With the election weeks away, five developments have been approved.

There is a rhythm to the final weeks before an election—a flurry of announcements, promises, and decisions that carry the weight of urgency. In Victoria, with the state election looming in November, that rhythm has produced a series of planning approvals for developments that have long divided communities, raising questions about timing, process, and whose voices are heard.

Among the most contentious is the Kingswood Golf Course estate in Dingley Village, approved by Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny last month. The 932-dwelling development on 53 hectares will transform a site that Kingston Council and resident groups opposed for more than a decade .

The approval has become a flashpoint in the local campaign. Caroline White, an exiled Kingston councillor now standing as an independent in the November poll, said she would seek an “immediate injunction” against the project if elected. “Labor’s green-lighting of the Kingswood Golf Course development is an absolute betrayal of Dingley Village,” she said, citing drainage systems that she argues cannot handle the growth .

Also moving forward is the VNI West transmission line, a 240-kilometer high-voltage project that would cut through more than 200 farmers’ properties in Victoria’s northwest. The Coalition has vowed to scrap it if elected, calling it unnecessary. But the project’s Environment Effects Statement went on public exhibition this week, opening a six-week review period that will shape the planning minister’s final assessment .

The Macorna wind project, an 850-megawatt farm near Kerang, has been allowed to proceed through a streamlined planning pathway—only the second project of its scale to avoid the most onerous environmental assessment process. The developer says the project remains viable even if VNI West is cancelled .

The approvals come against the backdrop of a broader political contest. Land tax cuts, hospital waiting times, and road conditions have all become campaign issues . The Coalition has pledged to build a youth mental health facility at Parkville and expand patient transit lounges to ease emergency department pressure .

For communities like Dingley Village, the decisions carry immediate consequences. For the broader electorate, they raise a question that will be answered at the ballot box: whether these approvals represent necessary progress or decisions made without sufficient regard for those who will live with their consequences.

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Sources: Dandenong Star Journal, RenewEconomy, FBC News, Bunbury Mail, Australian Broadcasting Corporation