After declaring 310 St Kilda Rd 'not surplus' in February 2022 the Security & Estate Group (SEG) of the Department of Defence had to engage a consultant to give them ideas on how to use 310 St Kilda Rd... remembering that to not be surplus a property must "demonstrably contribute to government service delivery outcomes". [CPDP 7.a.]

While the above is a confusing contradiction, SEG has concluded that meeting rooms are, in fact, the best value for money (VFM) use of the property.

We note the VFM criteria make it difficult to justify as meeting rooms as follows:

a. retention will result in material financial benefit, (comment: see b. below)
b. the function which the property supports could not be performed elsewhere at a lower cost without impacting negatively on service delivery, (comment: there are many meeting rooms in Victoria Barracks under-utilised. If these did achieve a material utilisation rate warranting more meeting rooms, they could be sourced more cheaply in Melbourne than the cost to update, operate and maintain 310 St Kilda Rd)
c. the land is of low value with limited alternative use and/or high disposal costs due to its characteristics, such as contamination, (comment: it is clear that there is an alternative use that would deliver a high value to the community, especially the veteran community.)
d. the protection of land values (such as for national parks) would make it unsuitable for divestment, (comment: financial land value is irrelevant. Emotional/spirital land (place) value to the veteran community is very high).

If you would like to take more direct action please write to:

Hon Richard Marles MP,

Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Defence

Australian Parliament House

Richard.marles.mp@aph.gov.au