Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Matters of public importance

Housing crisis

The SPEAKER (16:01): I have accepted a statement from the member for Bundoora proposing the following matter of public importance for discussion:

That this house notes the action the Andrews Labor government is taking in response to the national housing crisis, including:

(1) the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build;

(2) the $1 billion Regional Housing Fund;

(3) the affordable housing rental scheme;

(4) investments in critical homelessness services; and

(5) working with the Commonwealth government to deliver more housing for Victorians.

Colin BROOKS (Bundoora – Minister for Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (16:01): It is a privilege to be able to lodge this matter of public importance today for debate in this house and to be able to listen to the contributions of members on both sides of the house. But I am particularly looking forward to hearing my colleagues on the government benches contribute to this after the last MPI, which was on a housing motion put forward by the Greens, who are not in the house at the moment in this discussion of housing issues. Members of the government spoke very passionately about their support for social housing. The Greens will roll in at some point and show some interest in housing issues more generally, I am sure.

At the outset, I want to indicate that our government acknowledges the housing pressures right across the country and indeed here in Victoria. Every member of Parliament understands the significant pressures that people are under. Whether they are paying off a mortgage – we have seen interest rates go up, and the average mortgage in Victoria is around $600,000. If you put that into a home loan calculator, it spits out just under $3700 in monthly payments, so that is a significant whack for household budgets on average. Of course many people will be paying more than that. Rents are up. We know that rents in Melbourne are well up over $500 a week, and in regional Victoria just under $500 a week – in the high 400s. That is a significant impact in terms of rentals as well. Vacancy rates are extremely low – under 1 per cent in Melbourne and around the 2 per cent mark in regional Victoria. So these are really difficult times for people trying to get into the market, whether it be to purchase a home, to pay off a home, to get into the rental market or to continue renting with rents going up.

That means that people move on to the social housing waitlist, and we have got around 67,000 people on the March figures in terms of people who are on our general housing waitlist. That translates to about 37,000 people on our priority waitlist. These are the people who are most in need of housing. For those new priority applications, if you exclude transfer applications – people already in priority applications – that previous figure was just over 31,000. I have indicated to the house before that the June figures will show a slight drop in the housing waitlist figures, but that is in no way an indication that we think that that will be a long-term trend at this point in time. We know that there is significant pressure on the social housing sector and that more people will need support with social housing as we go forward.

The end result of pressure on the housing system like that, unfortunately, is that we see more pressure further down the housing continuum, in the homelessness sector, and the desperate impact that has on so many people’s lives. We know that this is a serious challenge, and that is why we are spending around $300 million every year to support 130 organisations across the state who provide homelessness services to people who really need it. Since 2020 we have invested $167 million to support the Housing First approach, From Homelessness to a Home, and $66 million for Homes for Families. That means we have supported directly, with housing and support wrapped around people, 1900 adults and around 700 children. That is an Australian first, as a program of its scale, and one that we are absolutely committed to continuing to support.

The most recent budget included $134 million to increase access to housing and homelessness services over the next four years. $67.6 million will be provided over four years to continue delivering that Housing First response and, importantly, to provide some multidisciplinary supported accommodation housing facilities for people who cannot support themselves in their own tenancy or in social housing and need some support to maintain that tenancy. We know that there are many people on our housing waitlists who have more complex needs, and it is important to be able to support them with these sorts of facilities. They will be at Seddon and Make Room in the Melbourne CBD – and I want to acknowledge the great work of the Melbourne City Council. The Lord Mayor there is a passionate supporter of the work that is being done in homelessness and is partnering with government to provide solutions to homelessness in the Melbourne CBD. Also they will be in St Kilda and at two regional facilities that we will determine as well – importantly, in regional Victoria.

There will be $40.5 million provided across four years to continue programs for people who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of homelessness. There is the H3 Alliance to address homelessness in the expanding Wyndham growth corridor by increasing access to housing supply, outreach services and transitional, legal and health support services; the Corrections Victoria housing pathways initiative, which provides housing pathways for people exiting prison so that they do not fall into homelessness, increasing their risk of reoffending; and the congregate crisis supported accommodation program – this is about onsite delivery of essential health and addiction services at congregate crisis accommodation facilities at Ozanam House, at Southbank and at the Open Door.

I just want to give a shout-out to the people who work in our homelessness sector. I think many members of Parliament will have at various times engaged with people in their electorate who work in the homelessness sector, and they are fantastic people, committed to helping some of the most vulnerable people in our community. I know that the member for Footscray is a strong supporter of the McAuley and the work they do in the western suburbs and the west of Victoria. There is the Carolyn Chisholm Society and the four congregate housing facilities of McAuley House. There is Ballarat, Marrageil Baggarrook, Audrey Rainsford and also Viv’s Place, which I had the pleasure of visiting last week with the member for Dandenong – a great facility in terms of supporting women and children fleeing family violence.

Of course there are youth-specific homelessness support services delivered through really exciting initiatives like Village 21 at Preston, which is managed by Anglicare – they do great work in supporting kids coming out of out-of-home care; Holmesglen’s Education First Youth Foyer; the Kids Under Cover studio program; and the Homeless Youth Dual Diagnosis Initiative program. I just want to give a shout-out at this point in time also to the work that is being done with the Salvation Army’s Magpie Nest Housing program – a great crew there with Brendan Nottle and a range of other people that are involved. There is the Hope Street first response youth service; Frankston Zero – I know the member for Frankston is a big supporter of that program; the great work that is undertaken down at the Sacred Heart Mission; and the Outpost in Geelong, which the member for Geelong has spoken to me about. These all come together to work to support people experiencing homelessness.

But of course while the answer to homelessness is around supports for those people, it is also about providing more homes. We know we need to provide a lot more social housing stock so that people who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of homelessness have got a home to move into. That is exactly what we are delivering under the Big Housing Build and it is why the matter that I have put in front of the house, the matter of public importance, talks about the Big Housing Build. $5.3 billion is a lot of money, and we are investing that money right across the state to deliver more than 12,000 social and affordable homes right across Victoria. There is $1.25 billion being spent in regional Victoria to make sure that that money is spread right across the state. We know that it needs to be delivered through a range of different delivery channels. At the moment we are delivering small-scale developments on former social housing land and public housing land that is owned by Homes Victoria. We are delivering projects on other government department sites – larger projects; partnering with the community housing sector; investing directly in public housing; and maintaining our public housing properties through the great work of the people who work in our housing offices and in our maintenance teams. So there are a range of different ways we are delivering the Big Housing Build to the Victorians who rely on social housing and will rely on the investment that we are putting in.

It is important to recognise that with that investment across the state that I talked about we guaranteed certain areas where there would be a minimum investment, and in many areas we are already exceeding that. For example, in Ballarat the minimum investment guarantee as part of the Big Housing Build was $80 million and we have already invested $119 million in developing more homes in Ballarat. In Baw Baw the investment minimum guarantee was $35 million and we are already investing $39 million. In Bendigo – Speaker, I know you are passionate about housing in Bendigo; we met about that just the other day – $85 million was the guarantee and we have already invested $110 million in Greater Bendigo. In Greater Geelong there was a minimum investment guarantee of $180 million and we are already up to $191 million. The list goes on. Horsham was $15 million and we are investing $23 million. Latrobe was $60 million and we are investing $66 million. Moorabool was $20 million and we are investing $22 million. Swan Hill was $15 million and we are investing $34 million. Wangaratta was $20 million and we are investing $57 million. Warrnambool, Wodonga – the list goes on. We are making important investments in social housing right across the state.

In metropolitan Melbourne, in Merri-bek we have got 765 dwellings underway with 103 completed already; in Wyndham, 192 underway and 144 completed already; Brimbank, 202 underway, 77 already completed; Whittlesea – part of my electorate – 76 underway, 244 completed already; the City of Melbourne, 621 underway, 1142 already completed. Again, the list goes right through. The City of Banyule, which again I should give a shout-out to – it is in my area – has 255 dwellings underway with 75 completed. That gives you an indication that whilst there are already homes coming on line through the Big Housing Build, in a short period of time you will have many more homes starting to open their doors to people who desperately need them. We have seen already that total social housing dwelling stock in Victoria is going to be up by 3000 this year from 2020, and that will continue to grow as we pump out more housing into the social housing sector.

