The first day of hearings for the Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into the Victorian Labor Government's decision to demolish and privatise Victoria's 44 public housing towers starts on Tuesday.
It is the first of a number of hearings to be carried out over the following months. The committee will hear directly from public housing residents, housing and human rights experts, service organisations, architects and planners.
The Labor Government's plan, announced in September 2023, has been met with overwhelming dissent from residents, housing experts and the public.
This inquiry has garnered over 800 written submissions, the vast majority expressing serious concerns or outright opposition to Labor's plan to demolish the towers. Including submissions from the Law Institute of Victoria, community legal centres, the CFMEU, Senator Lidia Thorpe, former Supreme Court Judge and human rights expert Kevin Bell, plus over 30 organisations.
As stated by Victorian Greens Housing spokesperson, Gabrielle de Vietri:
"Labor has doggedly refused to provide any evidence whatsoever to back up their disastrous decision. In its absence, the public is stepping up to put its evidence on the record.
"If Labor thinks it's going to demolish 10,000 people's homes, they need to at least front up to how their plan would uproot communities and disrupt lives. After hearing this evidence, there is no way they'll be able to claim that there is no alternative, and that they were unaware of the serious ethical questions around their plan and its implementation so far."
