadvantage. The Neighbourhood Justice Centre
was purpose-built and gas brought together a multi-jurisdictional court with a wide array of
support services and community initiatives, Such pieces of community infrastructure provide
ongoing employment and have wider benefits of reducing crime, increasing community
safety and reducing cases in the criminal justice system.
Laying the Foundation identified school infrastructure as an unmet need. Increasingly, employment
is concentrated in skilled occupations, so access to vocational education and training is becoming
more important to gaining employment. The infrastructure needs of post school education and
training should not be ignored in a thirty-year strategy.
2 Interface Councils, Creating Liveable Communities in the Interface
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Reduce Disadvantage
Recommendations
Include the creation of both social and affordable housing as means of improving
housing affordability
Improve the quality of housing stock, including reducing its life-cycle costs
Improve the accessibility of the built environment to accommodate the needs of an
ageing population and people with disability
VCOSS welcomes the focus on reducing disadvantage in the Laying the Foundations paper. Too
often infrastructure development has focused on narrow economic benefits and ignored the
potential to develop a fairer Victoria.
VCOSS is concerned at the spatial divide, particularly in Melbourne, where people experiencing
disadvantage are pushed increasingly to the edges of the city in search of affordable housing, in
contrast to previous decades where poverty was associated with the inner city. The changing
economic structure of the city, with well-paid, secure employment increasingly concentrated in the
centre of the city, has led to transformation of inner suburbs which has resulted in them becoming
unaffordable for many and push out often vulnerable communities to less accessible locations.
Victoria, and Melbourne in particular, has seen drastic rises in housing costs over the last two
decades: a substantial obstacle to accommodation security for those with few resources. Not only
have housing costs increased for both purchasers and renters, but the available housing at the
more affordable end of the market has been increasingly located in inaccessible locations.
In the private rental market, a shortage of low-cost rental properties means there is little incentive
for landlords to attend to maintenance of housing stock. Concern has become more pronounced
regarding exploitative practices in the private rental market, including the practice of short-term
letting in overcrowded properties. At the same time, there is little expansion in the availability of
social housing properties, meaning there is no ‘safety valve’ for low-income renters to ensure they
can secure affordable accommodation.
The development of the infrastructure strategy needs to enhance housing affordability in more
accessible locations and by creating opportunities, support the development of services assisting
people experiencing disadvantage, and improving mobility.
VCOSS notes that Laying the Foundations focuses on housing affordability as a significant driver
of disadvantage and identifies social housing as a means to improve housing affordability. This is
welcome but does not go far enough.
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The infrastructure strategy should encourage growth in both social and affordable housing. This
could include:
Inclusionary zoning: Mandating a proportion of social and affordable housing in multi-unit
development. Inclusionary zoning is used wisely in international jurisdictions with success3
Density bonuses: By allowing additional units to be incorporated in a development
including social and affordable housing, any additional costs associated with its production
can be offset
Reducing unnecessary planning restrictions: by reducing planning restrictions
associated with construction of social and affordable housing, such as reduced parking
requirements, or allowing more rapid development approvals, cost reductions can be
achieved.
These elements could form part of a whole-of-government affordable housing strategy.
It is not only the availability of housing that affects people experiencing disadvantage, it is also its
standard. The design and features of dwellings affect their running costs and adaptability for
changes in people’s capability over their lifetime.
VCOSS encourages the use of the planning system and building code to incorporate life cycle
energy use, understanding that savings in building materials to construct low-cost housing may
ultimately be borne by the resident through higher energy costs. By incorporating more stringent
energy efficiency requirements into new buildings, as well as reducing urban forms that trap heat,
low income Victorians can potentially reduce risks associated with extreme weather and climate
change, as well as reduce the running costs of their home.
Population ageing also has consequences for the built environment. Older people may require
different housing options, especially for older people retiring without owning their own home. In
addition, older people who do own their own home may wish to have both the option to stay in their
family home, or to change their living arrangements but remain in their community. Housing that is
easily modified to accommodate changing capabilities, such as the ability to install ramps, rails and
to be able to move through the home without stairs helps people remain in their homes for longer
while maintaining their independence. The prevalence of easily adaptable housing could be
improved by making it mandatory for residential housing in the Building Code.
These features are also important for people with disability, who may have more capacity to
sustain independent housing with increased support from the National Disability Insurance
Scheme (NDIS). Population ageing also has implication for urban mobility patterns, as people no
longer working have very different patterns of movement through the city, and requires improved
infrastructure, such as accessible public transport, to accommodate it.
