Labor MP Martin Pakula backs Apple store plan for Federation Square

A controversial plan to build a flagship Apple store in Federation Square has been strongly endorsed by a key government minister to help rejuvenate the iconic space.

A plan to build a flagship Apple store in Federation Square has been strongly endorsed by a key government minister to help rejuvenate the iconic space.

Martin Pakula, the state government’s new lead minister for jobs, says Federation Square is “in need of regeneration and renewal”.

“I’m not saying the Apple flagship store is the panacea to all ills, but I think it’s an important part of the puzzle and I’m a supporter of it,” he told the Sunday Herald Sun.

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“It is a very important opportunity for Victoria.”

A year since plans for the store — which would be Apple’s first flagship site in the Southern Hemisphere — were unveiled, it remains a complex issue for the Andrews Government.

Construction has been pushed back until 2020 after Heritage Victoria recommended Federation Square be added to the state’s heritage register.

An artist’s impression of the new flagship Apple store proposed for Federation Square.

Submissions from the public on the issue closed this week as the Heritage Council neared a decision on whether to formally protect the square.

Mr Pakula said he was “not deaf” to opponents of the Apple store, but warned the tech giant could look elsewhere if the Federation Square option did not work out.

He said it was time to consider ways to improve the square, suggesting it had not been “operating brilliantly and uncontroversially” since it opened. “If people are taking the view that what’s there is now somehow an untouchable and beautiful part of Melbourne’s tradition and history … I think that might be a view people have come to pretty late,” Mr Pakula said.

Former ministers John Eren and Philip Dalidakis were key backers of the Apple store in Premier Daniel Andrews’ Cabinet before losing their spots in a reshuffle last month, in which Mr Pakula took over their portfolios, including innovation and tourism.

Opposition planning and heritage spokesman Tim Smith said Federation Square “isn’t perfect but it’s an important public space in our city”.

“If any Apple store is built let’s make sure it’s sympathetic to the river and the architecture of the square, and doesn’t resemble a Pizza Hut like the original design did,” he said.