BRUMBY AND WYNNE ANNOUNCE BROADMEADOWS DEVELOPMENT

Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Summary: Premier John Brumby, with Housing Minister Richard Wynne, announces a new public and social development for Broadmeadows.  The Premier also discusses crime statistics, Kew Cottages redevelopment, changes to clearway times, and the desalination project.

JOHN BRUMBY:    …development for the area.  There’ll be something like 500 houses here – medium-density housing, one- and two-level houses – complete redevelopment of the area, and a mix of public housing, social housing and private development. 

This is part, of course, of the biggest investment that our Government has ever made in social housing.  Fantastic in terms of those who need social housing, but this is a great project, too, in terms of taking the pressure off the private rental market. 

And, as far as I’m concerned, as the local Member of Parliament, of course, this builds on so many major new investments that we’ve put in place in Broadmeadows.  So whether it’s the Schools Regeneration Project, whether it’s the Roxburgh Park Railway Station, the new railway station at Coolaroo, the Pascoe Vale duplication, the Hume Global Learning Village, this has been a huge investment in improving the quality of life and opportunity in Broadmeadows.

And I might ask Richard if he wants to say a few words as well.

RICHARD WYNNE:    Thanks very much, Premier.  I think that this is…a very significant…development here.  It’s the biggest that’s been undertaken by the State Government outside of the inner city, and it will really change the face of this area, an area that for a long time has been run down, but one we’re now…we’re going to completely refurbish all of the public housing here, and get a mix, a mix of public, social and private housing, and really change the face, really build a new suburb here in Broadmeadows, and that’s a fantastic outcome and a great use of that record investment that the Premier gave us for public and social housing outcomes.

REPORTER:    How much will the public housing stocks here actually be boosted by?

WYNNE:    Ah, there are 93…there were 93 units here now; we expect at the end of the project that we’ll have 250 public and social houses.

REPORTER:    Given how tight the rental market is at the moment and how people are struggling to find low-cost housing, is this enough, or will people still be struggling to find places to rent?

WYNNE:    Well, it is, it’s a very tough rental market at the moment.  We just released the last-quarter reports on the private rental market, and these are historic low vacancy rates that we’ve got here, but we’re also interested in working with the Rudd Government on a major input by the Federal Government into the private rental market, and we will partner with the Rudd Government to deliver lower-cost private rental units over the next five years as well.

So, we think the combination of the Federal Government initiative and, of course, this massive investment by the State Government will make a difference to the situation for low-income people here in Victoria.

REPORTER:    Is this is the way of the future: redeveloping public housing estates [inaudible]?

WYNNE:    Yeah, I mean, we’ve got a lot of…projects afoot: by the end of the year, we’ll have another significant announcement in Carlton, in the inner city, but we’ve got projects right across Victoria.  A third of our public housing is, in fact, in regional Victoria, so we’re very active in regional Victoria as well, so we’re looking for opportunities for public-private partnerships right across the public housing stock.

REPORTER:    What’s the difference between – you referred to public and social housing – what’s the difference between them?

WYNNE:    The difference is that the social housing is, in fact, managed by housing associations, so we would expect that housing associations will be active in this area; they are not-for-profits, and we think that having the opportunity to mix it up a bit, so we’ve got straight public housing, which will be managed obviously by the Office of Housing, but also having housing associations in there that can lever off the asset and borrow to increase the stock of social housing is a very good outcome for us.

REPORTER:    Has there been a bit of an historical shift in crime: Region Five, the east, south-east and down Gippsland is now the worst region and the northern region only comes in second now.

BRUMBY:    Look, I haven’t seen all of the information to which you’re referring, but what I do know is that the crime rate in Victoria is actually declining.  So you’ll recall the ABS statistics were released just a couple of months ago – they’re prepared nationally – they show that Victoria remains the safest state in Australia in which to live. 

The information released yesterday by the State Opposition, in fact, shows that the crime rate is declining, and it shows that crimes against people and assaults are actually declining.  Our population is growing very rapidly; we’ve got the fastest rate of population growth in the state’s history, faster than the post-war migration boom, faster than the gold rush of the 1850s.  Our population’s increasing at 1.6 per cent-plus.  I think the crimes referred to yesterday were increasing at 1.4 per cent, so the actual crime rate in our state is declining.  And I think the claims made yesterday by the State Opposition: they’re cherry picking out of a document, and they’re scaremongering.

REPORTER:    What do you say assaults are declining, when the figures show they’re up?

BRUMBY:    The crimes against people…are declining; the rate of crime against people is declining.

REPORTER:    What about assaults?

BRUMBY:    The crimes against people – the data I’ve got – are declining.

REPORTER:    Premier, are homebuyers in the [inaudible] estate being ripped off…

BRUMBY:    In the?

REPORTER:    Homebuyers in the Kew Cottages redevelopment, are they being ripped off by changes to their housing [inaudible]?

