Housing
Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:15): (600) My question today is for the Minister for Housing. Minister, we recently requested documents that underpin your government’s plan to demolish 44 public housing towers; I acknowledge a portion of the original request has now been provided. One of the few documents released was 259 Malvern Road’s existing conditions review and building regulations assessment report. This report was prepared by Approval Systems, who were engaged to identify features of the building that did not comply with building regulations and assist the government to select an option for the redevelopment of the site. The compliance assessment was a high-level assessment only, based on a desktop review of a handful of documents and one single-site visit, which was confined to common corridors, lobbies, stairs and equipment rooms. No physical assessment was undertaken of the actual homes. Minister, beyond this document, did the government undertake any further analysis to determine the feasibility of refurbishment of the Malvern Road site?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:16): Thank you, Ms Copsey, for that question and for your interest in the work that needs to be undertaken to develop housing for people who have for generations lived in and called home places that are no longer fit for purpose. We have undertaken a range of assessments and received independent advice from structural engineers across the entire inventory of the housing estate that is the subject of this redevelopment. From an asset and facilities management consultant, the estimate is that it would be about $2.3 billion over 20 years just to keep the towers in a habitable condition. This includes all of the towers that have been named as part of that 44-site development.
It is really important to note also that within that $2.3 billion we are not looking at the cost of additional escalations in price since that calculation was first developed, nor are we not looking at the fact that this sort of refurbishment would bring the towers only to a habitable condition. When we are talking about lift wells, stairwells, sewer stacks, when we are talking about common areas, we are also talking about the sorts of things that fail regularly. When we talk about electrical circuitry that is built into the concrete slab construction, we are also talking about amenity that cannot cope with the increasing demand, particularly as people use appliances such as heating because the insulation is so poor.
We have recently seen at another tower an entire floor needing to be relocated because of failures in the sewer stacks, and we have ever-increasing challenges around reletting these towers because of the lack of amenity. In addition to that, the $2.3 billion would also –
Katherine Copsey: On a point of order, President, apologies, I do appreciate the broad context, but my question was specifically about the Malvern Road site.
The PRESIDENT: The minister no doubt will address that in the minute remaining.
Harriet SHING: Thank you. As I indicated, Ms Copsey, in my answer earlier, the work that we have done covers all of the sites, and we are continuing to assess those sites as they stand up to or indeed increasingly fail the standards for amenity because of their age and because of changes to the standards in design that should apply to modern standards for housing that we all deserve. If we were to refurbish, retrofit these towers to make them habitable, it is really important that you understand we would also still need to relocate every single person across those towers for the duration of that retrofit to only make them habitable. This is where again it is hard work, it is difficult work for a range of reasons, including the very strong connections that people have, including to the Malvern Road site. We are determined to continue to engage and to engage well with communities as this work goes on. It is intergenerational work, and it is about making an intergenerational change.
Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:19): I want to come back to the nature of the condition reports, which was actually the heart of the substantive question that I asked. The report that has been provided does not state that demolition is the only feasible option for Malvern Road or that refurbishment is not possible. This is the only condition report that your government has released of the 44 towers set for demolition. I appreciate your confirmation that you have done assessments across the other sites. Surely the government would have undertaken to provide a thorough justification for demolition with detailed rather than only high-level assessments such as this condition report. Of the condition reports that you have prepared for the other 43 towers, is the standard of assessment taken at Malvern Road representative of the remaining 43 condition reports that have not been released by your government?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:20): Thank you, Ms Copsey, for that question. As I said earlier, we are seeing increasing numbers of faults and of breakdowns, of failures in everything from sewer stacks to lift wells, of challenges around the amenity in our towers, and we also know the market speaks for itself. In one tower we are making around 10 offers for a property and only one person is turning up. That is a 10 per cent uptake on the offers that are being made for stock that is available there. We will keep assessing –
Katherine Copsey: Thank you, Minister, I appreciate we have got limited time. On a point of order, President, I would appreciate it if you would bring the minister back to the substance of the question, which is the nature of the assessments and condition reports prepared.
The PRESIDENT: I will bring the minister back to the question.
Harriet SHING: Ms Copsey, the towers have been built using concrete construction, which provides a measure of uniformity across the entire stock. These buildings fail against modern standards across the board for noise, sustainability, energy efficiency, ventilation, access to private open space, seismic, flood and fire standards and minimum amenity. We will not take a backward step in providing housing that everybody deserves to the standards that apply now.