3 N Gurran, V Milligan, D Baker, LB Bugg & S Christensen, New directions in planning for affordable housing: Australian and international evidence and implications, AHURI, June 2008
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Enable workforce participation
Recommendations
Including employment access and job creation in assessing infrastructure, especially for
disadvantaged job-seekers
Collaborate with regional and local area partnerships in determining infrastructure
priorities
Invest in job-creating social projects and infrastructure
Higher workforce participation is an important contributor to ameliorating disadvantage. VCOSS
welcomes the focus on workforce participation in Laying the Foundation.
The focus on transport to central Melbourne and non-central city employment centres is an
important aspect to enhancing workforce participation. However, the thirty-year infrastructure
strategy should contain additional actions to improve workforce participation.
In 2014, VCOSS released Tackling Unemployment, which laid out four interlinked strategies to
help Victorians get back to work:
Build vulnerable people’s skills and capabilities: If people are supported to participate fully in all
levels of education, become job-ready and connect with suitable employers, they will have a
much better chance of finding and maintaining secure work.
Create the jobs vulnerable people need, where they need them: economic development
strategies should prioritise employment-intensive growth. This should yield jobs that can be
filled by vulnerable Victorians that are secure and sustainable, and are in locations where jobs
are scarce but accessible.
Develop inclusive and flexible workplaces: The Government should encourage employers to
hire a more diverse workforce and adopt inclusive workplace practices and targets.
Improve labour mobility and availability: This would include improvements to transport
infrastructure, affordable housing and childcare.
Governments have considerable leverage through their spending (including on infrastructure),
regulatory decisions and service provisions to influence economic development. But too often,
economic policy decisions are focused solely on the overall level of economic growth, without
considering the quality of that growth, particularly, whether it will generate jobs, and which
segments of the community are likely to benefit from that growth.
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A thirty-year infrastructure strategy, which focusses on enabling workforce participation, needs to
consider whether jobs created through the strategy are accessible to people who are unemployed.
One way to create accessible jobs is to pursue local development strategies that harness talents
and natural features within communities to generate a viable commercial base, and work
collaboratively with the community so that people working and living there reap the benefits. While
Victoria has numerous ‘regional development’ groupings, these are most often advisory
committees. Tackling Unemployment suggested enhancing these groupings by helping establish
or boost local collaborative alliances, so that local communities can work together to create job
opportunities. Complementary strategies, such as ensuring local training opportunities are linked
with local employment needs, ‘buy local’ campaigns, and consulting with local communities on the
most productive infrastructure investments, can further increase the benefits. These groupings
could also be used to advise on local infrastructure needs that linked to their local economic
development strategies.
Case study: Loddon Mallee Region Investment Prospectus
Loddon Mallee Regional Development Australia Committee has a five year strategic plan. In
its 2016 investment prospectus it identified four priority streams: growing business, building
economic infrastructure, developing social infrastructure and investing in tourism. The
prospectus identifies investment ready projects that have been endorsed by the 10 local
councils in the region, and a range of other community stakeholders.
Case study: Access Denied
Access Denied was a joint advocacy campaign between Whittlesea Council and the
community in the lead up to the 2014 State Government and called on both political parties
to commit to extending the rail line from South Morang to Mernda and building access
ramps on the Hume Freeway at O’Herns Road in Epping North.
These initiatives are an example of local community needs being identified and prioritised. A thirty
year infrastructure strategy needs to consider how local consultative processes are promoted and
incorporated into the infrastructure planning process.
Government investment in one-off large infrastructure projects stimulates economic growth and
employment during recessions. Infrastructure spending can also facilitate other economic activity
(such as more efficient transport reducing congestion costs and allowing more to be spent on other
goods and services, or ports enabling the import and export of goods).
However, one-off large infrastructure projects are not the only way to boost employment and
inclusive economic growth. Capital investment in services (especially in high population growth
areas) helps meet the needs of growing communities, as well as generating ongoing employment
opportunities in those areas, which in the case of Melbourne’s rapidly growing outer fringe
suburbs, are often vulnerable areas. Examples include schools, hospitals and community services
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facilities. This spending produces a multiplier effect, increasing income and consumption to a
greater level than the initial amount spent. For example, if building a hospital, construction workers
and building suppliers will be employed as well as those who work in the hospital once built.
Indirectly, the new hospital will stimulate employment for launderers, food suppliers, medical
equipment suppliers and other service providers.
“The community sector is also a significant and growing economic sector, contributing
about $13 billion to the Victorian economy every year, employing about 97,000 people, and
being supported by about 135,000 volunteers. For many Victorians, the community sector
will be their employment future, where they will work in a rapidly growing sector, pursuing a
professional career, working for a diverse range of organisations.”4
In some regional communities the health and community services sector provide the majority of
employment, so any infrastructure investments in these areas provide immediate and long term
benefits to rural communities.
4 VCOSS State Budget Submission 2016-2017, Putting people back in the picture
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