Matthew Guy

Guy was re-elected at the 2010 Victorian state election and was subsequently appointed as Minister for Planning.

In September 2011 Matthew Guy, overruled Bass Coast Shire and rezoned a 5.7-hectare farming property at Ventnor, Phillip Island, from farmland into the township making it available for development.[9] The rezoning decision was unpopular with one hundred submissions calling for the town boundaries to be retained while only one submission from the developers supporting the rezoning.[9] Opposition to the rezoning included American singer Miley Cyrus who tweeted to her 2.5 million followers that "Phillip Island is such a magical place, it would be a shame to see it change".[10]

Days later, Guy reversed his decision, advising the Bass Coast Mayor, Veronica Dowman, that he had changed his mind.[11] It is believed that Guy succumbed to backroom pressure from Liberal heavy-weights (including local federal Liberal MP Greg Hunt, Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and his deputy, Louise Asher) when he back-flipped on his original decision to rezone the land.[12] The developer behind the rezoning, Ms Carley Nicholls, claims to have received a favourable hearing from Matthew Guy when she briefed him on the scheme at a "kitchen table meeting" in her home months before he controversially approved it.[13] Nicholls purchased the property based on the rezoning decision and subsequently sought to sue Mr Guy and have his original rezoning decision reinstated.[13] In defence Guy stated in court documents, that he acted in error in rezoning the land but had relied on the advice of ministerial staff. He says he overturned his decision after learning that the Bass Coast Shire Council opposed the extension of town boundaries at Ventnor. Guy denied discussing the Ventnor project with Ms Nicholls or even knowing of her interest in the property.[13]

Legal proceedings terminated in August 2013 with a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement with taxpayers footing the bill.[14][15] In October 2013, the Victorian ombudsman George Brouwer decided to launch an investigation to address Guy's decision to rezone the Ventnor site, against the original advice of his department, the department's lawyers, the local Bass Coast shire and an independent planning panel.[14] The settlement cost Victorian taxpayers $2.5 million plus costs, for a total of more than $3.5 million, documents reveal. Senior lawyers had told the government that it should have paid a maximum of $250,000 plus legal costs. Confidential Government documents show Mr Guy ordered the multimillion-dollar payment despite repeated legal advice from a number of senior lawyers that the government had a strong case, and there was little or no grounds for a damages claim against it. "This may be winnable @ law but this is a political fight and it is unwinnable," Mr Guy is quoted as saying in confidential notes made by the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office in July 2013.[16]

In early 2014, Guy overruled his department to block the release of freedom of information documents about the botched rezoning of farmland on Phillip Island.[17] In March 2014, Mr Brouwer found that Mr Guy was ultimately responsible for the rezoning decision and that he had refused to hand over important documents requested as part of his investigation[18] However, Mr Brouwer also found that Guy was unaware that his advisers were acting in his name when asking for the planning department to change its advice.[18]

During his tenure as Planning Minister, Matthew Guy became known for approving a large number of high rise buildings apartment towers in the CBD and Southbank, and for rezoning swaths of land at Fishermans Bend, Footscray and North Melbourne for high-rise development. Developments over 25,000 square metres in total developed area within the CBD and Southbank had long been the responsibility of the Minister for Planning rather than the City of Melbourne, and with the growth of larger apartment developments in the central city in the early 21st century, more and more towers fell into this category. In early 2010 the then Labor Government set up the Central City Standing Planning Committee with representative from Council and State Government to advice on these applications, but in December 2010 it was disbanded by the new Coalition Government and not replaced despite it being Coalition policy.[19][20]

By March 2013, Guy had issued approvals for numerous tower projects in central Melbourne, while rejecting only one.[21]

One project Mr Guy did not approve and instead intervened to stop was an 88-metre apartment tower at 35 Albert Road, where he imposed height controls. Doing so protected the views to the bay enjoyed by some of Melbourne's richest business people, including active Liberal Party supporters, MP Andrea Coote and former Howard minister Peter Reith, from a nearby tower.[21]

