Victorian Greens vow to stop new Apple store at Melbourne's Federation Square

The Victorian Greens are determined to stop a controversial plan to demolish part of Melbourne's Federation Square to make way for a new Apple store.

An artist's impression of the new store

An artist's impression of the new store Source: Victorian government

The Victorian Greens are planning to stop a controversial plan to demolish part of Melbourne's Federation Square to make way for a new Apple store.

Greens MP for Melbourne Ellen Sandell says the party will speak with the Liberal Party and crossbench MPs about their interest in taking steps to block the project in parliament.

"There are tools available to us, to potentially disallow that planning scheme amendment in the upper house," Ms Sandell told AAP on Thursday.
She says the push follows the City of Melbourne developing a motion essentially asking the state government to "go back to the drawing board" with the store, which she expects most councillors to support.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy believes the current proposal is "an abomination", but says the Liberals will wait to see what the Greens put forward in parliament before deciding whether to offer support.

Premier Daniel Andrews is standing firmly by the plan, despite more than 50,000 people signing a petition to prevent it.

Mr Andrews says the government has been in discussions with the City of Melbourne about finding "common ground" and is open to some design changes.

"If we can have an outcome that more people can support, well that would be a great thing" he told reporters on Thursday.

Ms Sandell says the Greens are "agnostic" about a CBD site for the Apple store, but believes most commercial centres would work well.

"It's having it in Fed Square, which is supposed to be a community, public space, that's the issue," she said.

Plans for the flagship store were revealed by the state government late in December, and will require the Yarra Building at Federation Square to be demolished.

The Koorie Heritage Trust, which the building currently houses, will be moved to the Alfred Deakin Building, ahead of expected construction on the store starting early in 2019.


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