John Brumby prides himself on being the can-do Premier. When slapped around by a 12% swing in the recent Altona by-election, his response was to “go harder”.

And no company has benefitted more from the Victorian Labor Government than Australia’s biggest pokies operator, Woolworths, which just loves Brumby’s new gaming industry rules for eliminating Tattersall’s and Tabcorp as operators after their licences expire in 2012.

Woolies also adore action man Brumby for his approach when it comes to ramming through planning approvals.

After announcing its hardware partnership with American giant Lowes just six months ago, the joint venture has been given a rails run by the state government, which, on Monday, announced 12 Victorian stores had already been approved in a special deal. So much for consulting with communities and the local councils involved.

Approval for five new Aldi stores was included in the announcement, which claimed the 17 projects were worth $191 million.

All of this raised a few eyebrows in the City of Manningham where the boot is very much on the other foot.

After Woolworths walked away from the people who shop at Jackson Court in Doncaster by converting its Safeway store to a giant Dan Murphy’s, the council decided to offer its car park for sale to a new supermarket operator.

Aldi last year was declared the preferred bidder and will probably build a supermarket that partly obscures the Dan Murphy store on Doncaster Road.

The traders at Jackson Court are over the moon as the supermarket will bring back much-needed foot traffic.

But guess what? Woolworths has lodged this objection complaining about the impact on car parking.

The cheek of it. Here is a $30 billion company happy to bulldoze councils with a state-wide deal through Brumby on its new hardware chain, but is still gaming the town planning system to foil potential competitors.

Given the damage Woolies causes to Victorian communities through its vast pokies business, the company doesn’t exactly have the sort of reputation that warrants such special treatment from the state government.

Even The AFR this week canvassed the idea of Woolies yielding to the campaign being run by against it by a group of anti-pokies campaigners led by Nick Xenophon, Tim Costello and wealthy entrepreneur Paul Bendat.

“The latest talk of separation comes as a result of Woolworths’ discomfort at being tagged as Australia’s largest pokies operation,” was how the Street Talk column put it in yesterday’s paper.

The “discomfort” is neatly captured in this package of videos.

Meanwhile, in other Manningham planning action, we’ve had two days in VCAT this week fighting an attempt by Woolworths to build another giant 1400-square metre liquor store at The Manningham Club in Bulleen. The local residents turned out in force and are hoping the application is refused.

Things are also really hotting up over the deputy mayor Fred Chuah’s attempt to get the planning minister Justin Madden to directly approve the $10 million-plus tripling of the On Luck Chinese Nursing Home he chairs in Manningham’s Green Wedge zone.

I put up a motion at last Tuesday’s  council meeting calling on private developers and the state government to respect the primacy of local government in planning matters.

It was unanimously supported (listen to debate here) but the deputy mayor didn’t front, instead simply sending a text message stating that he wasn’t feeling well and was considering taking legal action.

Such threats of civil defamation actions between councillors are not productive. The more appropriate dispute resolution mechanism is through the state government and Manningham’s Green councillor David Ellis yesterday did indeed lodge a formal application for a Councillor Conduct Panel to adjudicate on Cr Chuah’s behaviour.

Disclosure: Stephen Mayne is a Manningham City councillor and is not paid for Crikey stories that refer to council matters.