Fire Rescue Victoria has instructed a real estate agency in the Paris end of Collins Street to sell-off numerous public lands and buildings which once formed an integral part of our fire fighting capacity in Melbourne's booming western suburbs.
The most controversial of the sites now up for grabs is in Armstrong Creek, where locals were promised a brand-new fire station by the Labor government back in 2018.
Eight years later, it still hasn't been built. Now Labor's selling the land off - yet another broken promise and mismanaged project by this failed State Labor Government.
Meanwhile, growth areas right across Melbourne's west, from Caroline Springs to Melton through to Tarneit and beyond, are expanding rapidly, while our fire services have not kept pace.
Firefighters say there has been no meaningful expansion or investment into stations or fleet in that corridor for more than a decade.
More homes, more people, more demand, but not the infrastructure to match.
The unprecedented sell-off this prime land, some zoned for residential use, also completely ignores the growing local housing crisis and the need to provide local communities in our west with greater mental health support.
Community organisations like Men's Sheds and Neighbourhood Community Houses were denied the opportunity to express an interest in these prominently position public assets - any one of which could have been repurposed to deliver vital community services such as mental health support.
If the Government is selling off public assets, Victorians deserve a clear guarantee that every dollar is being reinvested into frontline fire services, not used to prop up a growing state debt or subsidies other areas of government spending.
Shadow Minister for Fire Rescue Victoria Nick McGowan said: "Jacinta Allan must come clean with Victorians and the local community impacted by this fire sale and explain why these public assets are being sold off without any public consultation or consideration.
"The mass sell-off of public assets is being done with no regard to public use or benefit, and without a single guarantee the money will be reinvested in urgently needed new fire trucks for our career firefighters.
"The Allan Labor Government has broken its promise to the people of Armstrong Creek to deliver a new fire station, and is now selling off the site in an admission of defeat.
"This is a lazy government desperately trying to grab cash to prop up a ballooning state debt and deficit budget."
