Under the proposal, the inner-suburban tower sites, originally home to around 10,000 public housing residents, would be redeveloped to provide a mix of social, affordable and market rent housing\u00a0to 30,000 people.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An artist’s impression of the new public housing towers to be built in Elgin Street, Carlton. (Supplied: Homes Victoria)<\/p>\n
Since March 2024, a Greens-initiated Victorian parliamentary inquiry has been examining the demolition plan, including investigating the cost, the impact on residents and the viability of alternative options like refurbishment.<\/p>\n
Over a number of public hearings, the inquiry heard evidence from public housing residents, architects, engineers and human rights experts, as well as government representatives explaining the rationale for the demolition plan.<\/p>\n
The three Labor members of the parliamentary inquiry disagreed with the majority findings.<\/p>\n
In a dissenting report, they said some documents could not be provided due to cabinet confidentiality rules. They said the majority report from Greens-Liberal committee members “fails to properly consider the best approach for the future” and understates the level of disrepair at the towers.<\/p>\n
Not enough evidence to support demolition, inquiry finds<\/p>\n
The inquiry handed down 21 recommendations, many of them demanding the government produce documents to justify or provide evidence that backs the towers demolition plan.<\/p>\n
It found the government had so far, not provided substantial information to the committee which would allow it to conclude if demolition of the towers was the best option available.<\/p>\n
Shadow housing minister Liberal MP David Southwick said the project should not proceed without a proper cost-benefit analysis.<\/p>\n
“The government expect Victorian taxpayers to write them a blank cheque with no idea about what will be delivered, what it will cost, and how it will fix the housing crisis and the record level of waitlist applicants,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Public housing towers in Flemington were set to be among the first to be demolished.\u00a0 (ABC News: Simon Winter)<\/p>\n
Victorian housing minister Harriet Shing told ABC Radio Melbourne the government would work through the inquiry’s findings but said redevelopment of the towers was necessary to house more people in homes that met modern standards.<\/p>\n
“We’re continuing with the work to redevelop the towers, and we’re doing that in a really careful way … because to do nothing isn’t an option.”<\/p>\n
She also acknowledged the inquiry’s finding the government claimed privilege over 146 documents linked to the tower redevelopment plan, handing over only 12.<\/p>\n
“Cabinet decision-making processes have to happen in confidence … it’s not something that’s unique to this process,” Ms Shing said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Victorian housing minister Harriet Shing says redevelopment of the towers is necessary. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
The inquiry report also found the surprise announcement of the demolition plan \u2014 during a televised press conference held by then Premier Daniel Andrews \u2014 caused emotional harm to residents.<\/p>\n
The inquiry heard many residents only learned about the plan through the media, leading to “shock” and “panic” among tower residents.<\/p>\n
It also found Homes Victoria “engaged in significant coercive and misleading practices to relocate residents within an arbitrary deadline, causing deep harm to social, emotional and physical wellbeing”.<\/p>\n
“Residents told the inquiry they felt pressured, ignored and abandoned, and the report confirms that Labor’s misleading, coercive and at times downright cruel relocation processes have undermined their dignity and their basic human rights,” Victorian Greens housing spokesperson Gabrielle de Vietri said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The inquiry’s main report was also critical of the lack of transparency over how redeveloped public housing sites would be managed and whether adequate “social” or low-cost housing would be provided.<\/p>\n
It expressed concerns over plans to transfer “public housing tenants into a privatised model of housing,” run by not-for-profit, community providers and recommended all land at public housing sites be retained by government.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The inquiry heard almost one in five residents displaced by the demolition plans were relocated to the private market.\u00a0 (Supplied: Chris McLay)<\/p>\n
While the inquiry has called for a pause to the tower demolition program until it is proven to be justified, the high-rise redevelopment program is well underway.<\/p>\n
Demolition and redevelopment works are already underway at two towers in Carlton, with completion scheduled for 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The majority of residents have been relocated from two towers in Flemington and one tower in North Melbourne with demolition of those towers imminent and redevelopment expected by 2031.<\/p>\n
The inquiry report did acknowledge serious maintenance issues at some towers \u2014 with failing sewer systems causing mould in walls, while other towers were showing evidence of concrete cancer.<\/p>\n
But it also found the Victorian government had “engaged in the process of a managed decline” of its public housing properties due to inadequate maintenance.<\/p>\n
The government has six months to respond to the recommendations from the inquiry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Victorian parliamentary inquiry has called for the government to stop all works linked to its plan to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,181827,181828,181829,181826,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-323095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-inquiry-into-demolition-of-public-housing-towers","tag-inquiry-into-the-redevelopment-of-melbournes-public-housing-towers","tag-legal-and-social-issues-committee","tag-melbourne-public-housing-tower","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}