By Lisa Visentin and Mary Ward
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has attacked as a “fire sale” any moves by the federal government to offload prime real estate used by Defence in order to fund new military equipment and upgrades to crucial bases.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not rule out future plans to sell Defence property after this masthead revealed the department’s 3 million-hectare realestate portfolio was being scoured for possible sales.
Victoria Barracks, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, is one of the Defence sites that was scrutinised by the audit review.
“We are operating very clearly in accordance with the Defence review that took place. When we have surplus land, of course, from time to time, that will be dealt with, in order to build housing, as one of the things that we need to do with public land in general, whether it’s Commonwealth or state land,” he said.
Defence’s real estate holdings consist of about 700 owned and leased properties, including military bases, barracks, wharves, ports, airbases and training ranges, and could fetch as much as $68 billion if sold to property developers for residential or commercial use.
But Dutton made clear the Coalition would not support any moves by the federal government to cash in Defence property assets, labelling it “utterly unacceptable” and accusing Labor of “closing down and trashing the history of the Australian Defence Force”.
“I want to make it very clear to the prime minister: we will not support his fire sale of Defence assets because that’s where our soldiers and our sailors, all of those Defence Force personnel, all of the navy personnel at those establishments, that’s where they work,” Dutton said.
“We’ve got a situation now where the government is trying to patch up, obviously, a black hole that they’ve got in their budget … selling off assets and historic buildings within the Defence Estate portfolio is not something that can be supported.”
The government received a sweeping independent audit of the entire Defence Estate at the end of December and is preparing to respond by the middle of the year, with significant announcements expected. The auditors – former Defence Housing Australia managing director Jan Mason and Infrastructure Victoria Board chair Jim Millar – were asked to focus on whether Defence’s real estate holdings in high-density urban areas were in line with current military needs.
During the four-month audit, the reviewers visited 70 sites across the country including airfields, maintenance facilities, research laboratories, warehouses, training establishments, reserve and cadet depots, and working accommodation. Among the most potentially lucrative sites in Defence’s property portfolio are historic properties in prime locations, such as the Victoria Barracks in each of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as the Garden Island Naval Precinct in Sydney Harbour.
A spokesperson for Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government would take its time to consider the audit’s findings, but added: “The Coalition is once again opposed to something they haven’t even seen the detail of yet.
“As the deputy prime minister has said, in our current strategic circumstances, it is more important than ever to ensure the Defence Estate remains aligned with our operational and capability priorities, now and in the future,” the spokesperson said.
Last year, NSW Premier Chris Minns ordered his ministers to audit department land holdings, seeking vacant blocks suitable to rezone for housing. The audit has not been finalised.
However, in a budget estimates hearing in November, senior NSW education bureaucrats revealed their department had identified more than 300 hectares of “surplus” land holdings.
A spokesperson for Minns said that while Defence decisions were ultimately a matter for the federal government, NSW supported the move to assess whether land in Sydney could be better used, particularly for social and affordable housing.
“NSW is in a housing crisis and any action taken by any level of government is welcome,” they said.
With Matthew Knott
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