Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): My adjournment is for the Minister for Housing and I ask the minister to provide an update to my community on the vital social housing being built on Stokes and Penola streets and Oakover Road in Preston. Every person deserves to live in safe and secure housing, but for so many this basic right continues to be out of reach. On any given night, there are hundreds within my community who are sleeping rough, in crowded boarding houses, couch surfing or fleeing violence in emergency accommodation. These are not abstract things but real families and people living in uncertainty without that most basic foundation from which to build opportunity and aspiration. These new homes in Preston could not be more important. When completed, the architecturally designed residential precinct will provide for almost 100 brand-new homes catering to vulnerable Victorians in our community, replacing the 26 run-down properties built decades ago.

As chair of the community consultative committee on this project, it has been my pleasure to see it progress and to see the support it has within our welcoming suburbs. However, disappointingly—but I am afraid unsurprisingly—this project has met opposition from none other than Darebin council. As the minister would be aware, despite council officers being supportive of the development plan submitted, Darebin councillors took it upon themselves to pass a motion placing unduly restrictive conditions on the approved plan. This then resulted in the decision being taken to VCAT, while the Building Victoria’s Recovery Taskforce lodged an amendment to the planning scheme, ultimately changing the responsible planning authority from the City of Darebin to the Minister for Planning.

The tragedy of all of this showboating at the then Greens-controlled Darebin council is that these homes could have been built or be on their way to being built. Now they are delayed. It is yet another typical example of the Greens’ virtue signalling. They knew full well that their conditions would only serve to halt the project, but they wanted to make a statement. For their own vanity and ego they wanted to make a statement. Never mind that vulnerable Victorians will be waiting on these homes for what could be an additional year. Never mind them—‘We made our statement’—because that is all that matters to the Greens political party. It is all smoke and mirrors and marketing, but when it actually comes to getting things done and delivering for people, rather than their own sense of self-aggrandisement, then it is all obstruction. But let us call it out for what it is: the Greens political party could not care less about social housing. Just like every other appropriated cause that they run with, they will use the most vulnerable parts of our community to try and build up their moral credentials. Well, guess what? We see through it, and this decision just proves once again that their party is a sham, an absolute sham. Never mind who falls by the wayside, as long as the marketing material looks good. I look forward to the minister’s update on how our Labor government is getting on with delivering these homes for Victorians.

Answer

Answered: 4 May 2021

The Victorian Government, together with our development partner MAB Corporation and registered housing agency HousingFirst, is redeveloping the Stokes and Penola streets and Oakover Road site in Preston to provide new and improved social and private homes for more Victorians.

The project will deliver 99 social housing dwellings, housing either returning tenants or applicants from the Priority Access category of the Victorian Housing Register – some of those Victorians most in need of safe, stable housing.

The project will also increase the range of housing options available in Preston, including delivery of 52 dwellings under the environmentally and socially inclusive Nightingale model, and providing housing options for First Home Buyers.

It is unfortunate that the project has not received the support of Darebin Council to date. It took eight months for the council to consider the development plan for the project and include unenforceable conditions in their approval on 15 July 2020, which the developer had no choice but to contest in VCAT, causing further delays until the intervention of the Building Victoria Recovery Taskforce directed the approval process to the Minster for Planning.

The development plan for Preston was approved after being called in on 8 December 2020, and the planning permit was lodged on 25 March 2021, with construction expected to begin later this year.

If not for this unnecessarily protracted process with council for no avail, the construction of the 99 social housing dwellings for the most vulnerable members of the community would have already commenced.

This is a good opportunity to highlight the difficulties and unnecessary delays the project team has to deal with in getting development plans approved, not only here but across all sites, including the Walker Street development in Northcote also within the City of Darebin. Timely consideration of applications has not occurred, irrespective of how much consultation, flexibility and common sense approaches the project team offer up to progress the project.

Hon Richard Wynne MP

Minister for Housing