2024-09-20
The Victorian Greens have slammed the Victorian Labor government for announcing the next public housing towers to be demolished, just days after claiming they had no evidence to back up the demolition of the first towers at North Melbourne and Flemington.
Today the Victorian Labor government announced that they’re targeting the towers and low-rise communities in Richmond as part of the next stage of their disastrous plan to demolish and privatise all 44 public housing towers in Victoria.
It comes just a few days after the Victorian Labor government told the courts they had no documents to back up their decision to demolish and privatise the first towers at North Melbourne and Flemington.
Today also marks the one year anniversary of the Victorian Labor government’s Housing Statement, with the state of housing only worsening since then with rents soaring across Victoria and the list of people on the public housing waitlist ballooning.
The Greens MP for Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri said that this plan is only going to make the housing crisis worse and that it’s outrageous that Labor is steamrolling ahead without providing a shred of evidence to back it up.
Quotes attributable to Greens MP for Richmond, Gabrielle de Vietri:
“Just days ago Labor admitted that they have no evidence to back up the first demolitions and now they’re steamrolling forward to destroy the next community. This disastrous plan is only going to make the housing crisis worse for everybody.
“Labor is gaslighting us about this plan. It’s never been about providing more homes for Victorians and it’s certainly never been about the residents - all this is about is handing over prime real estate to their property developer mates for massive profits.
“Once again Labor has thrown public housing residents under the bus today. If Labor listened to the residents in Richmond - or any of the towers - for just one second, they’d hear that they don’t want to leave, they don’t want their homes torn down and their communities ripped apart.
“There are over 120,000 people on the public housing waitlist and that number continues to soar. Yet Labor wants to tear down 7000 public homes in the worst housing crisis in living memory and then won’t even show us the receipts.”