A CLASS action brought by residents of public housing towers in Melbourne slated for demolition by the Victorian government is in limbo, after a judge adjourned the case until 2025.
AAP reported that the Supreme Court trial, which began on Monday, was adjourned over the matter of the production of secret documents.
The government has been pushing ahead with plans to redevelop 44 public housing towers as part of a controversial program it bills as Australia’s “largest-ever renewal project”. The class action has been brought by residents of towers in North Melbourne and Flemington.
The then-Daniel Andrews-led government announced last ago as part of its Housing Statement it would replace the housing estates that are home to around 10,000 people with new towers that would ultimately be home to 30,000 residents. Of this, 11,000 would be public tenants, and the balance to be a mixture of social and market housing.
The class action is broadly based on the government failing to consider the human rights of the tower residents when making the decision to demolish the towers.
Lawyers for Homes Victoria yesterday told the court that some of the requested documents as to how the decision came to fruition – namely under the guidance of technical reports – fell under cabinet privilege and did not need to be released, the AAP reported. Justice Melinda Richards said another judge would need to make that decision at a later date, and that she had initially expected a decision on the case by the end of the year.
The Supreme Court heard last months that Homes Victoria could not produce any documents detailing the decision to demolish the towers.
The government has said the existing towers are reaching the end of their useful lives and are “no longer meeting modern standards of living”, and that it would cost at least $2.3 billion over 20 years “just to keep them in a habitable condition”.
A report released this month by not-for-profit architecture and research firm OFFICE estimated that the government could save hundreds of millions of dollars by refurbishing and expanding existing towers, rather than completely demolishing and rebuilding them to modern standards.
The Victorian Supreme Court had thrown out an initial class action in May.
