Thursday, 4 August 2022

Northern Metropolitan Region

Dr RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:54): (1901) My constituency question is for the Minister for Housing, and it concerns the redevelopment of the Abbotsford Street public housing estate in North Melbourne. Homes Victoria has established a consultative committee of key community members and representatives of local organisations to improve community engagement on the redevelopment. But members of the committee have repeatedly expressed concern at the lack of engagement from Homes Victoria, with few meetings held so far, limited opportunities to provide feedback and poor communication with committee members. The last three committee meetings have been cancelled, two on the day of the meeting. Despite multiple members writing to Homes Victoria and requesting a meeting, Homes Victoria have cancelled the next scheduled meeting and indicated that future meetings will be replaced with a mix of site visits and guest speaker events. Members are rightly concerned that this removes any opportunity to question Homes Victoria on progress on the redevelopment, especially about their poor engagement with previous tenants of the site. Minister, will proper committee meetings be reinstated to ensure members have the opportunity to provide input to the redevelopment?

Sitting suspended 12.55 pm until 2.04 pm.