Rank and file Victorian Labor party members will use an upcoming state council meeting to push the government to guarantee no public land will be sold off to private developers when it knocks down the state’s 44 public housing towers.
Labor for Housing – a non-factional advocacy group within the Victorian Labor party that advocates for better housing policies – will also use May’s state conference to call for a doubling of the social housing contained in the planned redevelopment.
“We know that the only way through the housing crisis is to increase supply through both government and private development,” said Julijana Todorovic, the Labor for Housing co-convener and co-founder. “But we also know that once we sell a government asset, we can’t get it back.
“When we sell government assets, it’s working people who lose out.”
In September 2023 the then premier, Daniel Andrews, released the Victorian government’s housing statement, which included plans to redevelop Melbourne’s 44 high-rise public housing towers.
He described the redevelopment as the biggest urban renewal project in the nation’s history, with “crumbling”, “out of date” and “derelict” towers to be gradually replaced by new energy-efficient apartments, which would accommodate three times as many residents over the next 30 years.
But according to the plan, only 11,000 of the 30,000 people living at the estates by 2051 would be in “social housing” – an increase of just 10% on current figures. The remaining 19,000 residents were expected to be private owners and “affordable” housing tenants.
A draft of Labor for Housing’s motion, seen by Guardian Australia, said the 10% uplift in social housing was “not enough to address our mounting housing crisis, where over 80,000 people are on the social housing waiting list”.
It calls on the Allan government to increase the number of social housing dwellings on the 44 sites from 11,000 to 20,000, ensure there is no net loss of public housing dwellings across the sites and guarantee all the land remains in public hands.
The motion suggests the government instead adopt the ground lease model it has used in the past, where public land is leased to a privately owned consortium to build, operate and maintain for 40 years.
Labor for Housing’s motion also includes a broader moratorium on the sale of any surplus government land that may be suitable for housing, pending analysis by the state’s land coordinator general.
Todorovic said the group was keen to work with the government to ensure there was “more housing for people on the lowest incomes”.
“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to significantly increase the number of social housing dwellings on these sites and provide sustainable, secure homes for Victorians on land already owned by the government,” she said.
“We acknowledge that this will come at a significant financial cost. But we have a great opportunity … to get this right.”
Labor for Housing has written to Labor branches across the state urging their support.
Last year the group’s motions to make housing a human right, introduce a mandatory inclusionary zoning scheme and provide affordable housing for young people all passed unanimously.
Another motion to introduce a cap on the number of nights each year an owner can rent out a property as short stay accommodation, and recommending to national conference that it “remove negative gearing tax arrangements” for properties used for such a purpose also passed.
The motions are non-binding but play an important role in guiding Labor policy. Just months after the conference, the Victorian government introduced a 7.5% “Airbnb levy”.
The first public housing towers due for redevelopment are in Carlton, Flemington and North Melbourne, with a completion date of 2031.
But the plan is facing a legal challenge from Inner Melbourne Community Legal, which is set to return to the supreme court later this month.
The class action is being brought on behalf of about 1,000 residents of the three towers, with IMCL alleging the government failed to properly consider the human rights of residents when it decided to redevelop the towers.
It also challenges the legality of the cabinet’s approval of the plan, rather than the sate’s housing agency, Homes Victoria.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, on Tuesday said she would not comment on “what may or may not happen at state conference in a few weeks time”.
She said tower sites were “big” and well connected to schools, hospitals and public transport services.
“They’re exactly the sorts of sites where we want to take the opportunity to provide more homes for more Victorians and that will also include more homes that are funded by the government,” she said.
