Tuesday, 2 December 2025

 Joe McCRACKEN (Western Victoria) (12:59): My constituency question is for the Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts. In August 2024, after the announcement of the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games, the government committed to remediating the former Ballarat saleyards site. On 8 April 2025 the government put out a release titled ‘Works to begin to restore and repurpose key sites’. The former Ballarat saleyards site, located at La Trobe Street in Ballarat, was mentioned in that release. The release states that:

These works will pave the way for future redevelopment, enabling a new jobs precinct and more homes to be built in Ballarat in the future.

On 28 November this year Development Victoria put out another release titled ‘Remediation begins at former Ballarat saleyards’, which is set to be completed by the end of 2026. My question is: since the initial announcement in 2024, why will it have taken two years to remediate the site? I note it is conveniently timed just before an election.