It was disappointing last sitting week to have an MPI, as I mentioned at the time, put forward by the Greens which did not talk about more options for delivering social housing or positive pathways forward for working together to deliver social housing but actually told us we should not be delivering social housing through the ground lease model. The ground lease model is a fantastic way of delivering more social housing but also delivering mixed use on a site and making best use of sites so you are building more social housing and building better social housing in so many areas across Melbourne. Our first ground lease model includes sites at Brighton, Prahran and Flemington, and that is going to deliver a total of about 1100 new dwellings, 619 of which will be social housing. We are in the middle of a commercial process for ground lease model 2, so I will not go into details on that. But it will deliver around about 1400 dwellings and at least a 10 per cent uplift in terms of the number of social housing dwellings that we are providing there. They are sites at South Yarra, Prahran, Hampton East and Port Melbourne.

In terms of the ground lease model 1 and the project that I mentioned before, I was out yesterday with the Prime Minister and the Premier at Bangs Street, Prahran, where we are delivering 228 social housing dwellings as part of 445 dwellings in total at that site where there were 120 old run-down walk-ups. I still cannot really fathom how the Greens can oppose that project, in the heart of an electorate that is represented by the Greens, when there will be people who will return to that housing who used to live in the old walk-ups and people will come off our social housing waitlist and get those great, comfortable, modern, energy-efficient homes for the first time. You have to go and have a look at this housing and understand the quality with which it is built and how much of it is being built to understand the importance of it. I think the Greens have really disgraced themselves by their opposition to the ground lease model.

Paul Edbrooke interjected.

Colin BROOKS: Yes, I cannot believe, member for Frankston, they are not in the chamber to be part of this debate. On top of the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build we have the $1 billion Regional Housing Fund that the Premier has announced. This is a further wave of investment in social and affordable housing throughout regional Victoria on top of the $1.25 billion that I mentioned before. I have been out meeting with stakeholders in regional Victoria over the last few weeks, talking to people and listening to what those housing needs are.

We have also got an affordable housing rental scheme, which is a great scheme to cap rents on new accommodation for people who do not fall into the category for social housing but have low incomes and might need to live near where they work – for example, in the inner city or in regional towns. We have got a scheme that provides for, in metropolitan Melbourne, for example, a cap of 30 per cent of the median income or 10 per cent below market rental, providing affordable rentals for people who need them. We have committed to delivering 2400 homes under the affordable housing rental scheme.

Of course it is important for us to work with the Commonwealth, and we are watching the results of national cabinet today. It was great to see previously the $496.5 million accelerator funding that was provided to Victoria by the Commonwealth. It has been quite sad to see the politics that have been played with social housing at the federal level, where in the Senate we have a housing package that has stalled because the Liberals and the Nationals and the Greens have teamed up to block that housing funding coming through to Victoria. So again I repeat my call to members opposite, who do genuinely raise issues with me around housing in their areas: if you want to raise those issues, you really need to be standing up for your communities, for the Victorian community, and supporting that housing funding getting through the federal Senate. Talk to your federal colleagues and say, ‘Enough of the politics; just pass that funding through the Senate’, so that people in our communities can have access to that extra funding and we can put that extra funding to good use in terms of building more social and affordable housing for Victorians.

Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (16:16): It is good to see for the last two weeks the matter of public importance session being dominated by the issues around available, affordable and accessible housing for all Victorians. It is indeed a very important topic. Essentially I think it would be the belief and view of most people in a humane and civil society that the very least government can do is its utmost to ensure everyone has somewhere safe to live and has a place they can call home. We certainly saw in the last sitting week those that work at the coalface in the vital community services that are providing public housing, social housing and urgent and crisis housing come to Parliament, and they left us a very clear message: there simply is not enough housing – public housing, urgent housing or crisis housing – available in the state of Victoria.

It is somewhat disturbing that the government has again put forward to this Parliament a big set of numbers, a broad picture of what they are doing, without the necessary detail for us to properly judge what they have achieved, what they are actually doing and what the outcomes are to address the crisis. The crisis we are talking about was again laid bare in the latest figures that the government has allowed to be produced. I say ‘allowed to be produced’ because the waiting list of people wanting to get a home urgently is now again running months behind schedule for publication. We are now almost ready for another set of figures, and we have not got the ones from the previous month. We went most of last year without updated figures, and it looks like the government will continue to do that again this year. In order to frame the debate, the minister did not really touch on his waiting list. He indicated that he thought it might be going to go down, and I thought to myself, ‘Well, if he’d actually published the set of figures that he has a moral obligation to publish each quarter, then he’d actually know what the answer was.’ Unfortunately he has not done that.

To be very clear on the record, as of 30 March this year 37,079 families were on the urgent priority list. That is 37,079 families, approximately 30,000 more families than were on the list when this government came to power back in 2014. That is a one-way trajectory for those waiting for public housing – 37,079 families. This government, which claims to have public housing as a priority, as a core part of what it wants to deliver, cannot keep Victorians up to date with that figure. That is a figure they actually have in their offices available to them on a daily basis, yet they refuse to declare it and make it available to the community. That is a real worry. It is 37,079 families that are sleeping in cars, sleeping in motels, sleeping in caravans, couch surfing or sleeping under lampposts in their cars to be safe. There are a further 30,906 families – that is an increase just in the last year of some 3000 families – who are living in inadequate housing. That is families who perhaps have three children and only one bedroom; they need some better access. That could be a disability family. That could be someone who is on the third floor, up flights of stairs, and cannot access easily where they live, bathroom facilities or kitchen facilities and so on. So this is a desperate picture, and the overall aggregate, from only March last year – a horrendous figure of 64,304 families who are poorly catered for in this state – has now gone to 67,985.

The reason this figure is so terrible is because last Sunday, a week ago, the Premier and the Minister for Housing stood up and continued to push out to the media and anyone who would listen that they are building 12,000 new homes and have got the $5.3 billion investment. Yet after three years of this investment the waiting list of desperate, needy Victorians continues to go in only one direction, and that is upwards. Worst of all this government refuses to reveal to Victorians on an accurate day-by-day basis what that list is. I can tell you that anyone dealing with a crisis does not wait for information that comes two, three, four, five, six months late. If you are going to take a housing crisis seriously, those figures should be front and centre to this Parliament. We all need to have an eye to where this crisis is heading and whether we are making a difference with the enormous sums of money being expended.

That leads me to the next element of a government that talks big but is acting poorly, is acting inefficiently and is acting unproductively. The next figure of course is how many public and social houses we actually have available in the state of Victoria to help ease this ballooning problem. Well, it frustrates me beyond belief, I know it frustrates the sector and I know it frustrates those who are waiting months and years on the waiting list: this government has not produced a publicly available list of its housing stock assets for more than two years. Here in the midst of a crisis, one of the biggest, most disappointing trends that this government has overseen, apart from all its debt and deficit problems, is a housing crisis – a housing crisis that it is so incapable of dealing with that it cannot even publish what homes it owns. For many, many years at the end of the financial year the government would provide a clear breakdown of what properties it owned – what categories, how many bedrooms. That list was completely missed from last year’s Department of Families, Fairness and Housing annual report, and this was described this year in a Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing as an oversight. How you accidentally leave the single biggest asset the state owns out of your reporting I cannot fathom, but nonetheless this government’s financial recklessness is laid bare on a daily basis. To think that lives and one of the most valuable assets that the state has, the asset that will help give people safety and security, are so poorly treated.

