Albanese scraps Victoria Barracks sale after backlash that united Howard, the Greens and One Nation

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has abandoned the planned sale of Victoria Barracks in Sydney’s Paddington, one of the country’s oldest military sites, after opposition that stretched from a former Liberal prime minister to the Greens.

“Victoria Barracks Sydney has a special place in our nation’s history — and we will be keeping it in public hands,” Mr Albanese said on Sunday morning.

The barracks will not be handed back to Defence. It will move from the Defence Department to the Department of Finance along with three other heritage properties: Victoria Barracks in Melbourne, Fort Queenscliff near Geelong and Point Cook, home of RAAF Williams, in Melbourne’s south-west. The Prime Minister said the change would open Defence’s historic sites and buildings to the public and help the country commemorate its history.

Why was it up for sale?

Victoria Barracks Sydney was one of 67 Defence properties slated for sale after an independent audit of the Defence estate in February 2026. The government’s case was that money tied up in old buildings and land should go to military capability instead.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Sunday that personnel would still move off the properties, that Defence sites needed to be fit for purpose, and that Defence could not afford to waste money it should be spending on capability. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher said the heritage of each site was protected by law and that keeping them in public ownership would preserve them for future generations.

Who forced the backdown?

The opposition was unusually broad. The Coalition, the Greens, teal independents and One Nation all condemned the plan. Former prime minister John Howard joined a protest against the sale and accused the government of “indifference to our proud national and military history”.

The Opposition is not treating Sunday’s decision as the end of it. Defence spokesman James Paterson said the reversal was only the beginning and that the Coalition would keep fighting to save other sites on the list, including HMAS Penguin in Sydney, Lancer Barracks in Parramatta and Irwin Barracks in Perth.

The pressure came from the government’s own side too: the NSW Labor government had urged Canberra to drop the proposal. The City of Sydney had already set public ownership and public access as guiding principles in a community vision for the site endorsed in November 2025.

What is at stake?

The heritage-listed barracks, on Oxford Street in Paddington, dates from the 1840s and has been an Army base ever since. It is a rare large block of public land a few kilometres from the Sydney CBD, which is why the prospect of a sale alarmed residents, heritage groups and veterans.

Moving the site to Finance does not settle its future use. It removes the immediate prospect of a private buyer, and the government says it will look at ways to increase public access and at commercial opportunities at each of the four sites. Mr Albanese said any commercial proposal would have to comply with the heritage protections on each site. The government has not yet said how much of the barracks will be opened, or what it will cost to maintain heritage buildings without the Army as tenant.

Does the rest of the sell-off go ahead?

That is the bigger question for the budget. In its Defence estate update on Sunday, the government made two smaller changes: the angophora forest at HMAS Penguin in Mosman goes to the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, and part of the Stokes Hill Installation in Darwin returns to the Larrakia people. It named no other site coming off the 67-property list.

For communities near other bases on the list, from regional towns to city fringes, and for Perth, where Irwin Barracks in Karrakatta is among the sites the Coalition wants saved, that means their sites stay on the list for now. The Coalition says it will keep fighting for them.

VNN will report any further change to the list.