Victoria has been attracting the dismay of its supporters and the glee of its detractors with its poorly performing state coffers, but to say that the axing of Sustainability Victoria is a good thing because it’s done its job is to stretch credulity.
Either that, or it’s providing a giant arrow to the budgets for spin merchants, which are clearly not suffering cuts and are in fact operating at full flight.
The news came at about the same time as the City of Melbourne pulled funding for the National Sustainable Living Festival, which has been operating for 25 years.
What’s going on is the question of the year!
On Thursday last week, Sustainability Victoria chief executive Matt Genever told his social media followers that the government agency he runs was shutting down following the government’s response to a review into the sector.
“Unfortunately, the outcomes of that process will mean that Sustainability Victoria will be wound down as an organisation,” Genever wrote in his statement on social media.
The news comes just as the organisation celebrated its 20th anniversary in October, where it said it had “transformed policy into practice, supported innovation across sectors and delivered programs that reduced emissions and diverted waste from landfill.
“You have all been such tremendous supporters of SV over the last 20 years, and if I could once again ask for that support and that you give the team some time to digest this, that would be immensely appreciated,” Genever said after the announcement of the cut.
“I’m grateful for many things, in particular our recent 20th Anniversary celebration, which in hindsight was a lovely retrospective of our significant and lasting impact.”
“I will never feel anything other than immense pride for the work of SV and its people.”
The Independent Review of the Victorian Public Service, led by Helen Silver, known as the Silver Review, aimed to cut spending on “waste and inefficiencies” and “return the non-frontline public sector to pre-pandemic share of employment.”
The review said it would make recommendations to remove overlapping responsibilities, recognise the role of government, and find opportunities to enhance service delivery and efficiency.
In response to the finding, the government had further cuts in the works, such as “cutting the number of business regulators by half” and added that it will “streamline and further reduce the number of government entities by 29.”
It said it will “merge entities with similar functions, return functions to government departments or wind down entities no longer required.”
The axing of Sustainability Victoria, the government said, was because environmental sustainability and energy efficiency programs had now “been adopted by other Victorian government entities”.
Other abolished entities are:
- Cladding Safety Victoria “at the end of its remit” by December 2025, in rectifying extreme and high-risk buildings
- Victorian Marine and Coastal Council
- Latrobe Health Assembly, “whose functions can now be carried out by Local Public Health Units”
- the Trade and Investment Advisory Board, “which has been superseded by new forums”
- the Police Informants Royal Commission Implementation Monitor
- the Victorian Public Sector Commission Advisory Board
- Further reductions to the number of Victorian Mental Health and Wellbeing Commissioners “to create operational efficiencies”
Further organisations are facing mergers and transfers of power. Alongside the culling of organisations are also job cuts, including reducing executive and similar roles by 332 across the public service, which the review said will save $359 million.
Cuts to senior roles will also save $125 million, and there will be further reductions to consultants and labour hire contracting by 10 per cent, to deliver savings of $113 million.
Despite this, the government has decided to delay by a year its plans to increase its emergency services and volunteers fund levy on residential homes that are “not the principal place of residence” from $133 to $275.
Sustainability takes a further hit in Victoria
More disappointment was in store with the National Sustainable Living Festival politely declaring it will enter a “planning hiatus” in 2026 after 25 years, after its longtime partner, the City of Melbourne, pulled funding support.
The festival organisers said in their letter that they will use this opportunity to “pause to build new relations with partners committed to driving meaningful sustainability actions”.
Over the past years, there have been tens of thousands of people and hundreds of organisations attending the festival.
“We are all facing a time of profound peril—climate emergencies, biodiversity crises, and with this comes the pressing need to reinvent our approach to sustainability so that it can resonate more deeply and effectively,” the organisers said.
– with Tina Perinotto