Premier Jacinta Allan must immediately apologise to lead plaintiff Barry Berih and the 479 other families in the North Melbourne and Flemington public housing towers, who are currently seeking information about the redevelopment of their homes.
In the Supreme Court, the Allan Labor Government has sought to claim cabinet-in-confidence on all financial and technical details surrounding their decision to demolish more than 10 per cent of all public housing in Victora.
As the community has pressed on, Premier Jacinta Allan accused them of being a small group backed by the Greens, with the lead plaintiff for the 479 families saying the Premier’s behaviour was “really, really shameful and unrespectable”.
Following Justice Richards’ comments that it was “really very unfortunate that the actual substance of that decision-making has not been made public”, the Allan Labor Government doubled down in court today to fight to keep private key details of the unfunded multibillion dollar housing project.
Shadow Minister for Housing, Richard Riordan, said: “Housing isa basic right for citizens and clear obligation for a responsible government, and the community is fighting a David and Goliath battle in the Supreme Court to understand why they are being evicted from their homes in the Allan Labor Government’s stalled towers demolition project.
“The Allan Labor Government is failingpublic housing residents with waiting lists ballooning, promises not being kept and bedrooms available plummeting through mismanagement. It is time to lift the veil of secrecy from Victoria’s Public Housing projects.
“Public Housing residents are being sent from their long-time communities for up to ten years with no real understanding of when they will be able to return. This is poor management, and the Allan Labor Government does not have the resources to guarantee completion time for the replacement of hundreds of homes.
“Labor cannot manage housing, and Victorians are paying the price.”
