From the street, few would be able to tell a boarded-up block of land in Melbourne’s inner city has become the frontline of the latest housing battle between Labor and the Greens. In one corner, Labor say they are “pushing on” with a project to deliver 1,200 homes and community infrastructure on the former industrial site, while the Greens argue the government has “slowly wound back and watered down” its plans.
Chief among the minor party’s concerns is the promise of social housing on the site, which it says has been “paused”. The deputy premier, Jacinta Allan, however, has accused the Greens of spreading “misleading information” about the project.
“Of course, the Greens oppose this project because they are all about the fight and not the fix – their first instinct is always to block not build, even if it means communities in need of housing miss out,” Allan says.
“We’ve continued to push on with this project in the face of that opposition because this is precisely what we need to do – build more homes close to jobs, public services and transport links.”
But the Victorian Greens leader, Samantha Ratnam, points to reporting by Guardian Australia, which showed only 74 extra homes have been added to the state’s social housing stock over a four-year period.
“We’re seeing a repeat of very vague promises hoping that people will just be satisfied with that. But at the same time, these projects are being either massively delayed or not happening at all,” Ratnam says.
She says adding to the public housing stock at the Gasworks site and elsewhere will help “take the pressure off the private market”.
In March, it emerged there were 86,887 social housing dwellings across the state as at June 2022. In 2018, there were 86,813.
Over that time the social housing waitlist has grown by about 45% – from about 44,000 applications in June 2018 to 64,168 in June 2022.
The Victorian stoush has parallels with another between the parties in Canberra, which was resolved this week when the Greens agreed to pass Labor’s $10bn housing Australia future fund bill in return for a further $1bn for public and community housing.
But in Victoria, where the government is releasing its own housing statement in the coming days, it is just beginning.
Grand plans
Located in one of Melbourne’s most sought-after suburbs, Fitzroy North, the 3.9-hectare (9.6-acre) Gasworks site sits on the corner of Alexandra Parade and Smith Street, just 2km from the Melbourne CBD.
Since three large gasometers were pulled down in the 1970s, it has sat mostly dormant, thanks to its status as one of the city’s most contaminated sites.
In 2016, the Andrews government declared the site as surplus land and Development Victoria began investigating opportunities for its use.
Ahead of the 2018 election Labor announced the site would be rezoned to make way for a new school and about 1,200 apartments. Under the rezoning, at least 20% of the apartments were to be affordable housing.
The Yarra independent councillor Stephen Jolly recalls welcoming the commitment.
“At the time, I was a member of the Victorian Socialists and we had been pushing for 10-15% [affordable housing]. And then [then planning minister Richard] Wynne goes and outflanks us from the left. It was bananas,” Jolly says.
Four years of remediation works were completed in mid-2022 and the land was split into four precincts by Development Victoria, with expressions of interest recently sought on two of them.
The development plan suggested a 2026 completion date, but the project’s website now says housing is not expected to be finished until late 2028 – and that’s “subject to change”.
The senior school has already been completed in one precinct, while work is also under way on a multi-use sports centre and community facility.
The timeline for another parcel – which, according to the development plan, was to “deliver the majority of the precinct affordable housing requirement” – appears in doubt.
In June, the director of Yarra’s planning department wrote to local councillors to inform them “the social and affordable housing project at the Gas and Fuel Site [known as Parcel A] … has been paused by the government”.
Ratnam says by prioritising development of two other precincts, the government was being “dictated to – once again – by the private property industry”. Her MPs have held community sessions on the project and started a petition to “stop Labor’s property giveaway at Fitzroy Gasworks”.
The government denies it is walking away from social housing on the site. In information provided to Guardian Australia, the government said the 20% affordable housing target will be reached “across the three parcels – A, B and C”.
“As part of its commitment to deliver affordable housing, Development Victoria is currently exploring opportunities to deliver social housing and affordable build-to- rent options across approximately a third of the site [known as Parcel A] but also within other parcels [Parcels B and C],” it said.
Allan accuses the Greens of spreading “misleading information”.
“[It is] bewildering – this site was vacant for decades, so we’ve decontaminated it, built a new school and we’re building a new sports centre alongside hundreds of new homes,” she said.
But Ratnam maintains the government’s criticism of the Greens was a “tactic” to “distract” from the fact they are failing to deliver public housing through contracts with private developers.
Jago Dodson, the director of RMIT’s centre for urban research, also says the government’s ambition could be higher.
“I’m not aware of new development in Australia that has incorporated 50% social housing, but I think that’s the level of ambition we need to be aiming for if we’re going to start systematically resolving our housing challenges,” he says.
Planning for the next 50 years
Despite the government’s rhetoric, it would be difficult to ignore the Greens. Without the support of the Coalition, Labor relies on the minor party’s four MPs and two crossbenchers in the upper house to pass bills.
This will soon include the government’s housing statement, which is expected to include an Airbnb levy, as well as a suite of measures designed to tackle the growing affordability crisis and encourage the construction of an extra million homes in Melbourne’s inner suburbs by 2050.
Changes to planning laws to fast-track approvals and limit the powers of councils to object to major developments have also been flagged.
Getting ahead of the government, the Greens released its own housing statement last month, which they say form the basis of their upcoming negotiations.
It includes a rent freeze, a 2% cap on rent increases and a government-owned builder constructing 100,000 public housing units over the next decade. The party is also pushing for a minimum 50% public and affordable housing within any special development zones under state planning control.
The Coalition also released a wishlist, which includes no new property taxes, protection of residents’ voices on local planning decisions and more land supply.
Dodson urges bipartisanship on the issue, though concedes it is difficult in the current political environment.
“We’re talking about the future of our city and the mistakes we make over the next 10 to 20 years are going to be with us for the next 50 to 100 years,” he says.
“It is a real opportunity to offer an example to the community of what can be done right.”
