New laws to protect Vic heritage buildings

The Victorian government will introduce legislation to parliament that could stop the development of land where a heritage building has been unlawfully demolished.

The new provisions under the Planning and Environment Act 1987 will cover buildings that have been unlawfully demolished in whole or in part, or left to fall into disrepair.

It will also enable the government to revoke permits and allow for new ones to be issued for specific purposes, such as building a park or reconstructing or repairing the heritage building.

"These new laws remove the financial incentive to illegally demolish, by stopping development on the land for up to 10 years," Planning Minister Richard Wynne said on Tuesday.

"Fines shouldn't just be the cost of doing business. Preventing those who illegally demolish our heritage from redeveloping means they can no longer reap windfall gains from selling or rebuilding on their land."

He said the legislation complemented measures the government introduced in 2017, which made it an indictable offence for a builder or person managing building work to knowingly carry out works without a permit or in contravention of the Building Act, the regulations or their permit.

The reforms were in part prompted by the demolition of the 160-year-old Corkman Pub in Carlton in 2016.

The pub, which was formerly known as the Carlton Inn Hotel, was built in 1858 and had a heritage overlay when it was knocked down over a weekend.

The owners Stefce Kutlesovski and Raman Shaqiri were issued with a stop-work order part way through demolition works but continued anyway.

The duo and their company 160 Leicester Pty Ltd were ordered in 2019 to clear the site and make it available for public recreation.

But they failed to comply with the order and were sentenced in December to 30 days' jail, and ordered to pay $400,000 in legal costs and fines for ignoring the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal ruling.

The developers were also ordered to pay $1.076 million in fines and costs for their illegal conduct in knocking down the pub.

They are currently appealing the contempt of court conviction and sentence.

While the legislation, if passed, cannot be applied retrospectively, Mr Wynne confirmed VCAT on Monday re-established its position that the developers must turn the site into a park by April 30.

"My message to the Corkman developers is get on your bike and start building the park now," he said.

Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien said the government had assured the public they would force developers to rebuild the Corkman.

"What happened to that promise?" he said.

"This bill may well be useful, but it's not rebuilding the Corkman Pub, which is what Daniel Andrews promised would happen."