Hawthorn’s free electrification expo drew its biggest crowd yet last weekend, as households sought advice on cutting energy costs.

Held at the Hawthorn Arts Centre on Sunday, the event connected residents with installers and experts on solar panels, home batteries and heat pumps.

With the state election in November, Labor, the Coalition and One Nation are offering very different answers on gas, rebates and who pays.

The forum offered a key opportunity for locals to ask questions about the options currently available to them – and what could change in the future.

A joint effort between not-for-profit community group Electrify Boroondara and Boroondara City Council, the Electrify Your Life Expo launched in 2023, attracting more than 1,200 people. In 2025, the attendance figures exceeded 2,000 people.

Electrify Boroondara deputy chair Russell Williams said the growth of the numbers over the years was a sign of the increasing popularity of electrification.

“Years ago, people were asking what it was and now they're mostly asking how to do it,” he told the Eastern Melburnian. “Instead of the what and why, it's more about how and who can help me.”

Electrification is top of mind for Victorians. Introduced in 2022, the state government’s Gas Substitution Roadmap will require new homes to be all-electric from January 1 2027.

The Victorian Liberals have promised to abandon the requirement for households to replace broken gas hot water systems with an electric alternative.

The Coalition’s spokesperson on energy and emissions reduction, David Davis, has previously publicly attacked the Victorian Energy Upgrades program as driving up energy bills.

An assessment of the program’s achievements between 2021 and 2024 found participating households saved an average of $110 on their energy bills.

One Nation has also committed to reverse restrictions on gas connections in new homes, but has not detailed its position on existing gas systems.

In its 64-page “Real Deal” policy booklet, One Nation Victoria said it would abandon all Net Zero targets and subsidies, instead basing energy policy on price, reliability and what is best for Victorian families and industry”.

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The state government has given the green light to up to 1,100 new homes on a former Oakleigh South quarry and landfill, but with a public open space contribution of just 2.71 percent, well below Monash Council’s 7.61 percent minimum.

The site, a former quarry and landfill at 1221-1249 Centre Road, spreads over almost 19 hectares.

The approved amendment outlines the project would have to make a public open space contribution of 2.71 percent, significantly lower than Monash Council’s minimum of 7.61 percent.

Site developer Sterling Global’s plans include 2.87 hectares of public open space, including parks, a wetland reserve and a village square.

In a statement to the Eastern Melburnian, Sterling Global CEO Neil Li said both geotechnical and environmental investigations had been underway since the company acquired the site, adding that under findings from environmental audit, no site remediation was required. Li said the next stage of the project would be ground improvement across the site.

The Eastern Melburnian reached out to Sterling Global to address questions concerning the open space contributions, but the developers refused to comment further.

Developers must contribute a certain amount of land or pay a percentage of its value towards public open space when subdividing land for housing.

Developers can contribute land, money or a combination of both, with council policy favouring cash contributions in most circumstances.

How’d we get here? Sterling Global initially proposed making no public open space contribution.

Monash Council argued this would give the site a privilege other developments did not have.

Monash Council mayor Stuart James said the contribution should be restored to the standard 7.61 percent rate.

“Reducing the contribution … means less funding is available to help meet the open space needs generated by the development, increasing pressure on existing parks and shifting the cost onto the wider community,” he told the Eastern Melburnian.

A spokesperson for the state government said the development would include an “extensive network of publicly accessible open space, including local parks and a Village Square”.

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Knox Council has pushed for the state government to improve the standards of Victoria’s rooming houses, but its mayor says they have received no reply to the nine letters sent out so far asking for help.

Rooming houses offer private rooms but shared living spaces, often to people on low incomes.

The eastern suburbs host close to a quarter of Victoria’s 2,055 registered rooming houses, with Monash topping the list at 303 properties.

According to the latest Victorian Housing Register figures, 40,857 households were on the priority social housing waitlist.

Victoria continues to have the lowest proportion of social housing compared to other states and territories – at about 88,000 long-term social housing units or about three percent of the state’s housing.

Community Housing Industry Association Victoria (CHIA Vic) chief executive Sarah Toohey said the industry had experienced a rapid expansion of for-profit rooming house providers.

“The dire state of the private rental market, the sheer cost of renting a home and the challenges of finding an available and affordable home is driving people into a very poorly regulated and often risky housing situation,” she told the Eastern Melburnian.

In January, Knox councillors passed a motion to advocate to the State Government for improved standards, including that planning permits be required for all rooming houses under planning rules.

Current rules only require a rooming house provider to submit a planning permit if they intend to operate a home with more than nine rooms.

Knox Council mayor Paige Kennett said the council had written nine letters to various MPs and ministers, advocating for the state government for a range of actions, including stronger protections for residents and more funding to monitor conditions more closely. The council said it “has not received a substantive response” yet.

After meeting with the mayor and council staff in April, Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny directed them to seek reforms through other ministers.

As part of the 2026/27 state budget, the Victorian Labor government committed $860 million over the next five years towards the Social Housing Growth Fund, which aims to deliver more than 7,000 new social homes over the next decade.

A state government spokesperson said the government is working with local councils and social housing providers to deliver more and better housing opportunities, with “further protections soon to come into effect that will require rooming house operators to keep records showing that their properties meet the minimum standards”.

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Question 1: Which suburb hosted the Whitehorse Hotel (not the White Horse Hotel), which became a popular venue for rockers like Billy Thorpe?

Question 2: • Which two railway stations on the Lilydale line were permanently closed and demolished to make way for Union station?

Question 3: In which year did the Box Hill and Nunawading councils merge to create the new Whitehorse City Council?

Question 4: Which Kmart in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs opened in 1969 as the first store open 24 hours?

Question 5: Which famous restaurant in Ferntree Gully was destroyed by fire in May 1991?