The above was Matthew Guy’s response yesterday morning to Michael Buxton’s opinion piece in The Age about the announcement of new zones.
Buxton’s article was perhaps a little extreme, if only because we lack the detail to confidently make some of these charges. But if people are leaping to assumptions, Guy needs to accept the blame for that, since he is the one who has decided to announce the zones without releasing any meaningful supporting information. And whatever arguments you might have with Buxton, this isn’t an appropriate way for the planning Minister to engage with legitimate criticism of his policies by one of the state’s leading planning academics.
Unfortunately, it’s depressingly typical. Guy has form for strange outbursts on twitter, and is notorious for blocking planners on the service. More broadly, the kind of information-management techniques he is adopting – such as releasing announcements devoid of the technical information planners need to evaluate them – suggests the extent to which he wants to shut down meaningful engagement with planners in this state.