State defies inquiry over secrecy of $12 billion public tower knock-down plan

Redeveloping the state’s public housing towers will cost at least $12 billion, it has been revealed, as the government digs its heels in over a refusal to hand over 146 secret cabinet documents backing the project.

In its official response to a parliamentary inquiry into the high-rise plan, tabled on Tuesday, the government confirmed it will push ahead with plans to systematically raze all 44 of Melbourne’s inner-city public housing towers by 2051 – flatly rejecting the inquiry’s recommendation to immediately halt its controversial 25-year demolition program until it brandishes the feasibility plans for it.

To back its “demolish-only” rationale, the Allan government also published a backlog of internal technical assessments by firms like MGS Architects, Arup, and Approval Systems. The reports reveal that a deep architectural retrofit would trigger state building regulation 233, legally requiring the 1960s-era towers to be retrospectively upgraded to modern codes, which the companies say is practically impossible.

It comes after the true cost of the mammoth project was revealed in a recent public accounts and estimates committee hearing, in which Homes Victoria chief executive Simon Newport estimated the cost of the entire 44 tower knock-down-rebuild plan would be about $12-$13 billion over 30 years.

For nearly three years, the government has justified the universal demolition approach by claiming it would cost $2.3 billion over 20 years just to maintain the ageing concrete towers.

In December, the non-government controlled Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee delivered a scathing final report, which called for the immediate halt to the demolition program until the Allan government handed over key evidence justifying the multibillion-dollar project.

The report accused the Allan government of ignoring parliamentary rules to hide the key documents and found the refusal to produce them meant it was impossible to verify if demolition, followed by a rebuild, was the most cost-effective option instead of infill and refurbishment.

Greens housing spokeswoman Gabrielle de Vietri said the response to the inquiry was “arrogant and utterly disrespectful from Labor.

“They are charging ahead with a project that has no support from experts or the community, no justification and no public benefit.”

The opposition has also long called for the release of the confidential documents.

Late last month tenants won the right to take their fight against the demolition plan to the High Court in Canberra later this year, after the court agreed to hear a r