Supposedly Andrews is to introduce planning reforms to solve the housing crisis in Victoria.
The best thing Andrews could do is get his own government to do their job properly and in a financially responsible way. You know I am dreaming as nothing works in Victoria anymore and Andrews is financially incompetent and reckless.
Here is the first part of an article in The Age yesterday that conclusively demonstrates Andrews and his government are lying about planning and the housing crisis. In Victoria it is self inflicted by Andrews. More lies just to get re-elected. There is a pattern here.
Time for Andrews to leave parliament.
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The hole in Melbourne’s inner north where hundreds of affordable homes should be
By
Royce Millar
SEPTEMBER 17, 2023
There’s a big hole in the ground in Fitzroy North where a model social and affordable housing development is supposed to be.
It’s the site of the old Fitzroy Gasworks.
Ahead of the 2018 state election, then planning minister and local MP Richard Wynne promised an “unprecedented amount” of public, social and affordable housing as part of the “exemplar” urban development.
The Fitzroy Gasworks site.CREDIT:WAYNE TAYLOR
Architects and builders were chosen to design and construct separate social housing and build-to-rent “affordable” apartment buildings on the first of three residential-mixed use precincts to be developed on the enticing 3.9 hectare government-owned site just a few kilometres from the CBD.
But five years on from Wynne’s promise, the architects and builders have been let go, the plans for housing shelved, and the social housing is in doubt – all in the middle of a housing crisis.
As the Andrews government prepares to this week release at least part of its landmark housing and planning package, the malaise at the Gasworks site raises some uncomfortable questions about the state’s ability and capacity to respond to the worsening crisis.
The hold-up at the Gasworks site is certainly not a result of NIMBYism (not in my backyard) – locals have campaigned for more social housing in their neighbourhood.
“The community thought there should be more of a community dividend given it is publicly owned site,” said computer programmer Glen McCallum, whose home overlooks the property. “So we pushed for as high a proportion as possible of social and affordable housing.”
Labor backed the call with a clear promise of 1200 homes with 20 percent to be social and affordable. Less clear was who was to foot the bill.
