Labor backflips on sale of historic defence sites including Sydney’s Victoria Barracks

The Albanese government has abandoned plans to sell four heritage-listed defence sites following months of intense public and political pressure. The sites, which include Victoria Barracks in Sydney and Melbourne, Fort Queenscliff, and RAAF Base Point Cook, will remain in public hands and be preserved for community use once vacated by defence personnel.

According to The Guardian, an independent audit had previously identified these four locations, along with 63 other properties across the country, as being underutilised, costly to maintain, and not fit for purpose. The original plan to sell the sites aimed to recoup $3 billion for the federal budget.

The decision to halt the sales came after opposition from veterans, high-profile politicians including former prime ministers John Howard and Paul Keating, and the campaign group Save Victoria Barracks Sydney. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald both reported that Labor bowed to this pressure to abandon the sale of the historic Victoria Barracks and other defence estates.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian Australia, The Guardian — 4 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.