So what of that massive community asset? Well, when the government felt so inclined to provide to the Victorian public an asset list back in 2020 – June 2020 was the last time this government were prepared to tell Victorians how many homes they owned – there were some 85,969 properties. If the Premier and the minister are to be believed about the Big Housing Build of 12,000 – you would think, when you were over halfway through the big building process of 12,000 homes, a fair-minded person might estimate you had completed 4000, 5000, 6000 homes. You might be somewhere near that. Well, the only stocktake that has been made available through the budget figures, the only figure that the public has to work with, is a net gain of 74 homes. Seventy-four homes – $5.3 billion and big talk of 12,000, but a net gain of 74. What does that mean? That means that this government has managed to organise its demolitions. It has managed to organise its sell-offs. It has managed to organise its wheeling and dealing. But in that they have forgotten about the people they are supposed to be helping with public housing. This Big Housing Build is not so much a big housing build but a big housing farce, and the people that are hurting most are the Victorians that this government claims to want to look after and support. Quite frankly, when we look at the history of this government in managing public housing, there are no milestones it can point to that are successful.

I refer specifically to the press release put out only two Sundays ago by the Premier and the Minister for Housing. They were out in Prahran trumpeting the completion of another building. What concerns me is both the Premier and the minister fundamentally do not understand that their responsibility is to grow the housing stock. In a housing crisis with a ballooning population and more demand, you have got to actually provide more houses, not maintain, repair and update existing houses. That is an important task too, but most Victorians would just assume that a responsible government would be maintaining existing stock and growing it at the same time.

I refer to a press release of 15 August 2023. Interestingly it is about the Bangs Street project, and I might remind the minister that he is certainly banging on about it a lot. As does the Labor government, he again repeats his claim of $5.3 billion. I must say that even that figure jumps around a little bit. We have had the former housing minister, in front of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, refer to $5.6 billion. But let us assume it is $5.3 billion. He says that more than 7600 homes have been completed or are underway. I guess halfway through a $5.3 billion build where you say you are going to do 12,000 homes, 7600 probably sounds about the right figure. However, the press release then goes on to say that more than 2800 households have either moved or are getting ready to move. So we can make an assumption, then, if we are being very generous to the government, that there are somewhere between 2500 completed homes and 2800. My gut feeling is it is probably somewhere below 2000, but I am going to be generous for the sake of the argument. At that rate either there are 4000-odd homes completed and sitting empty or 4000 other homes still on drawing boards, still in planning and still being thought about, or this government has just lost control of its big build-ing.

Sadly for Victoria, I fear it is the latter. I fear they have lost control of the building, just like they lost control of the Commonwealth Games, they lost control of the airport rail link, they lost control of the West Gate Tunnel and they lost control of fast rail to Geelong. They have lost control of every project that they have put their mind to. All these projects are overdue, they are all late, they are all over budget, and sadly, the most vulnerable in Victoria are going to be left with a Big Housing Build that is big in name only – it is big on promises but it is enormous in underdelivering, it is enormous in being over budget and it is enormous in disappointing people who are waiting.

In the couple of minutes I have left, here is the one area that really is devastating for so many Victorians. Since May, only a few months ago, in the midst of its Big Housing Build, this is the ambition the government had for its own ability to deliver: it had a target of 10.5 months for people on the priority waiting list. There is a whole separate category for those escaping domestic violence – once again, a key priority, allegedly, of this government. They set an ambition of 10.5 months to house families escaping domestic violence. Under their own reporting, under their own budget papers, they have actually got an expected wait time of some 20.2 months. So double the waiting time is what this government expects for people suffering homelessness and despair – at the heart of domestic violence. They expect them to be waiting 20.2 months. That is nearly two years in a cheap motel. That is two years in a caravan, it is two years in a car, it is two years in substandard accommodation because this government cannot manage one of the most precious resources that the state and this Parliament control.

I also refer to public housing for those clients who have received priority access and an allocation as a priority transfer. When you get that phone call in Victoria as someone who has been waiting literally months and years for somewhere to call home, the government budgets that you will still be waiting 10 months before you can move into that house. The budget office has declared that it is not going to be 10½ months, it is going to be 16½ months. You can expect to wait 16½ months after you get the phone call to say, ‘We’re going to have somewhere for you to live.’ The best part of a year and a half will be spent waiting by the most desperate and the most needy.

This Big Housing Build is not something that this government should be proud of. It highlights the ongoing theme that is constantly rearing its head about this government: it is big on talk, it is big on promises and it is big on a vision, but it simply cannot deliver. It spends enormous amounts of money. It wastes it terribly. Until this government takes a step back, has a look at what it is supposed to be achieving with the money and puts its mind to presenting to the public and to the Parliament what it is actually doing and is accountable, then Victorians have little hope of a big housing future.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (16:31): I am very pleased to speak on the very important topic of housing. We know that there is huge demand across our state and in fact across the country. Forgive me for being cynical, but I do query the conviction of the member who has just spoken when the Liberal–Nationals and the Greens political party continue persistently to block the Commonwealth’s Housing Australia Future Fund. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot wax lyrical and say ‘We love social and affordable housing’ and then block, block, block at the federal level, knowing full well that that housing fund could unlock so much more social and affordable housing for our country. I am sorry to say the last 10 minutes I have just been rolling my eyes internally because I was like, you cannot have it both ways. All I was hearing was talk, talk, talk and no actual solutions from the opposition, so thank you very much.

But getting onto the very important topic of delivering on sociable and affordable housing, which is what our government is all about, it is certainly an issue that is very close to our hearts. Furthermore, I was thinking about and reflecting on, as we speak on this critical topic, the nuanced elements and the evolution in the standards and what we expect of social and affordable housing in this day and age, because we know that accessibility is very, very important. We know that energy efficiency is very important. Why should those members of our community who are perhaps least able to afford heating and cooling have to endure, over and over and into the future, housing that is not very good when it comes to shielding against different types of weather? We know that they deserve a contemporary and comfortable build which not only is energy efficient but manages costs.

I was reflecting when the member who spoke before was talking about what is being delivered. Only recently I visited some social and affordable housing that has recently been unlocked in South Melbourne – 45 one-bedders and 5 two-bedders, an $18 million investment, working with Housing Choices Australia. I know that the Greens political party has huge problems and has done its best to demonise the community housing sector. I do not know why, because we know that they work closely with the most vulnerable in our community. They are not-for-profits, and they certainly know how to support the most vulnerable in our community. In any case, it is wonderful to see that. I have actually seen it with my own eyes.

While we are talking about the issue of nuance – and I will come further to this when we talk about the issue of the ground lease model – I was thinking about crisis accommodation. I cannot say where this is, because obviously we are protecting very, very vulnerable members of our community, women fleeing domestic violence. I will say it is in the southern region, so I will just be very broad about that. But we worked recently with a local community housing provider. What they have found is that not only is it important that those women fleeing domestic violence have their own safe space, as opposed to having to share with others – that is the nuance and these were the modifications that were made to apartments, and they are in, as I say, the southern region; I am being very broad because I need to protect those members – but also they need healing to actually feel they deserved to have housing and to believe that they deserve it. So we can see those important, nuanced and tailored supports, working often with the community housing sector, are all about helping people not only to get back into safe shelter but to stay in safe shelter and to believe they actually deserve to be supported and to live in an abode of that standard.

So I do take some offence, personally and I think against our government, when we get sledged left, right and centre. I mean, you would almost think that we were doing nothing if you listened to the opposition and to the Greens political party when it comes to our government’s investments in social and affordable housing. And I can absolutely refute them. They are just put-downs. They are just sledges. That is all they are; they are empty sledges. They are just scaremongering, because I know I have, as have my colleagues here when we accompanied the current housing minister and also the previous housing minister and before that, seen these housing developments with my own eyes. We know they are actually happening.

But I guess it is not a priority of the opposition or the Greens political party to point out exactly what we are doing for the community, because then what would they have to talk about? You know, they would probably run out of lines. I suppose this is a tactical measure. I do not mean to sound so cynical, but at the end of the day that is what it actually is, because it is certainly a priority for me and I know it is a priority for all government members. I am very confident in saying that because there are specific and targeted decisions to make huge investments, like the $5.3 billion investment in social and affordable housing. That is not a small figure and it is not a light decision. It is targeted, and of course it is being rolled out as we speak.

