Planning, yes, but little forethought

MATTHEW Guy is an ambitious man in a hurry. He is also a politician who needs to take time out to self-reflect.

His decision to rezone farmland on the edge of the Ventnor hamlet on Phillip Island residential was ill-advised and ill-conceived, and from the outset.

The rezoning idea had already been rejected by Bass Coast Council - an institution known more for cuddling up to developers than for environmental zealotry. It had been twice rejected by independent planning panels.

Local federal MP Greg Hunt - a Liberal colleague of the minister - says community opposition to the rezoning was ''near universal'' across the island.

So why do it?

In a letter to the council, Mr Guy justified his unilateral intervention on three grounds: boosting housing affordability, availability of existing infrastructure and services at Ventnor, and because the landowner had asked for the rezoning.

The first two reasons are rubbish. Ventnor is known as one of the most expensive and exclusive corners of the island. With views over Western Port, and a short stroll to the beach, housing would only ever be ''affordable'' to the kind of well-to-do families that already live and holiday there. As for infrastructure and services, Ventnor is a hamlet with unsealed roads, no formal drainage and a small shop at the caravan park. When an independent planning panel rejected the rezoning in 2009 its No. 1 reason was that Ventnor had ''little or no services''.

That leaves as the minister's rationale the fact that a property owner/developer had asked for the rezoning.

The decision amounted to a flagrant dismissal of local planning processes and the state's own coastal strategy, which seeks to arrest coastal sprawl.

Mr Guy's panicked backflip followed protests by well-heeled residents and holiday homers - notable among them Brighton residents - with the political wherewithal to harness support among major Liberal players; with singer-actor Miley Cyrus the celebrity-topping now apparently mandatory for any self-respecting planning protests.

Neither the original decision nor its overturning were well-considered decisions. In fact, this sort of decision making is not planning at all. And it's not the first time for Mr Guy.