Matthew Guy
Matthew Jason Guy is an Australian politician. He has been a Liberal Party member of the Parliament of Victoria since 2006, representing the Northern Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council and Bulleen in the Legislative Assembly. He was Leader of the Opposition in Victoria and state leader of the Liberal Party from 2014 to 2018 and again from 2021 to 2022, having resigned following his respective losses in the 2018 and 2022 Victorian state elections.
Early life
Guy was born on 6 March 1974 in Greensborough, Victoria.He is of Ukrainian descent on his maternal side; his mother was born in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine and arrived in Australia in 1949 with her parents as displaced persons.
Guy has a Bachelor of Arts in politics and history from La Trobe University and completed postgraduate studies in Ukrainian language and culture at Monash University. According to a 2013 Herald-Sun profile, he "speaks Ukrainian, has visited relatives in the country many times and is a proud and active member of Melbourne's Ukrainian community".
After leaving university, Guy worked as director of research in the office of Victorian premier Jeff Kennett from 1997 to 1999. He also worked briefly as media adviser to Senator Rod Kemp, before returning to state politics as chief of staff to opposition leader Denis Napthine from 1999 to 2002. In 2003, Guy joined the Victorian Farmers Federation as marketing and communications manager. He moved to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in 2004 as government relations manager.
Political career
Guy joined the Liberal Party in 1990. He was the Liberal candidate for Yan Yean in the 2002 Victorian state election but was not elected. At the 2006 Victorian state election he succeeded as the top candidate on the Liberal ticket for the Northern Metropolitan Region in the Victorian Upper House, after which he was soon appointed as Shadow Minister for Planning. Prior to the Brumby government's abortion law reform bill passing the parliament, Guy stated that it would be a sad day if the bill became law which he voted against.Minister for Planning (2010–2014)
Guy was re-elected at the 2010 Victorian state election and was subsequently appointed Minister for Planning.Ventnor land rezoning
In September 2011, 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. The rezoning decision was unpopular, with one hundred submissions calling for the town boundaries to be retained, while only one submission from the developers supported the rezoning. 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".Days later, Guy reversed his decision, advising the Bass Coast mayor, Veronica Dowman, that he had changed his mind. It is believed that Guy succumbed to backroom pressure from Liberal heavy-weights when he back-flipped on his original decision to rezone the land. 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. Nicholls purchased the property based on the rezoning decision and subsequently sought to sue Guy and have his original rezoning decision reinstated. 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.
Legal proceedings terminated in August 2013 with a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement, with taxpayers footing the bill. 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. 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 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," Guy is quoted as saying in confidential notes made by the Victorian Government Solicitor's Office in July 2013.
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. In March 2014, Mr Brouwer found that Guy was ultimately responsible for the rezoning decision and that he had refused to hand over important documents requested as part of his investigation. 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.
High-rise building approvals
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 advise on these applications, but in December 2010 it was disbanded by the new Coalition Government and not replaced despite it being Coalition policy.By March 2013, Guy had issued approvals for numerous tower projects in central Melbourne, while rejecting only one. The one project 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 federal deputy Liberal leader Peter Reith, from a nearby tower.
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."
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.
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.
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,". 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.
Wind farm laws
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. 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.The Coalition government was criticised for offering little in the way of explanation for no-go zones. The new planning laws were criticised by academics on the basis that they would: 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. Industry also expressed concern about impact of the wind laws on jobs and investment, as did the State opposition. Wind turbine tower manufacturer Keppel Prince threatened to move parts of the business interstate but did not. 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. 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
The then Premier Ted Baillieu had 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 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".
On 6 March 2013 Denis Napthine became Premier of Victoria. His electorate is home to the largest wind farm in the southern hemisphere and also hosts wind turbine tower manufacturer Keppel Prince. Napthine indicated there would be no change to Guy's wind energy planning laws, despite the economic benefits to the Premier's electorate and his personal admiration of wind turbines. 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."
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.