In March 2013, Guy announced that he had approved plans for the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere – Australia 108 – with a height of 388 metres, 90 metres higher than Eureka Tower. This approval drew criticism from the Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle who was concerned the building would cast a shadow over the Shrine of Remembrance, and from planning academic, Professor Michael Buxton, who referred to Guy as "Mr Skyscraper."[21][22]

In February 2014 Guy approved five large apartment developments on what he dubbed as "Super Tuesday". They included a 'pencil thin' 55 storey tower at 464 Collins Street, a 63-storey, 632-unit tower on A'Beckett Street near Elizabeth Street, and a 55-storey tower of 466 apartments at 398 Elizabeth Street.[23]

In June 2014, Australia 108 was approved for a second time with a height reduction after Fairfax Media revealed the building violated federal air safety regulations for Essendon Airport.[24]

At the same time Guy approved a 75-level tower at 452 Elizabeth Street, and a 54-storey building at 84–90 Queensbridge Street, with reasons he gave being that with Australia 108 they would provide homes for 4000 people, and "Building more apartments in the city takes population pressure off quieter suburban areas,".[24] Opposition planning spokesman Brian Tee said the minister, by approving so many skyscrapers so quickly for Melbourne's CBD, was displaying "a complete disregard for the impact these developments are going to have" over a 15- or 20-year period.[24]

Before the 2010 state election, the then Liberal–National opposition announced plans to restrict wind farm developments across Victoria, within two kilometres of homes and in the vicinity of regional towns. On 29 August 2011, Minister Guy delivered on this commitment through approval of Amendment VC82 to the Victoria Planning Provisions, prohibiting new wind turbines within two kilometres of homes unless there is written consent from the homeowner.[25] VC82 also introduced no-go zones for wind farms in the Yarra Valley, Dandenong Ranges, Mornington Peninsula, Bellarine Peninsula, Great Ocean Road region, the Macedon and McHarg Ranges, and the Bass Coast.[26][27]

The Coalition government has been criticised for offering little in the way of explanation for no-go zones, the locations of which align with announced projects, extended family members of the former Premier, and land owned by Liberal Party heavyweights.[28] The new planning laws have been criticised by academics on the basis that they: entrench fossil fuel generation in the state, make it harder for Victoria to move towards renewable energy, put local above global concerns and treat wind as more dangerous than coal.[29] Industry has also expressed concern about impact of the wind laws on jobs and investment, as has the State opposition.[30] Wind turbine tower manufacturer, Keppel Prince has threatened to move parts of the business interstate.[31] The Clean Energy Council said the change would cost hundreds of new jobs in regional areas and drive $3.6 billion of investment away from Victoria.[32][33]Pacific Hydro stated that they are not looking at new greenfield developments in Victoria and Windlab Systems stated that the Government's planning laws had "gone too far" and the company was moving all staff to Canberra[33][34]

It was reported that the former Premier, Ted Baillieu's office had a direct role in preparing the wind farm planning laws for Guy's implementation.[28] Baillieu has opposed wind energy since the early 2000s raising concerns about the approval of projects at Portland in western Victoria and the Bald Hills proposal in Gippsland. He has referred to wind turbines as "towering triffids" and referred to then Premier Bracks as a "coastal vandal" and as someone who avoided visiting the Toora wind farm out of fear of being "lynched".[35][36]

On 6 March 2013 Denis Napthine became Premier of Victoria. Denis Napthine's electorate is home to the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere[37] and also hosts wind turbine tower manufacturer Keppel Prince.[38] Napthine has indicated there would be no change to Guy's wind energy planning laws,[39] despite the significant economic benefits to the Premier's electorate and the current Premier's personal admiration of wind turbines.[40] Bloomberg New Energy Finance has stated that the wind laws "could push up the price of electricity for consumers by around $2 billion. This is because the Victorian laws essentially will make it harder and more expensive to build renewable energy."[34]

In July 2014, Guy announced a small adjustment to the planning laws allowing existing wind farm permits to be amended, which may assist with upgrading turbine technology.[41]

In 2014, Guy successfully contested the Legislative Assembly seat of Bulleen, although the Liberal–National coalition was defeated at the same election after just a single term in government. Former Premier Denis Napthine stood down as Liberal leader following the election loss.