I can also say, when we talk about having witnessed investment and builds in social and affordable housing, I was the chair on the consultation committee for the New Street, Brighton, social housing renewal development. And also Prahran – I was a co-chair of the consultation committee there. I am not in any way praising myself; I am saying that as a result of that we can see beautiful outcomes delivering for the local community. It is really impressive to see the bricks and mortar actually getting in place there and helping the people in our community who need it most –

A member interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: Well, that is right – and many people who are actually fleeing domestic violence. We know how desperate people are for these homes, and why anyone would want to delay or block them is beyond me. I do not get it. And let me tell you, I have to say being on those consultation committees, plural, I was very proud to see just how positive the local councils were, Stonnington and City of Bayside. They were very, very supportive and the councillors were as well, as were the local communities around these sites, because of course when you are investing and you are rebuilding – and it is not only rebuilding, because contrary to the commentary of the previous member, there is also a uplift at these sites – it is not only maintaining.

I think it is important to be really accurate, because when we are talking about public investment that is from our taxpayer money at the end of the day, then I would hate the community to have a very watered-down and distorted perception of what we are actually doing. I think it is their right to know exactly what we are doing. Therefore when we have to listen to these rather morphed and inaccurate reflections on what is actually happening out there, it is actually quite irritating to say the least, but I also think it is not fair on the community to have to hear a distorted perception of what is actually happening in terms of investment.

The other thing I was going to say was – only a little bit of time there – when we are talking about social housing renewal and the ground lease model, we do have to be practical as well. We completely understand that if you have lived in a certain place for a lot of your life, there is disruption. Nobody is denying that it is an emotional experience and probably quite stressful to have to move from that residence. I do not want that to be understated in any way, but at the same time I do not think it would be fair for residents to have to live on a building site. That would not be safe; that does not make sense. As a government we do not want to just let buildings decay. I think there is an impetus to make sure that they are of a reasonable standard.

We want to ensure that there is accessibility and energy efficiency, as I was speaking to before, and can I say – coming back to the point of nuance – these developments enable a mix of social, affordable, specialist disability accommodation and market rental dwellings to be delivered without selling public land. Coming back to that issue of scaremongering, I think it is very unhelpful when there are distortions about the exact nature of the arrangements that we have in place. So I will just repeat that these developments are to be delivered without selling public land. I hope for the community’s benefit that that is really clear. It has been unfortunate that there have been a lot of different reflections, which I do not believe were accurately portraying the circumstances under which we undertake these renewals. And they do have significant uplifts per site, ranging from 19 to 90 per cent. So we can see – (Time expired)

Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (16:41): I would like to thank the member for Bundoora for submitting this matter of public importance, because it certainly is a matter of public importance. In fact it is one of the top two issues that is raised in my office every single week, and largely it is because of lack of rental stock. We have also seen a dramatic increase in homelessness in regional and rural Victoria. That includes the great north-west of the state and, given that the electorate of Mildura goes down into the Wimmera Mallee, it has increased there as well – you can see it. That is the thing: you can really see it; it is quite confronting, and there has been a noticeable increase in recent times.

But when we talk about a housing crisis, and that is what people who are coming to my office are talking about – this housing crisis – of course there is a housing crisis. It is now so hard for mum-and-dad investors to stay in the long-term rental market. The private sector is how we are going to solve some of this housing crisis, particularly for renters. I heard a fact the other day: 80 per cent of rental properties are from mum-and-dad investors, and they have but one additional property that they have acquired through astute investing to help them out in their retirement.

I have been talking to real estate agents, as I do a lot of the time, and Ryan Tierney from Tierney Real Estate in Mildura told me that directly after the budget, when new and increased taxes were introduced, in the two weeks following the budget he lost six houses – rental properties – per week. Either they were going to the unregulated short-stay market – they were just pulling them from the long-term rental market – or they were being sold to owner–occupiers. I just had a message from another real estate agent in Mildura, Ben Ridley, another local sporting icon as well – all real estate agents seem to be icons in the country – and he says he is still losing six to eight long-term rental properties per week. And we wonder why there is a rental crisis. Rental reforms have just gone too far. In my electorate it is only going to get worse.

We have finally seen some little trickles from the Big Housing Build starting to come into Mildura and Robinvale. However, new houses are being built but with half the number of bedrooms – two- and three-bedroom houses are being demolished and properties are being rebuilt as single-bedroom units, which does not help solve that housing problem for people that really, really need it. These are the ones that we see each and every day that are sleeping rough down by the river, camping. We hear of people all the time camping on the river in cold caravans. This is happening even in towns like Birchip, where there is a community housing group that helps to raise funds – they go out there and they raise their own money, and they build community housing. It is a great model. More small towns should adopt this kind of model. But even they are having trouble finding adequate housing for people as young as 23 who cannot get housing. They cannot be at home for whatever reason, and they are having to live in caravans in the middle of winter. The temperature in my hometown last night was minus 3 degrees. Imagine being in an unheated caravan at minus 3 degrees.

I do believe that the private sector also has a huge part to play in this, but they need to be able to do it. They need to be able to move. There may need to be special consideration given to planning in regional and rural areas. There need to be some offices – maybe less public housing agencies – that will actually look at plots of land. There are many plots of land, particularly in rural areas, where water buybacks have affected those areas. Dewatered land has been sitting there, and we are talking 30 acres. Imagine how many houses you could put on 30 acres, yet the planning provisions prohibit rezoning. This could be wonderful housing. It could even allow people to move out of town, out of their city dwellings, and build beautiful rural lifestyle blocks, but we cannot do it because from a desktop someone looks at the colour of the land and sees it is in the middle of agricultural land and they immediately say, ‘No, you can’t do it’. I would love the planning minister and some department heads to come and have a look and see what could be done. That would go a long way to solving the housing stock crisis in my part of the world.

There is about to be a jobs avalanche in particularly Mildura, Robinvale and neighbouring Swan Hill with the boom that is about to take off again with mineral resources and renewable energies and the investment that we are seeing there. We have 250 construction jobs ready to go at both Tronox and Iluka. Where are they going to live? These are not fly-in fly-out mines that we see in Western Australia with big mess halls and big accommodation builds. If there was or if we were getting some of the Commonwealth Games investment in Mildura – which we were not getting, so we were not going to get any of that workers accommodation that could have been used after it was an athletes village; we are not getting any of that – it could have solved some of that problem.

There is more exploration going on over the river at Euston. The New South Wales government facilitated an industry workforce forum recently, and top of that list was housing for all. I cannot illustrate – words cannot describe – how different it is standing on the Victorian side of the river and seeing the development going on 550 metres away, or 50 metres away in some cases, on the New South Wales side because people are literally jumping the river. They can still work in Victoria, run their farms in Victoria, but it is much easier to build their dream home in Gol Gol, in Buronga, in Euston, so we do not increase housing stock here at all.

In Robinvale, for example, with the investment into mineral resources and renewables there – we have already had a lot and we have seen it before – there is zero rental stock. We have people that are sleeping rough down on the riverbank, we have them sleeping in caravans and we have people wanting to build their beautiful lifestyle blocks on the river but planning prohibits that. Sometimes it is not only the planning provisions but the lack of planners that are still in the public system. We have a lot of planners in the private sector that have set up their own consultancy businesses, but that does not help with the backlog of planning applications that have been put through, which is a real issue. In fact there is one development in Robinvale where the council had built a levee bank and the people that owned the blocks behind there – again, so they could build their forever home or downsize so that they could free up town properties – were told that after the levee bank was built it would be okay, ‘Go ahead and build’. Now they are being told, two years after the levee bank was constructed, that it will be another two years. The planning backlog is killing development and the increase in housing stock in regional and rural Victoria. It is choking that private investment that will go a long way to solving this. And we talk about private investment – if I were to take $777,000 to a builder, he would build me a really nice home.

