The Greens have slammed the Victorian Labor Government for signing a $100 million contract to demolish three public housing towers, saying it shows total contempt for residents as they clearly seek to force evictions.
Leaked documents reveal that Labor has signed a $100 million contract with the building giant John Holland to demolish the towers, despite an ongoing class action led by residents who are resisting this plan that will force them from their homes and rip their communities apart.
Earlier in the week, leaked documents revealed that the Victorian Labor government had also scrapped plans to fund more social and affordable housing, evidently in favour of handing over public land to private developers for massive profit.
It was revealed that Miller Street in Preston, one of the named sites that had lost funding for social and affordable housing and would now instead be offered up to private developers as part of the Small Sites Pilot.
The Victorian Greens spokesperson for public and affordable housing, Samantha Ratnam said that the plan to steamroll ahead with this demolition shows the contempt that Labor has for public housing residents and the clear motive here is about forcing evictions which will tear these communities apart.
The Leader of the Australian Greens and member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt said that knocking down more public homes will fuel the housing and rental crisis and that governments at both the state and federal level should be building more public housing.
As stated by the Victorian Greens spokesperson for public and affordable housing, Samantha Ratnam:
"It is clear that Labor is signing demolition contracts now in order to be able to pursue legal action against residents and force evictions.
"We're in the middle of a housing crisis and Labor is spending hundreds of millions of dollars tearing down and privatising public housing while simultaneously pulling funding from new public and community housing developments.
"This isn't about providing more homes for Victorians. This is Labor offering up and selling off public land to private developers for massive profits.
"With other social housing projects falling over because of Labor, what confidence can Victorians have that the same won't also happen to the 44 public housing tower sites?
"We need more public homes to fix this crisis. We should be using our public land to build more public homes, not spending millions to tear them down."
As stated by Leader of the Australian Greens, Adam Bandt MP:
"Knocking down public homes in the middle of a housing and rental crisis is like drilling holes in the floor of the Titanic.
"At a time when both state and federal Labor governments should be building more public housing, they seem to be walking away for good.
"Melbourne residents that have called these towers home for decades shouldn't be displaced just so Labor can privatise most of the land and help line the pocket of wealthy property developers.
"We need a housing system across all levels of government that puts people before profit."