Guy was elected as leader of the Liberal Party in a leadership ballot contested on 4 December 2014, making him Leader of the Opposition after defeating Michael O'Brien for the position.[42][43][44]

In January 2017, following a riot in which several juvenile inmates escaped from a correctional facility, Guy criticised the state government by remarking several times that "This is a government who is standing by and allowing Melbourne to become the Johannesburg of the South Pacific."[45] These comments attracted attention from the governing party of South Africa, the African National Congress, which released a statement describing Guy's comments as "unfortunate". The statement also said "These comments are regrettable, and feed into lazy stereotypes of African cities as crime havens. They serve to tarnish the reputation of the City of Johannesburg – known widely as the gateway to Africa; and regularly cited amongst several indices as world-class city".[46][47] After the Australian High Commission in South Africa distanced itself from Guy's comments, he responded by stating "I am more interested in solving Victoria's crime wave than responding to press releases from South Africa's left wing ANC political party".[48]

Matthew Guy and Tony Madafferi first crossed paths in 2013 when Guy, the then Planning Minister in the Liberal Party government, was a special guest at a fund-raising event in Docklands at a venue Madafferi co-owned. Guy claimed to have had no knowledge Madafferi was at or hosting the event. Senior Labor politician Luke Donnellan didn't accept this and accused the Liberals in the Victorian parliament of taking "blood money… stained with misery and crime".[49] In August 2017, media outlets reported that Guy attended a dinner with Tony Madafferi, owner of the La Porchetta pizza chain, who has been accused in court by police of being a high-ranking member of Melbourne's Calabrian Mafia.[50] Guy's office confirmed his attendance, but denied the meeting was secret or that Guy was aware of Madafferi's presence until he arrived, although secretly recorded phone conversations appeared to contradict these statements. According to the recordings and other sources, the meeting was allegedly organised to be for the purpose of raising funds for Guy in his role as Leader of the Opposition.[51] A day later, Guy had referred himself to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC), saying he was confident he would be cleared of any wrongdoing,[52] but IBAC said it did not have the power to investigate.[53]

Because Guy was seen eating a lobster at the meal, the affair became known in the Melbourne press as "Lobster with a Mobster".[54] Guy's claim that those who attended the dinner had not given donations was contradicted by one of the dinner's guests, Frank Lamattina, while attending an event for Hastings MP Neale Burgess.[55]

On 29 March 2018, the day before Good Friday, the Legislative Council debated the Andrews government's Fire Services Bill which would see the merger of Victoria's metropolitan and regional firefighting services into a single body, and grant presumptive rights for cancer compensation to firefighters. As the debate went on, Liberal MLCs Craig Ondarchie and Bernie Finn requested leave for religious reasons due to Good Friday observance, and were each granted a pair. When the bill was put to the vote, Ondarchie and Finn returned to the chamber and voted against it, defeating it 19 votes to 18. On 3 April, Guy defended this apparent breach of parliamentary convention, saying the "means were absolutely justified", that he had ordered their return, and was proud that their actions had saved the Country Fire Authority (CFA).[56]

Guy led the party to a disappointing showing at the November 2018 state election. The Liberal/National Coalition suffered large swings against it and lost several seats in Eastern Melbourne to the Labor Party. Guy's campaign focused chiefly on curbing crime in parts of Melbourne as well as seeking to shift population growth in Melbourne to regional Victoria, though this strategy failed to increase the Liberal vote in the state. Ultimately, the Coalition suffered an 11-seat swing, falling to only 27 seats. Guy resigned as leader of the Liberal Party on 28 November 2018.[57]