BRUMBY:    Well, I haven’t…been briefed on that.  I think they’re matters between the private developers.  I was out at Kew Cottages, as you know, a couple of months ago, and the development there, in terms of the support for the residents there, is fantastic; you know, it’s everything we promised, I think, and more.  But part of that development was a private development as well, and people buy those houses in the open market and they’re matters for negotiation between the developers and the purchasers; they’re not matters for government.

REPORTER:    If you buy off the plan, though, isn’t it reasonable that that plan doesn’t change?

BRUMBY:    Well, again, if people, if in any circumstances, whether it’s Kew Cottages or whether it’s anywhere else, if the plan is changed, or the purchaser believes that the plan has changed, they’ve got legal redress; it’s not for me or anybody else to step in there.  There are laws in place, and if purchasers believe that they’re being breached, they should take them up with the appropriate bodies, who would include, I’m sure, Consumer Affairs and others.

REPORTER:    Traders are continuing their campaign against your clearways with a protest today at Parliament.  You’re obviously not getting through to them, despite talking.

BRUMBY:    Well, I think yesterday there was a group of, what, six, seven organisations which – mainstream organisations – representing a whole, you know, hundreds of thousands of Victorians, who expressed their 100 per cent support for these changes.  So, the Public Transport Users Association, Yarra Trams, RACV, VECCI, all of those groups and a number of others are out there saying that these changes are absolutely crucial to improve Melbourne’s future, to keep Melbourne moving.  And whether it’s public transport, or whether it’s cyclists, or whether it’s the interests of motorists generally, these changes are necessary to keep our state moving.

And we’ve set up the consultative committee: Tim Pallas is chairing that; there’s a reference group; he’s taking views from the community.  But…I’ve made it very clear, as Premier, we face some challenges as a state, we’ve got record population growth, and we need to put in place the appropriate policies to manage that.  And one of our challenges is congestion, so we’ve got to make it better for our trams, for our buses, for our bikes and for our cars to move along our streets, and that’s what we’re doing.

So the a.m. changes will be introduced next month; there’s no change in relation to the a.m. changes – they’re necessary.  I’ve said that, in relation to the p.m. changes, I am prepared to tweak those, to look at tweaking those, but that will depend on the advice that comes back from the reference group.

REPORTER:    So those p.m. changes won’t come in next month?

BRUMBY:    No, the a.m. changes will be introduced next month, and Tim Pallas has set up a reference group, as you know, so that reference group is entitled to consult and to put its views to government – they’ll put their views to government – and I think the area of most contention is in the afternoon changes and, to repeat, I’ve said we’re prepared to look at that, to tweak it a little, depending on the advice of the reference group.

REPORTER:    So does that mean the changes to the p.m. won’t be coming in at the same time as the a.m. changes?

BRUMBY:    The a.m. changes will be introduced in August, and the p.m. ones may well be delayed behind that, subject to the report of the reference group.  But I don’t know what the reference group…  The reference group may come in and say, ‘We think that they should…both be introduced together and they should both be without change’, but I don’t know what the reference group will say.  But I’m guessing that they will say that there is an issue with the afternoon times and they would like us to reconsider the afternoon times.

But we’ve not had that view put in relation to the morning changes, the morning changes are pretty well bedded down, and they’ll be introduced next month.

REPORTER:    Just on your interpretation of the crimes against the person: have you taken out domestic violence reporting in your [inaudible] of the figures?

BRUMBY:    No, no…the advice I’ve got and, as I said yesterday, if you look at the assaults, the assaults are primarily driven by alcohol, and that’s alcohol-fuelled violence, and we’ve made it very clear we’re tackling that.  And the increase in those assaults is 1.4 per cent; the population growth is 1.6 per cent.  I understand there’s been an increase in reporting of family violence, but if you look at the aggregate rate of crimes against the person, the aggregate rate of crimes against the person are down, not up – that’s the advice I’ve got.

REPORTER:    Okay, well, the latest police annual report has the spread from 2001 to the last financial year, it’s up 23 per cent over that six years.

BRUMBY:    Well…I don’t know about the long-term data; I thought you were asking about the data released yesterday.

REPORTER:    It’s still up on yesterday’s, as well.

BRUMBY:    Well, the advice I’ve got, just to repeat, the advice I’ve got is that crimes against the person, the rate of crimes against the person, is down.

REPORTER:    Premier, the desal protesters are also heading to the steps of Parliament today to do the lunchtime boogie…

[Laughter]

BRUMBY:    To do a what?

REPORTER:    To do the lunchtime boogie; I think it’s 12.30.  But they want to present you with some sort of mock award.  You’ll be out there, of course, accepting that award?

BRUMBY:    Well…we announced the…  Depends what the award is, Gareth.

REPORTER:    I think it’s called the Dumby Award.

BRUMBY:    Oh, right, okay.

REPORTER:    We announced this project, as you know, over a year ago – it was announced by the former Premier – and we’re busy doing it, and we’re busy implementing it; that’s the right project for the state.