Tuesday, 18 March 2025

Housing

Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (12:40): (852) My question is to the minister for housing. Minister, last sitting week the Premier claimed that maintaining public housing towers would cost billions, yet has refused to release any financial modelling to justify this claim. Meanwhile an independent report by OFFICE, with expert advice from architects, surveyors and engineers, noted the cost of demolishing and rebuilding the Flemington estate at around $500 million. Given that contracts have already been signed and demolition is imminent, will the government release a full cost breakdown of the demolition and redevelopment at Flemington and North Melbourne, including expected costs for construction, private sector involvement and the number of public housing units that will actually be delivered?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:41): Thank you very much for that question, Ms Gray-Barberio. The towers redevelopment is something which, again, is intended to address ageing stock which is no longer fit for purpose. When you talk about an independent report prepared by OFFICE, it is also important to note that the former leader of the Greens was fundraising in order to pay for that report. That is important to just put on the record there.

I also want to note that the report that was prepared for the purpose of understanding what a retrofit option might look like failed to consider relocations which would be required for the duration of that development and failed to consider the impact of amenity, particularly upon parents with littles, people who work shifts and older people, who would have to share lift wells and would have to work and move through construction sites even if they were to be developed floor by floor. What this report failed to consider is the fact that, due to the structural composition of these buildings, it is not possible to retrofit to a purpose where you have got compliance with flood, fire, seismic and emergency standards as they currently apply. It is not possible to put a balcony on the outside of a building for the purpose of retrofitting, again, within the amount of money as it has been described in this report.

Mr Limbrick quite rightly pointed out when we spoke on this a couple of weeks ago – and Mr Limbrick, I do not want to misquote you – and referred to having a measure of scepticism about a business case that goes down to the cents and the dollars at the end of a large number. Again, what I would suggest is that the basis upon which this report has been prepared goes only to a very narrow focus around retrofit, which is not possible when we are talking about 20-storey towers which were built using concrete slab construction. If you do not have a subfloor section, it means that you cannot actually then install adequate lighting, adequate ventilation or adequate insulation because there is no space between the ceiling of your place and the floor above it.

What I would also say is that we are determined to make sure that information that we have has been provided and is published. There are two reports that are available publicly that do talk to the state of the towers and the need to update and upgrade them, so I would direct you to those publicly available documents. I would also say that when we work with people to understand what their needs and aspirations look like, the sorts of things that they tell us are important relate to being able to have somewhere that is warm in winter and cool in summer, that has adequate ventilation, that has access to natural light, that has entrance and egress that is accessible and that provides people with opportunities to feel safe, to have dignity and to have privacy in homes that do meet their needs and that are also places to be proud of. That is exactly what we are delivering.

Anasina GRAY-BARBERIO (Northern Metropolitan) (12:44): Minister, your government claims these homes are not fit for purpose, but independent reports by OFFICE have shown that they could be refurbished into modern, energy-efficient housing at a far lower cost than demolition. The government is spending millions to knock them down, yet you refuse to guarantee that public housing will be rebuilt on this land. Minister, can you confirm exactly how many public housing units will be replaced on the Flemington and North Melbourne estates, or is this just another land sell-off to developers?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:45): Again I come back to the answer to the first question that I received this question time. This land is not being sold. Please tell people this rather than talking about land grabs, as you are so fond of doing. Please also make sure that when you talk about social housing, you are prepared to countenance the very notion at the heart of the system, that people who are on the housing waitlist are served well by both public and community housing and that people who access community housing are able to access housing because of two specific models of housing delivered under the umbrella of social housing. When we are talking about retrofitting the towers, again I get correspondence from you and from your colleagues about how this housing is not fit for purpose. When we are talking about electrical circuitry that is embedded into the concrete –

Anasina Gray-Barberio: On a point of order, President, the question was: how many public housing units will be replaced on the Flemington and North Melbourne estates?

The PRESIDENT: Minister.

Harriet SHING: The preamble went much further than that. You know about the 39 per cent uplift in social housing across these sites, and again we are determined to continue delivering on more social housing for people in need.