Wednesday, 28 May 2025

Ministers statements: Marlene McKay

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:25): I am pleased to take this opportunity to pay tribute to an incredibly valued and loved member of the community in South Melbourne, Marlene McKay. Marlene sadly passed away on 21 May after a battle with cancer. Her friends have told me that she had lived in public housing since 1987 and was key to the close-knit community in South Melbourne. She was a fierce community advocate and an integral part of the Park Towers Housing Tenants Association for more than 25 years, giving many years of her life serving in roles, including chair. Throughout this time she championed the rights and interests of tenants on the Park Towers estate in South Melbourne, even leading the development and upgrade of the estate’s community facility. The work she did not only helped to serve her community but will continue to set the standard for how public housing renters are treated for years to come.

Marlene also invested countless hours of her time in training and mentoring. Those volunteers who were the beneficiaries of her wisdom continue to do their work with the benefit of her expertise, and she worked to develop information in the languages spoken by local renters. Anyone who knows our rich and diverse communities across our high-rise estates knows that the communication of information in language is absolutely critical, and Marlene’s huge volume of work did not go unrecognised. In 2016 she won the Frances Penington Award, which celebrates social housing renters who have made an outstanding voluntary contribution to their community – a much-deserved commemoration of a lifetime of service. And last week I met with the South Yarra Public Tenants Association, who spoke very highly of Marlene’s life and work. It is clear that her loss is and will continue to be felt keenly by the community that surrounded her. She was loved by her family, her friends and her community. She will be forever missed, and her legacy will go on.