We talk about the $1 billion Regional Housing Fund, and I spoke about the Commonwealth Games before and the legacy that would be left. In Mildura we were looking for some sort of activity for the Commonwealth Games. We were getting very little, but I know council were working on it. With the $1 billion housing fund, 13 000 houses works out to be $770,000 each, plus land. Land is, comparatively speaking, not that expensive – but $770,000 for a home in the Regional Housing Fund? I could build a really, really nice home for half that. For a quarter of that you could build one-bedroom units. I just think whoever is working the calculator needs to get a new calculator or new batteries. As far as housing goes in the regions and in rural areas, we can see it. It is amplified because we can see it everywhere.

Rental reforms have gone too far. Rent freezes, despite what the Greens are pushing, will only make that worse. I am not sure if you know how it works: renters need landlords. I know they have been called evil property barons before, but like I said, 80 per cent of property investors are mums and dads with one additional property, and renters need landlords. They just want a bit of respect. That is how it works.

Alison MARCHANT (Bellarine) (16:51): It is a great pleasure to rise and speak on this matter of public importance. We know, as has been described, it is a crisis that we are facing at the moment in this state and indeed across the country. It is what everyone is focused on. It is what constituents come to my electorate office about as well, and that is why it is so important. It is why I wanted to speak on this, because it does relate to and affect my electorate of the Bellarine. It affects the Geelong region, our state and our country.

Last sitting week out the front, on Parliament’s steps, were 6000 paper houses to represent what was needed to tackle this crisis. Outside I met Rebecca Callahan, who is a coordinator of the Barwon South West Homelessness Network. I really want to thank her for her advocacy and the work that she does in our region. I have gotten to know her over the past few years, and she has a team really dedicated to this cause. I do thank her. She, her team and others recognise, as many in this sector know, that there is this growing concern that the waitlists are long and people are desperately needing houses and a roof over their head. It is that dignity and foundation for a better future. We are not going to sugar-coat it. We understand that with the cost of living, paying mortgages and rent, for those looking to buy a home, it is tough. This mounting pressure then flows on to the Victorian Housing Register for those who are on that waiting list. We have certain groups in our community who are our most vulnerable and who really face a range of challenges, such as our youth, people who experience family violence, our First Nations Victorians and maybe those who have disability or mental health challenges, who need that specialised housing.

In my electorate we have many people who are being evicted because people are selling those homes or are upgrading them, and they are being evicted after being in their rental for a very long time. Housing problems are visible for all of us to see, and that dream of securing a home is becoming a lot harder. Just to add a piece to the jigsaw puzzle, there is a shortage of housing for workers, especially in rural and regional Victoria – for teachers, nurses and hospitality workers, just to name a few. We have towns such as Queenscliff and Portarlington in my electorate who do struggle to find housing for their workforce. Especially in that summer season and that summer period, workers really have been priced out of some of those towns. So I will continue as a local member to advocate for more social and affordable housing in my own community and in our Geelong region, and I know that this government is absolutely committed and working hard to address this housing crisis.

We are under no illusion that that is an issue, and it is one that we are tackling. When you know the problem and when you measure the problem, you can fix the problem, and that is what we are working towards. That is why this government has been ambitious. It is measured, and it has recognised that the key here is supply. That is why we have our Big Housing Build, which is truly reforming this state: $5.3 billion, as has been mentioned, to deliver those new social and affordable homes right across the state. This is one of the biggest investments that we have seen in our state’s history, and probably the biggest across the country.

What I am really pleased about, being a proud regional member, is the fair distribution across regional Victoria as well – to have that investment of $1.25 billion. I will just talk a little bit about the Geelong local government area that most of the Bellarine is in, of which the investment through the Big Housing Build is $188 million. 280 new homes have been completed, with 234 new homes on the way. These are homes that are taking people off that waiting list. A further 33 new homes are being completed as part of other capital programs with a $12.5 million investment, and 1500 homes are also in the process of having maintenance or upgrades undertaken. This is key to addressing the issues that we see at hand. In addition to this Big Housing Build though, the government has committed a further $1 billion to the Victorian Regional Housing Fund to deliver at least 1300 new homes across regional Victoria. As I was talking about, for the workforce that comes to regional Victoria we have $150 million for a regional worker accommodation fund. This will provide new housing options for key workers struggling to find affordable places to live.

I believe we now have a serious partner in the federal government. We wasted a decade before that. With the federal government now also committed to addressing this housing crisis, we have an active partner and are able to build and upgrade more housing. The Albanese government did announce a $2 billion social housing accelerator to deliver thousands of new social houses. I do not want to get ahead of the Premier; I would hate to do that. I am sure he is doing the media now. He has not been in this house today because he had national cabinet. Since we have been sitting here, there has been some breaking news that national cabinet has announced some significant reforms in this space. From what I can tell – from media reports – the Prime Minister has announced 1.2 million new homes to be built in the next five years, starting from July 2024. The target has increased by 200,000 homes than had been previously pledged. And there is $3 billion to be used for a fund for the states and territories to build new homes.

The Prime Minister has said, though, that the Greens are standing in the way of new social and affordable housing. I will quote the Prime Minister, because I think that this sums it up perfectly:

This is an initiative that shows how serious we are as state and territory governments across the political spectrum as well as the Commonwealth, understanding that supply is the key …

You cannot say you support increased housing supply and vote against the Housing Australia Future Fund.

That is really exciting news that has come out of national cabinet today. As I have said, it is great to have a federal partner now that is actually serious about addressing this issue. These figures are large, the numbers are large and the money is a serious investment, but let us get to the reality of this. This actually changes lives. It changes people’s lives for the better. Housing services are a cornerstone of a just and equitable society. They provide access to affordable, safe and stable housing for individuals and families who need it most. I cannot stress that enough – every new home and affordable home built through government is taking pressure off the housing market but it is also providing a home to a family – a family in need – and it does put downward pressure on overall rental prices in the private market. There is a strong pipeline of social housing that we will be delivering across the state. It is clear that only this side of the house and Labor governments get on with doing the things that matter and the things that make a difference. We would like to have other partners in this place, but it seems that we have to do it on our own. It is a shame that the Greens party in particular let politics get in the way.

I want to, just in conclusion, thank the Minister for Housing for his hard work in delivering affordable homes reform and packages for our future. I know that you and your team in the department are deeply committed to building more affordable homes across our state. As I have said, housing does serve as that cornerstone for a just and equitable society, and I am proud to be part of a government that does that. By investing in housing, we create a stronger, more resilient and more inclusive society for everyone. I look forward to advocating for more housing in my electorate of Bellarine and continuing to do the work that needs to be done into the future.

Roma BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (17:01): I rise to speak on what the government has put forward as a matter of public importance (MPI), and it is very much a matter of public importance. It is:

That this house notes the action the Andrews Labor government is taking in response to the national housing crisis …

I just find this a little astounding, to be honest. We have got a government saying, ‘Yep, we’re acknowledging we are in a housing crisis, but look at all we are doing,’ and the MPI goes on to list some of the things that the government are doing. But I think the facts are speaking for themselves. The government have been in charge for 20 of the last 24 years. It is the government’s responsibility to look after those who need assistance – the vulnerable, the disabled, those that need a leg up – and this is the government saying we are in crisis; this is a problem. What has the government been doing for the last decade, at the very least, to say that this is a crisis and to be a bit surprised, perhaps taken aback, and maybe say we are getting on with it? I just heard the last speaker on the Labor side say that there are strong housing projects in the pipeline and they will be delivering – will be delivering.

If we go back to 2014, which was when we had a short period in government, because this government has been in for a very long time, we had the housing list for priority individuals. These are people who are vulnerable, who are disabled, who are at risk of homelessness or who are victims of family violence. That priority list was at 9900. Now, that is too high. I understand that. It is way too high. Everybody deserves the respect of being able to have a home. But now, a decade later, this government has blown that figure out to 37,079.

The government’s responsibility is to build social housing, because that is part of the way we ensure we have a supply chain. Social housing, rentals, land available for building – that is kind of how the supply chain works. But unfortunately what we see is, despite this $5.3 billion Big Housing Build that the government talks about, when you go back to 2020 and you look at the table, the government had on its books 85,969 houses. The next year they sold some and they built some so the net figure was 85,000 at the end of 2020 when they began the big build.

