It is hard to avoid the conclusion,however,that a lack of planning process,and the influence of Liberal connections,led to both the initial decision to rezone,and the subsequent reversal of the decision. To a good many professionals and lawyers in the planning game,the minister's intervention at Ventnor seemed curious,at best,from the outset.
It was a decision at odds with a decade-long,taxpayer-funded planning process involving the regional office of the minister's own department,the Bass Coast council,two expert planning panels and years of unpaid work by community members.
While a senior bureaucrat eventually recommended the minister's initial rezoning of the land,the government has refused to release two earlier draft versions of that advice. Not surprisingly,the Labor opposition has raised doubts about the department's real view of the Ventnor matter.
Guy has justified his intervention in the name of housing affordability,however no such argument is made in a department report to him on Ventnor. The report points to an adequate supply of land for housing on the island and warns of the potential environmental dangers of further development at Ventnor to the nearby shearwater seabird colony.
Brighton resident and former school principal Robert Newall is building a house on the fringe of Ventnor with marvellous views overlooking the land at the centre of the row - and Westernport Bay beyond it.
He says that the minister's handling of the Ventnor matter unified island residents and holiday-homers of all political persuasions.''There's only one person that benefited,and that's the purchaser of the land. So what connection did that purchaser have that's more influential than the whole island,the council,the panels and the department of planning?''
In September the minister's spokeswoman,Bronwyn Perry,dismissed outright the idea that party connections may have been important to Guy's initial decision to override the Bass Coast council and rezone the land.
''Alleged Liberal Party links played no role or had any influence in the Ventnor decision,''she insisted.
That said,there are enough Liberal connections around the Ventnor saga to have raised eyebrows across the political spectrum. To begin with,the proposed rezoning had the active support of Ken Smith,local state Liberal MP and Speaker of the Legislative Council. He has been public and forthright in his support for development of the island.
Less immediately obvious were the Liberal links of the company that sought the rezoning on behalf of Nicholls,Brisbane-based Brown Consulting. In SeptemberThe Agerevealed that the planning and engineering consultancy was a generous contributor to the Liberal Party,and was headed by a former president of the party's Queensland branch,Gary Spence. He is now vice-president of the Liberal National Party,the Queensland division of the Liberal Party of Australia. Official records show that from 2005 to 2009,Brown Consulting - formerly known as Brown&Tomkinson - contributed more than $100,000 to the Liberal Party in Queensland.
In September,Perry denied that Brown Consulting's political links and donations gave it any influence with the minister,dismissing the idea as''conspiratorial nonsense''.
The minister's office has been quieter about links much closer to home.
The man fronting the campaign to have the Ventnor land rezoned is one-time islander turned Melbourne developer Jim Hopkins. He is the husband of Carley Nicholls,the woman who contracted to purchase the Ventnor property in May.
AsThe Saturday Age reveals today,Hopkins,57,joined the Phillip Island Liberal Party mid last year,at the same time he was lobbying for the rezoning. He attended local branch gatherings in the second half of last year.
Hopkins'father,Don,was for many years the much-respected doctor for Phillip Island and the surrounding region. Dr Hopkins and his son are well known to another leading figure in the area - Robert Maclellan,the controversial Kennett-era planning minister,who is regarded in both Liberal and Labor circles as having the ear of Guy both in opposition and in government.
Guy's chief of staff,Meg Bartel,held the same position under Maclellan in the latter Kennett years more than 12 years ago.
Guy and his office have repeatedly refused to answer questions about any contact Maclellan may have had with his office over the Ventnor matter,or whether the developers used the Maclellan name to open doors.
Yesterday Hopkins said he was not willing to comment.
Maclellan is a long-term resident of San Remo,the coastal town on Anderson peninsula joined to the island by bridge. He has also refused to discuss the Ventnor matter,claiming that since leaving politics he does not comment on public policy matters. (In fact,Maclellan has commented toThe Age about policy matters,both historic and contemporary,on numerous occasions since the Kennett government lost power.)
But there are other prominent Liberals on the island vehemently opposed to the rezoning.
Among them is former policeman turned real estate agent Jonathan Dade,who says his interest in the island takes precedence over his political affiliation and his occupation.''There was a long process here … years of panels and committees,meetings,submissions and hearings. Taxpayers and ratepayers pay for all this. People invest a great deal of time and energy into all this.''
Dade went public with his views,including in thePhillip Island Advertiser. Soon after,Greg Hunt - son of Hamer-era planning minister Alan Hunt - was among the Liberal MPs on the warpath.
Meanwhile,away from the island,part-time islanders and holiday home owners successfully lobbied their local Liberal MPs,notably Brighton MLA and Liberal deputy leader Louise Asher.
In September,Guy justified his backflip by insisting that he had heard the concerns of the community and Bass Coast council. But few in the Liberal Party are in any doubt that he was given no choice.
Observers unconvinced by the minister's original rationale for rezoning the site were no less persuaded at his explanation for its reversal.
Meanwhile,say locals of all political hues,what is needed now is long-term planning and a clear,consistent strategy to contain the coastal sprawl that is threatening to transform an island of farms into an island suburb of Melbourne.
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''There is a school of thought,''says Dade,''that people should be able to do what they want with the land they own. But this Ventnor case shows why it is so important to have clear planning guidelines;to have rules in the wider public and environmental interest.''
Yesterday Guy refused a request for an interview withThe Saturday Age.