Tuesday, 30 May 2023

Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee

Report on the Statute Law Amendment Bill 2022

Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (11:36): I rise to again make a contribution on committee reports. I have previously spoken on Integrity and Oversight Committee reports, so today I want to in particular focus on the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee’s Report on the Statute Law Amendment Bill 2022 but will also cover off some more points on these integrity reports. I would just like to begin by outlining the importance of the work done by the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee, which plays such an important role in our democracy in ensuring that Victorian legislation complies with the rights and freedoms that we all enjoy in Victoria.

As raised previously by the member for Sandringham, the government brought forth the bill while the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee were still reviewing and inquiring into the bill. Conventionally it is the case that parliamentary counsel appears before the committee and certifies that there is nothing irregular with the bill that would encroach upon rights or freedoms in the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities and other matters. While the subject matter within the bill – now an act, having gone through both houses and been given royal assent on 9 May – is largely administrative, making minor and technical amendments to a number of acts, and parliamentary counsel did indeed provide a certificate to the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee on the bill before it was considered, it is nevertheless interesting how the bill was brought forth for debate without the full scrutiny of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee. I do not want to make a mountain out of a molehill, but it seems important to me that this now act, in its bill stage, should have been fully scrutinised before it was put forth to Parliament to ensure that our rights are protected.

On rights, cutting across to the integrity reports, I must also note that the 2023–24 Victorian budget last week revealed funding cuts to the Parliamentary Budget Office, the Auditor-General, the Victorian Inspectorate and the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner, showing a government hell-bent on starving independent integrity agencies of proper funding – independent agencies that have been a thorn in the Premier’s side for years.

Delving deeper into this report on the Statute Law Amendment Bill, indeed the now Statute Law Amendment Act makes minor amendments to the Housing Act 1983. On this point, I want to reflect on the housing crisis in my electorate of Mornington and across Victoria as it relates to the Housing Act. The committee made a number of recommendations for amendments to the Housing Act 1983, listed in items 3.1 and 3.4 of schedule 1 of the Statute Law Amendment Bill. They were administrative – minor revisions and amendment recommendations – but important nevertheless. More broadly, the Housing Act talks about issues and changes in terms of Homes Victoria and about creating housing stock.

On the Housing Act, public housing and homelessness are a major issue in my electorate of Mornington and on the peninsula. Since the Premier first formed government over eight years ago, the number of public housing homes available on the Mornington Peninsula has actually gone backwards, with a net change of minus 13, with homes sitting vacant or being sold. To top that off, this Labor government are now planning to increase land tax for 860,000 Victorians, including many mum-and-dad investors. These increasing costs will undoubtedly be passed through to renters, so it is effectively a renters tax. Alternatively, many mums and dads already dealing with mortgages and many other costs may be forced to sell their rentals. Once they do so there is no guarantee these properties will stay as rentals, so we may have reduced rental stock, thus further putting pressure on renters. And a rental cap or freeze will not resolve this. This will push mum-and-dad investors even more into a position of having to sell, given all the costs they are already dealing with and the sacrifices they have made in the past – for example, through COVID-19 – in reducing rents for their tenants.

Recently, I also joined many locals at the Peninsula Voice forum in my electorate to discuss in particular ideas to resolve the ever-growing issues of housing and homelessness in Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula. It was great to see so many locals volunteering to come together to work on solutions using their experiences and ideas. There are up to 2000 people on the peninsula experiencing homelessness and over 27,000 empty or under-utilised homes, so one of the ideas I have been pushing for for years is a program to match those who can offer a home or a room with those who need one, with support for the person or family from local agencies, giving people some stable accommodation.