Surprisingly the figures for 2021 have not been released, and they should have been released last year. We still have not seen any figures, and here we are in 2023. The June 2022 figures are not available. The government spruiks about having undertaken all these builds, but we do not have the stocktake which tells us how many new houses – new homes with new roofs – there are for families. It looks like they have been selling a lot. I think they have been building some, but it looks like, from the raw figures that we can discern given the government will not produce them – we are trying our hardest to look deep into the books where we can find the figures – there have only been an extra 74 added to the stockpile. When you look at the stocktake – you know, how many in, how many out, how many net – it does not add up to too many more, and that is evident from the spin that we see coming out of the government.

Just yesterday on 15 August we saw this government’s press release about a project in Prahran where the government is, you know, spruiking their big build. I think they are looking at building 12,000 homes with $5.3 billion. And they are saying that since 2020, 7600 homes have either been built, completed or are underway, but then it says only 2800 households have either moved or are getting ready to move – not that 2000-odd people have moved yet, they are getting ready to move. So maybe there is just a slab poured, or maybe there are just some plans still in the wind somewhere. This is appalling. I mean, if you are running a program and you are aiming for 12,000 houses and you have spent or were spending $5.3 billion of taxpayers money and you cannot evidence what you have done with it because you refuse to put out the figures, and then you have got figures like 7600 are close – kind of is the inference there – but only 2800 are ready to maybe move into, it is just not adding up.

We have got a major social housing crisis, and we look at what we have seen in other states. For example, New South Wales has a population of – I will just find those figures – roughly 8 million people and has 162,000, I think, social housing properties on their books – I am doing this from memory because I cannot find the figures – and we have 6.7 million Victorians and only have 89,000 social houses on the books. So there is something clearly wrong in that in the last 10 years this government have not been doing their due diligence and taking on the responsibility when they should have and investing in the social housing to keep up with the population growth. We knew before the pandemic we were getting 125,000 people moving into Victoria every year, and the forecast from the federal government’s budgeting for the next four years is another half a million people, so this problem is not going away soon.

In South-West Coast we have a major problem with more and more homelessness. I think that was mentioned by the member for Mildura as well. Just on Sunday I was with a group of friends, and they were horrified that they were seeing people in Warrnambool sitting on the street corner with the sign ‘I’m homeless, please help’. This is not something that we have seen a lot of. I know there has been a lot of couch surfing for many years, and when I worked in community health that was starting to be a problem, but now it is really getting confronting and concerning. And we have got so many people trying to sleep rough in different places that just are not equipped for it, whether it be from a toilets perspective, showering perspective or warmth perspective. And the people who do the work – you know, the churches, the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, Anglicare, all those wonderful services – do their best, but it is heartbreaking to say ‘All I can offer you is a tent’.

We have got women who have been promised by this government that they will be assisted if they are in family violence situations being told – even the government’s own figures in the budget tell us – that they have to wait 10.5 months, that is actually the government’s target. That is pretty horrific if you are in a violent situation, but the actual expected outcome in the government’s own budget papers is 20.2 months. So I am really sort of not coping with this ‘The government’s got a problem’. They are saying ‘We’re worried’, ‘It’s a matter of public importance’ and ‘This is how we’re responding to the national housing crisis’. Well, they have not done the work that they should have done for the last 10 years. That is clear and evident from the figures I have just outlined – their own figures. So it is a problem of their own making.

Then on top of that we have got the rental crisis. I have heard in the last two sittings the government talk consistently about the rental changes they have put into reform. If rental reform was working, we would not have the crisis we do. As the member for Mildura said, it has gone too far. The Real Estate Institute of Victoria are saying so, the property council of Victoria is saying so, and we want improvement, not less improvement. We are not going to get anywhere if we add another rental cap. As the real estate agent representative at Wilsons real estate in Warrnambool said in the paper just this week, Juanita Russell from Wilsons real estate, the issue is that property costs for rental providers are driving up rental prices, and we are only going to see worse if rent freezes come in. That was the gist of what she said in the paper just last week.

We have a major problem. The government have actually, I think, been sitting asleep at the wheel. They have had the levers to pull. We have got a need for housing in places like Portland, Heywood, Warrnambool and Terang. The evidence is there, the work has been done, but the government’s management of the project is appalling. The result we are seeing from the spend of taxpayers dollars is that it has not delivered a strong pipeline of work, as I heard the government say before they will be delivering. Well, you have had 20 of the last 24 years. Now we have an opportunity in South-West Coast. We hope that as a result of the mismanagement of the Commonwealth Games we will get some money for some social housing. The women’s housing association are waiting; the housing people are ready to do the work. Please, government, deliver for the regions and stop forgetting about us and the people who need it, like the social housing community.

I will leave it at that, but it is actually heart-wrenching to see that we are in the top 50 for homelessness in South-West Coast. Number 25 – it is not something I would be happy to be saying at this point in time. It would be better if we were in government. We would have solved it.

Mathew HILAKARI (Point Cook) (17:11): I am surprised that the previous member did not talk about their record in government from 2010 to 2014. It might have been because it was a little bit embarrassing. It is embarrassing to be cutting support for housing, for social housing and for disadvantaged people every single budget. That is why you do not talk about it. That is why you do not talk about the partners we should have had in Canberra for the last nine years, people who understood that housing is important for people’s lives. The member for Bellarine gave us great news a few moments ago: 200,000 more homes nationally, 200,000 homes for people to build great lives in in great communities. Three billion dollars to achieve that, a target of 1.2 million homes over five years, is incredible and exactly what we can do in partnership with a federal government who understands that these things matter. At national cabinet unsurprisingly we could come to those agreements because we have Labor governments across the country – minus Tasmania.

The Minister for Housing set forth the response of the Victorian government prior to the announcement from today: $5.3 billion to the Big Housing Build announced some time ago, $1 billion for the Regional Housing Fund, the affordable housing rental scheme, investment in critical homelessness services and working with the Commonwealth to deliver more housing for Victorians. Well, hasn’t that paid off today? It has paid off in spades. This is part of the response to the national housing crisis – public and social housing, housing for people who need it – because without housing you do not have much. You do not have much at all. You do not have a home. You do not have the stability you need. Without a home you cannot have a thriving life in your community. I have not been homeless, but I have had my fair share of pretty bad rental properties – blackberries growing through the floor, rats in the walls, no insulation, freezing in winter, boiling in summer, leaks that just never got fixed and floors that fell through in the bathroom. But I always had options; I always had opportunities to get out. A lot of people do not have those opportunities or do not have those homes.

I have lived in stable housing all of my adult life, but as a child I did not feel that way, and I mentioned this in my inaugural speech. I spoke up about growing up with a park ranger father and a nurse as a mother. Of course this was under the Liberal Kennett government, and it was a time when public servants were being sacked. My father worked for the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works, which then became Melbourne Water, which then became Parks Victoria, and for a long time the parks around our state had rangers living on site. It was a pact that was done by government and the rangers. They looked after the park during the overnight hours and then they went to work that day. We got a home to live in. But when your father’s job is at risk because of a Liberal government, that puts real strain on what you think about and where you are going to live next. Where is your home going to be if your dad loses his job? I worried about the future. As a child I went to bed worrying about where we would live in an interest rate market and economic circumstance that were very tough – the last recession that we have had in this country. Where were we going to go if Dad lost his job? Of course I did not talk to my parents about this. Who does? But I went to bed in a way that I should not have, having that fear. Kids should not go to bed with that fear. They do every night. That is why we have got to do something about it. Children should not have to wonder about these things when they go to bed at night. Homes are not capital investments or things for real estate markets; they are places where people live and where our community can grow.

