The Victorian Greens have slammed Labor for cutting funding for hundreds of public and community homes, including at Fitzroy Gasworks, as they continue to hand over more public land to private developers in favour of massive profits.
Leaked cabinet documents reveal that Labor has officially removed $62.59 million of funding for 120 social homes at the Fitzroy Gasworks - a project that's been promised since 2018 and Labor claimed would deliver an 'unprecedented amount' of public, community and affordable housing.
The future funding for Fitzroy Gasworks and multiple other projects that were promised to deliver hundreds of public and affordable homes under Labor's Big Housing Build Scheme is now uncertain.
It follows recent reports that the Victorian Labor Government is handing over other public land sites to private developers as part of the Small Sites Project and at the old VicRoads site in Kew.
The Victorian Greens say that we're in the middle of a housing crisis where we should be building public housing on public land but instead Labor are fuelling the crisis by handing over public land to private developers for massive profits.
Victorian Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri has been a fierce advocate for building more public housing at the Fitzroy Gasworks site and said that it's outrageous that this public site will be turned into expensive, private development in the middle of a housing crisis.
The Victorian Greens spokesperson for Public and Affordable Housing, Samantha Ratnam said that the 'big build' was supposed to be a housing project, but instead it's becoming a mass privatisation program that will make the housing crisis worse.
As stated by Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri:
"We're in the middle of a housing crisis where we should be building public homes on public land, not handing over public land to private developers.
"Victorians are experiencing the worst housing crisis in living memory. There are over 120,000 people on the housing waitlist, we're now the youth homelessness capital and the majority of us are experiencing housing stress. To fix this, the government must build more public homes.
"The Fitzroy Gasworks site is the perfect place for us to be building hundreds of public homes.
"This has all been about optics for Labor, they made big promises ahead of the election and now they're breaking those promises and turning their back on the community who have been campaigning for public housing on public land.
As stated by the Victorian Greens spokesperson for Public and Affordable Housing, Samantha Ratnam:
"Victoria's big build program is like a house of cards. No matter how Labor spins it, it could fall over at any minute because it is being driven by privatisation not what is in the interest of Victorians.
"This is why we need a public builder in Victoria. It would keep this public land as a priority to build the 100,000 public homes the state desperately needs.
"These project funding cuts show that Labor are shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic while Victorians in housing stress are drowning.
