Tuesday, 20 June 2023

Banksia Gardens public housing estate

Kathleen MATTHEWS-WARD (Broadmeadows) (19:08): (224) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Housing, and the action I seek is for the minister to join me on a visit to Banksia Gardens housing estate in Broadmeadows. I am so proud of this government’s investment in social and affordable housing with our landmark $5.3 billion Big Housing Build, which will deliver more than 12,000 homes. In just two years more than 7600 of these homes have been completed or are in construction, and 2000 of those have households living in them or are ready to be tenanted. After 11 years of complete neglect from the federal Liberal government we finally have a Labor federal government who know the importance of making sure everyone has the security and comfort of a roof over their head and a safe place to call home. I was very pleased to be in the room with our Premier, colleagues, comrades and Prime Minister Albanese on the weekend when he announced the $2 billion in funding for social housing to be delivered to states and territories within two weeks to get even more social housing happening quickly.

I am so grateful for the work Minister Brooks is putting in to improve social and public housing in this state. We visited the Broadmeadows housing office together some weeks ago, and he has been very supportive of the local multi-agency Banksia Now working group, which I have been chairing, to address some of the issues on the estate that have been detracting from people’s enjoyment of their homes. I would like to thank the office of housing, Homes Victoria, the office for suburban development, Banksia Gardens Community Services, Victoria Police, Hume City Council, Broadmeadows Central shopping centre, DPV Health, the Department of Justice and Community Safety and Broadmeadows Valley Primary School, who have all come together regularly in the spirit of goodwill and cooperation to work collectively and achieve some positive outcomes for the residents of the estate. We have been able to achieve so much. Residents are feeling heard and responded to. We have had a reduction in dumped rubbish, vandalism and crime, improved lighting and maintenance and increased feelings of safety and community wellbeing. And in exciting news, we have been able to pull together funding to resurface the well-loved futsal pitch, which was damaged during COVID, and upgrade the basketball half court, improve paths and lighting and install a shelter for the community to come together. This well-loved facility was a focal point for youth of the estate to engage in positive recreation and provided a space for Banksia Gardens Community Services to run after-school activities.

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the co-contributors for supporting this important project, with $60,000 from Hume City Council, $15,000 from Banksia Gardens Community Services, $117,000 from Homes Victoria and $107,000 from the office for suburban development. I would also like to thank Minister Spence for her support of place-based projects, an investment that makes a real difference to the lives of communities, and for her support of this work and the wonderful team from OSD, particularly Justin, Jordon and Andrea, who have helped pull everything together. Through the Broadmeadows revitalisation project there has also been other projects at Banksia Gardens, including the establishment of the Common Bean cafe, social enterprises at Kangan TAFE and DPV Health and funding for murals, greening, activation and the community connections project.