I was lucky. My parents retained their jobs. We were never homeless. Several years later Parks Victoria changed their idea about what parks should be and the house got demolished and made into more parkland – great parkland for Victorians. It was a good thing. We got a home. We got a mortgage. That was a good thing too. It brings me forward to today, where I am proudly part of a Labor government. These are the life experiences that led me to here, that I will not forget and that I hope I keep getting reminded of and remind myself of. I am proud to be part of a Labor government that is doing something about housing, here and nationally. $5.3 billion for the Big Housing Build – what a legacy that is for Mr Wynne, the former Minister for Housing, and what a continuation it is under the Minister for Housing, Minister Brooks. We have already passed the halfway mark, creating 10,000 jobs a year. It was derided a few moments ago that 7600 homes have been completed or are underway. 2800 homes are already completed and welcoming renters – 2800 families. 7600 family homes – places where people can build lives. We need to build new homes that meet the needs of our community. Every new and sociable affordable home that is built takes pressure out of the housing market, and it means a lot to those families who get them.

Our affordable housing rental scheme will deliver 2400 affordable homes across metro and regional Victoria. In the community that I represent, the Hobsons Bay City Council area, four new houses have been completed and 29 are underway. These are great new contributions to the community that I represent. $16 million has been invested, 144 jobs created and 557 homes have been or are being improved through maintenance. In Wyndham City Council, a community I also represent, 65 new homes have been completed and 179 are on the way, $105 million is being invested and 951 jobs have been created. These are numbers that do not tell the significance of what this means to people’s lives. There is a billion dollars for the regional fund, which will deliver 1300 more social and affordable housing homes.

The Greens – and it is good to see them in the house to contribute to this debate in a moment, I am sure.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

Mathew HILAKARI: Thank you, Deputy Speaker. Thank you for the reminder. The Greens political party have not always been here for this debate, but even more problematic is they have been rejecting housing across the state and now across the country. I do not need to remind all these councils – Darebin, Merri-bek – or the Markham estate, where the Greens and the Liberals came together in the upper house – Yarra City Council –

Members interjecting.

Mathew HILAKARI: Yarra, and there is a former Yarra city councillor here today. They just do not want to see people in new homes. They just do not want to see it. And you would know it about the Senate as well, because people here cannot be bothered picking up the phone and saying, ‘We want houses built for families in our communities’. You are rejecting more houses than you have ever built. It is never good enough. They are working with the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation – One Nation. Pick up that phone. It is all about temporary political gain. We have seen it on this and on climate change. It was a lost decade on climate change with the carbon pollution reduction scheme because you made perfect the enemy of the good. We gave a decade away – unbelievable. You just cannot pick that phone up.

Earlier this year I was with the Minister for Housing. We were down in Werribee announcing the youth housing capital grants: investing $50 million in 10 projects across the state to secure housing for vulnerable young people. We heard the stories of pregnant people going from couch surfing to a home and to a job. So I thank you, Minister, for the work that you are doing. I thank everybody on this side of the house, who every day will keep fighting for those people who need it. I ask those opposite: do your job, represent your communities and pick up that phone.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I remind members again that ‘you’ refers to the Chair, and it is appreciated if you do not reflect on the Chair.

Sam HIBBINS (Prahran) (17:21): I must say – and I was going to get to it a bit later on in my speech – I reckon the only people that are hung up on the politics of this have got to be those in the Labor Party. Every time they get up to speak they always talk about the politics of it. They find it very difficult to understand the difference between opposing privatisation of public housing and building more public housing. It is a very easy distinction for us to make; it is a very difficult distinction for neoliberal Labor to make. Build more public housing on public land, not privatise public housing that is on public land. It is a very clear distinction. I tell you, if now is not the time, this is a matter of public importance about the housing crisis and the government’s record.

Let us just have a look at what Victorians are facing under this government. More than 30,000 people are experiencing homelessness every single night. It is increasing under this government, an increase of nearly 25 per cent from just five years ago. Over 125,000 people are on the public housing waiting list, increasing under this government. Rents have gone up, by 14.6 per cent in just the last year. We have got rising housing prices, we have got rising interest rates and we have got people being pushed into homelessness and housing insecurity. It is impacting their mental health and their quality of life. This housing crisis has not just happened; it has not just appeared out of thin air. It has been the result of a massive failure of governments over generations abandoning what should be a fundamental role of government – and that is to make sure that everyone has a safe, secure, affordable place to call home. It is not something that governments should do at the margins or rely on the private sector to do, only stepping in when there is market failure. It is the fundamental role of government to make sure that people are properly housed. This used to be at the core of what governments and political parties did many generations ago, but not under the era of neoliberalism, which now dominates the ideology of Labor and Liberal. So to fix the housing crisis, it is not just a change of policy that is needed but a change in how we actually think about housing, where we switch the housing system to one that favours people in need of a roof over their head or buying their first home rather than one that favours people who are buying multiple houses.

There was a lot of talk from the Nationals about it being mum-and-dad investors. Just 1 per cent of taxpayers own 25 per cent of all properties. Housing is seen by governments as a wealth generator rather than an essential social need. Billions are handed out as tax breaks to investors, which dwarfs spending on new public housing. We need to switch to a housing system where governments see it is as their job to build enough public housing for people. That is what seems so difficult for this government to do. For years the Greens have been calling for, pushing for, campaigning for and raising in this place the need for the government to do one simple thing: direct government investment to build more public housing. It is not that hard, but the government cannot bring itself to do it.

When we first brought this up, when we first came to this place, it was actually mocked by a former housing minister who said, ‘Oh, you can’t do that. You can’t build public housing like we used to do in the 50s and 60s. You’d have to kick people out of their homes and acquire all this land in the inner city.’ Then, having left public housing estates to rot, the idea was to sell off public housing land as part of the public housing renewal program for just a marginal increase in new public housing. Now, that is neoliberalism 101: run down a public asset and then say privatisation is the only way to fix it. So that got scrapped. Then we got, ‘Oh, yes, we can actually build a lot more homes with the Big Housing Build, but now we’re going to call it the ground lease model, and instead of selling it off we’re still going to have private dwellings, but we’re just going to have a long-term 40-year lease for that’ – and still the target is just around a 10 per cent increase of social housing when thousands need to be built every single year.

They are always talking about needing a partner in Canberra to be able to do more. So when we got a new federal Labor government, did they propose direct investment in public housing? No – goodness! We got a Housing Australia Future Fund, not directly investing in public housing but instead using the profits of this fund, gambling on the private market. ‘We’ll use that to build more housing’ – up to a limit of $500 million per year, mind you – ‘and if the fund doesn’t make any money, as it hasn’t done in previous years, too bad, we’re not going to fund any more homes.’ And how right the Greens were to pressure the federal government to do more – then suddenly $2 billion was found down the back of the couch. Two billion dollars was found to give to the states to invest in social housing. It will be very interesting to see what the Victorian government’s proposal to actually spend that money on will be. Will it be for more privatisation or for direct investment?

Why is it so hard for Labor to directly invest in building more public housing? Yes, neoliberalism for starters – that is the ideology that has taken over the Liberal and Labor parties. Again, this is where Labor just gets so confused, saying that we are opposing new social housing. Again, there is a very big difference between opposing privatising public land that needs to be used for public housing and opposing building more public housing. We need our public housing land to be used for the public good, for more public housing – not sold off and privatised, which actually limits the amount of public housing to be put on site. It is absolutely telling that the government cannot seem to bring itself to actually talk about public housing without having to bring in privatisation at the same time.

I was certainly very interested in seeing the comments around Bangs Street, Prahran. The Premier and the Prime Minister were visiting there. It was very interesting to see the media release spruiking the 90 per cent increase in social housing. What they are not telling you is that that was a massive increase to what was very first proposed for that site, which was only going to be 10 per cent. So certainly I welcome again the government responding to pressure on that. Is 90 per cent going to be the norm now across sites for the Big Housing Build and for this ground lease model? No, it is stuck at 10 per cent. Are we going to see the guarantees for open space be protected or increased on these sites? Again, no. I have to say, interestingly enough, on the site you have got different buildings, as there are in many of these developments, for social housing tenants and private tenants. So what does that tell you about the government’s privatisation model? It is to avoid what they should have been doing for years, for decades: investing directly in building more public housing.

