Wednesday, 18 October 2023

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (14:10): My question is to the Premier. Despite public statements the Premier and the government made to the Ballarat community, the select committee heard last week that at no stage would the Ballarat saleyards be used for permanent legacy housing following the Commonwealth Games. Why did the Premier mislead the Ballarat community?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:10): I am pleased to have the opportunity to talk about the former Ballarat saleyards site, because this is an example of how we need to look at every opportunity, whether it is surplus land or land that has been vacant for some time, and how we can look at how we can turn those vacant land sites into homes for more Victorians. This is precisely what we were looking at across a range of sites in association with how we were looking at best delivering the Commonwealth Games.

Now that decision has been taken because, as we have said a number of times in this house, when it became very clear that the $6 billion to $7 billion cost for a 12-day sporting event was all cost and no benefit, we had the opportunity to go straight to the reason why we agreed to host the games in the first place, and that was to invest particularly in more homes for regional Victorians. Part of the work was done during our investigative work to look at the four village sites around regional Victoria. A huge amount of planning work has already been undertaken – work that we can continue to carry forward, whether it is part of the billion-dollar Regional Housing Fund, which is already delivering in terms of investment for new homes across regional Victoria, or indeed the village sites as well. And in terms of Ballarat, what we were looking at –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The house will come to order.

Jacinta ALLAN: He is twitchy. In terms of Ballarat, the Ballarat saleyards site has been vacant since about 2008 – I will get my friends in Ballarat to correct me – when the former Ballarat council made the decision to move the saleyards site from the centre of Ballarat to another site. That site has been vacant for a very, very long period of time, and over that period of time there have been many discussions in Ballarat about how that site can best be utilised to support growth and development in the Ballarat community. In that context, when we were looking for a site for a Commonwealth Games village, the Ballarat saleyards site was one that was being looked at. Considering the history of the Ballarat saleyards site as a former saleyard, there needed to be an investigation, as is appropriate, by the Environment Protection Authority in terms of the potential contamination of the site. As we were working through those issues –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Polwarth!

Jacinta ALLAN: As we were working through those issues of course we were looking at how we could best deliver the village for the games and the housing into the future. We now have the opportunity to go straight to the longer term option for that saleyards site in building more homes for the Ballarat community.

 Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (14:14):On what date did the Premier receive advice that the Ballarat saleyards would not be appropriate for permanent legacy housing?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:14): In terms of the work up until the point in time when the decision was made on 17 July to not proceed with the Commonwealth Games program, we were continuing to look at options for the Ballarat saleyards site that would deliver a temporary village for the duration of the games with a view to how we could best deliver long-term housing options on that site into the future, recognising that there needed to be a transition through temporary accommodation for the games but also making sure that things like the laying out of utilities and the road network on that site could support permanent housing into the future. That work, up until that point, had been continuing, and that is work that we can now continue to re-examine as part of considering how we build more homes for regional communities.