Wednesday, 16 October 2024

Housing

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (12:32): (691) My question is to the Minister for Housing. An overarching principle in Infrastructure Victoria’s Opportunities to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Infrastructure is to:

Prioritise non-build or low build solutions.

And they go on to state:

Aim to get better use from existing infrastructure or modify it to meet changing needs before considering a new build.

This recommendation was reiterated in Infrastructure Victoria’s submission to the climate resilience inquiry. In relation to the demolition of 44 public housing towers and the construction of their replacements, what consideration was given to modifying the existing structures, specifically in the context of the government’s target to reduce emissions by at least 75 per cent by 2035?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:33): Thank you, Mr Ettershank, for that question. What I will do, given the level of granularity in your question, is perhaps offer you an opportunity for us to have a discussion about materials, recycling and alternatives to deconstruction or demolition. In many instances we will see that there are only limited opportunities to repurpose or to recycle materials, as much as anything because those materials in a structural sense will lack the integrity to be able to be weight bearing or to be used or redeployed in another setting involving large-scale infrastructure construction.

However, it is really important to note that, across a number of the housing builds that Homes Victoria and that Development Victoria have also been progressing, recycled and repurposed materials are at the heart of a lot of the decisions and planning that go into making sure that wherever and however possible the footprint and emissions are part of what can be done to deliver on better and more sustainable outcomes for people, not just those who will end up calling these homes their own but also for the broader community around emissions reduction and the targets that we have set – again, the most ambitious in Australia. We are really committed to making sure that we do have sustainability at the heart of our housing delivery and the sorts of programs that we have announced and funded to a record extent in Victoria.

Mr Ettershank, one of the challenges that we have around the 44 housing towers is that their structural integrity is able only in very limited ways to be repurposed or retrofitted. When we are talking about the sorts of issues around retrofitting we do, again, call upon a very significant volume of material in order to address compliance with contemporary standards. And this would result, again, not in additional housing stock; we would see a reduction, which would require the build of additional social housing elsewhere. We would also need to relocate every single resident from those towers while the retrofitting was taking place. We have undertaken an incredible amount of maintenance and upgrades, including within existing towers, over many, many years, but the towers themselves are getting to the end of their useful life. They do not comply with contemporary standards. This is where, to the best extent possible – with safety being the driving priority of what we can do within new builds – this is part of the work that we do. We do it across a number of different portfolios.

As you would be aware, Mr Ettershank, the work on new builds also includes a range of sustainable initiatives that are energy efficient and also consistent with our broader policy objectives on emissions reduction over time. But as I said, I am very happy to have a conversation with you about what the overall footprints and impacts look like around emissions reduction.

David Ettershank: I thank the minister for her response, and I will leave it there. I look forward to the briefing.