Inquiry into Management of Defence estate assets

We welcome the announcement from the Department of Defence to divest more than 60 sites across Australia for potential redevelopment—in fact, this is something we publicly advocated for in early 2024 (opens in a new tab).

Many of these listed sites are located in central areas across Australia’s capital cities, representing a significant opportunity for the Commonwealth to inject much-needed housing supply in these markets.

However, we recognise that housing supply is only one of the many competing objectives stakeholders have for the future of these sites. Unfortunately, several of these objectives are in conflict with one another.

The key stakeholder objectives are as follows:

1. Defence land, determined to be no longer fit-for-purpose, should be divested so that limited Government resources can be directed elsewhere.
2. Assets deemed as having heritage value should be maintained in full and in perpetuity.
3. Public land should remain in public hands and utilised for community purposes, such as open space, community facilities, and other public uses.
4. Well-located land should be developed to its maximum market potential, in order to maximise utility and housing supply in a housing crisis.

In the second half of this submission, we propose some high-level principles to best balance these competing interests. We begin by laying out key principles of redevelopment, particularly in the context of heritage controls.