Greens reveal housing policy for the City of Melbourne

The Greens are pushing for an “abundance of affordable homes” in the City of Melbourne as the central policy initiative of its election campaign for Town Hall. 

A “fairer, greener Melbourne” is the message the Greens are urging Melburnians to get behind as the party pledges to do everything it can to shift the needle on providing desperately needed affordable homes in the city. 

Launching their campaign in Carlton on August 18, the Greens’ 2024 bid for Melbourne will be led by Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor candidates, North Melbourne resident Roxane Ingleton and CBD resident and mental health peer support worker Marley McRae McLeod. 

While the City of Melbourne’s electoral gerrymander, where businesses are given two votes to residents’ one, makes it near impossible for a Greens Lord Mayor to be elected, the party has historically contributed two councillors to Town Hall.

As previously reported by Inner City News, the number one and two spots on the Greens’ councillor ticket will be taken by current Cr Dr Olivia Ball, and newcomer West Melbourne resident Karl Hessian. 

Current Cr Rohan Leppert, who has served three consecutive terms over 12 years at the City of Melbourne for the Greens, won’t be recontesting at the elections in October. 

Speaking at the party’s campaign launch, Roxane Ingleton, a registered midwife at the Royal Women’s Hospital, said she was running for Lord Mayor because she believed in a more “affordable, sustainable and healthy city”. 

Having lived and worked in Melbourne for much of her life, she said she was passionate about creating connected communities and “fighting for compassionate treatment of the most vulnerable among us”. 

“I live and breathe Melbourne,” Ms Ingleton said. “My work sees me interacting with and caring for our local community members from all walks of life, often during the most sensitive and transformative time of their lives.” 

She added that much of her work was about “championing fairness and equality, both in the workplace among my colleagues, in our health system and in our broader communities”. 

Speaking with Inner City News ahead of the party’s campaign launch, she said the issue of housing went to heart of this message, and that the Greens were the only team with a plan to do something about it in Melbourne. 

With opportunities for a greater number of affordable homes in urban renewal areas like Arden, Ms Ingleton said the Greens would continue pressuring the government to go harder. 

“The pandemic, recession and ongoing cost of living crisis has exposed unreliable, insecure work as well as soaring housing prices across the city. I know what it means to be an essential worker that struggles to affordably live near my work,” she said. 

“Rental affordability and housing diversity are in a dire state. We need abundant housing supply, and we need to do it well. We need quality and affordable homes to support healthy communities, and we need our services, infrastructure and green open space to keep pace with growth.”

“As Lord Mayor I will fight for quality, energy efficient affordable housing close to where people work. The plan I announce today will build a more affordable and more sustainable city.”

Sharing its housing policy exclusively with Inner City News, the Greens plan to:

• Meet and beat the Victorian Government’s draft Housing Target for the City of Melbourne through a municipal planning strategy.
• Expand Homes Melbourne to build 300 new below market rental homes for key workers on Council-controlled land in the next term of council and manage private affordable housing contributions.
• Advocate fiercely for inclusionary zoning, including mandatory 30 per cent affordable homes in urban renewal areas.
• Hold the state to account in its promise for affordable homes in Arden, an obvious location for new higher density public housing.
• Position Power Melbourne 2.0 to offer affordable renewable energy for residents, whether owners or renters, at scale.
• Retain the Victorian-best pensioner rates concession and Victorian-best rates hardship policy.

Joining Cr Dr Olivia Ball and Karl Hessian on the Greens councillor ticket at the number three and four spots, respectively, are Parkville resident and allied health work Aaron Moon, and North Melbourne public housing resident and youth leader Barry Berih. •