We have heard continuously that the answer, the solution, is all about supply – supply, supply, supply. Well, the idea that all we need to solve the housing crisis is a developers picnic at a time when we have already got more dwellings per capita than at any time in our history is just absurd. We need direct government intervention in the housing system – build more public housing. We have got $7.9 billion sitting in a so-called future fund – use that to directly build more public housing. We need inclusionary zoning – actually force developers to build public and affordable housing on private land, not the other way around. We need an immediate rent freeze and long-term rent controls, and they absolutely squibbed it at national cabinet today – squibbed it in doing that.

Homelessness services need to be funded so no-one is ever turned away. Can you believe that we still have people being turned away from homelessness services? We had a successful model during COVID; we could make sure that we could provide shelter and housing in hotels for people. Yet apparently when we are out of COVID we cannot do that. No, we need to make sure that no-one is turned away from homelessness services, and we need public land used for the public good for more public housing.

Katie HALL (Footscray) (17:30): I am mindful that my contribution on the last matter of public importance, which was also about housing, felt quite political. I will just say this in response to the member for Prahran’s contribution: do not let the truth get in the way of a good story. I am very frustrated that $10 billion to build 30,000 homes is being blocked in the Senate, so I will just say this on that matter: to accept great reform and to continue to advocate for more – these are not mutually exclusive things. I will always fight for more, and I will always ask for more. That is my job, and that is me living my values. But what the Greens are doing is not doing politics differently, it is doing politics disingenuously, and they should be ashamed.

I am very pleased to make a contribution on this matter of public importance because there is no matter of greater importance in my community of Footscray than housing. Indeed there is no greater issue than housing across Australia. From public housing to social housing and the availability of rental properties, we have a supply problem in housing across the nation, and it is no different in my community. I strongly believe in a housing-first approach to social policy. In simple terms it means that housing is the fundamental anchor, that housing must come first before any other issues in someone’s life can be dealt with.

In 2021, when the government consulted on a 10-year strategy for social and affordable housing, we received support for this approach from the community and from stakeholders as well. How can you possibly find employment, how can you tend to your mental health needs, when you do not have a safe and affordable place to call home, when every single moment of your life is consumed by where you are going to sleep that night? From the homelessness we see on the streets to the under-reported homelessness that consumes our young people who are couch surfing to the growing crisis of single women of retirement age and the sometimes appalling rooming houses that end up consuming entire incomes in squalid conditions, there is an almost inescapable cycle that you cannot get out of unless you have housing first, unless you are supported by stable and affordable housing.

The homelessness workers that I work with locally are kind, strong and committed workers who spend every day searching for solutions. They are heroes. They often say that they wish they did not have a job; they wish that they were not needed and that there would be no line in front of the door in the morning when they opened. Instead they are more often than not saying, ‘We don’t have anything for you apart from a night in a hotel.’ Even then a hotel room with no kitchen is no place for a mother with her children. When the member for Melton and I were first elected in 2018 we spoke about the need across the western suburbs, and we formed the Western Homelessness Action Group with these workers. They share their ideas for change, and together we advocate on their behalf, because we can accept the good in public policy and advocate for more.

The solution, of course, is supply. There is no value in arguing over the type or the model of delivery, because every single model has a role and a value to meet the diverse needs of our community. More supply in social housing of course leads to more supply in rental properties. More supply in rental properties reduces rent. Footscray is an ideal place for more affordable and social housing stock. We have some of the best public transport in Melbourne. The new Footscray Hospital is underway, and in 2025 the Metro Tunnel and West Gate Tunnel will open. In our community we understand that density is okay – so long as it is well designed, and we know that developers can and must do better. In the design standards that we have introduced we ensure that our apartment stock is being improved into the future and that these are homes that we are building for people that are places with dignity. They are new and they are modern. I have been outspoken in my community and in the Parliament about the impact that developers are having, showing a complete disrespect to the public realm through land banking and allowing their large landholdings to turn into bombsites instead of delivering on their permits with more housing stock in my community. This is something I have taken directly to the Minister for Planning, and I am pleased that she is in here. I am really looking forward to the housing statement.

I want to speak about what we are doing now in my community to address the supply issues to help those housing and homelessness workers find homes for people. Under the Big Housing Build 142 new homes have been completed in the City of Maribyrnong and 157 new homes are underway. It is a total Big Housing Build investment of $142 million in my community, and that has created 1281 jobs. A further 11 homes have been completed and another 12 new homes are underway as part of other capital programs, and a massive 643 homes have been or are in the process of being upgraded. These are all investments that are improving supply, making a difference in Footscray and making a difference to those homelessness and housing workers and to their clients.

I think of some of the really innovative things we are doing such as the transitional housing arrangements we have for people who have been in prison. We have repurposed the old Maribyrnong detention centre into a place where men who have left prison, who are at risk of homelessness, get the wraparound supports that they need to find a job, to find a rental property, to reintegrate into the community and to have all the support structures in place that they need. That is not neoliberalism. This is the best kind of public policy to make sure that we change lives, that we intervene in lives.

I will conclude my contribution, I think, just by reflecting on some of the people in my community. The minister mentioned McAuley social services before, another extraordinary service in Footscray, where women who have experienced the worst kind of unimaginable violence in the home are provided long-term wraparound care and support so that they can get economic independence, so that they can live with their children and so they have all of the financial and legal supports to get back on their feet, and to take their time to do it, too. It is an amazing service and one that we are very proud to support. It was the Andrews Labor government that funded McAuley House, and every time I walk past it in Footscray I have a real sense of pride. Every single one of these services is important.

I feel like sometimes I hear those opposite deride social housing, like it is not important, but actually sometimes people need those services in place and public housing is not a suitable option for them. It might be the tiny homes that we have built with Launch Housing, where people have social workers come and visit them and make sure they are okay. It might be drug or alcohol support and rehab, or it might be mental health support, but there are so many ways that we can support people in housing. What I encourage those opposite to do is not pretend that you are doing politics differently – actually do it differently.

Wayne FARNHAM (Narracan) (17:40): I am always pleased to rise on a matter of public importance when we are talking about housing and affordable housing and social housing. I have been listening to the debate today, and I think I will reiterate what I said last time when I spoke about this: that everyone in this chamber knows how important it is for our communities. There is no-one in this chamber who is in any better position than anyone else when it comes to people on a waiting list. We all experience it in our offices, and we field the calls from people waiting to get into homes. That is just the reality of our job. It does not matter what side of the chamber you are on, our job is to help those people and try and get them into homes.

I want to contribute today, and there are a few figures I want to go through. The part that is concerning me the most – it is a pity that the minister just walked out, because the member for Albert Park said earlier, ‘You need to be part of the solution. Rather than just attacking the government all the time, be part of the solution.’ So today in this I will be part of the solution, and I hope the government takes it on board. The part that really concerns me is the waiting times that have blown out for real emergency housing – people escaping domestic violence, for example. The target was 10 months; the actual at the moment is a 17-month wait, and it is probably going to blow out to 20 months. Now, that is a real concern for the most vulnerable. We see these people week in, week out in our electorates, and we know we need to help them as quickly as we possibly can. I think what the government needs to do, and it needs to do it quickly, is really start focusing on the most vulnerable when it comes to housing.

When we talk about housing and we talk about the reports, there are some figures that to me are quite confusing. I would love for someone to clear this up, because these are the government’s figures, they are not my figures. So we have got a $5.3 billion Big Housing Build, and that is meant to deliver 12,000 homes, according to the figures. That is an average of $441,000 per home. Then we have got another $1 billion for 1300 homes in regional Victoria. Now, that is $770,000 per home. I do not understand the figures. I do not know how they are coming up with these figures on these estimates, because going by the government’s own figures – the $5.3 billion for 12,000 homes – we should actually get about 2150 homes in regional Victoria. I made this contribution last time. I actually said, look at better ways of getting more bang for buck.

There is one thing I know that could help the government out. The numbers now are 67,000 applications – 67,000 applications – for 12,000 homes. We are a long way behind, and I said this last time. This program did not come in until 2020. The government has been in since 2014, so we started six years late. The other thing that is going to contribute to this is that our migration levels are going to come up. We all know we are going to have an influx of migration. That is going to put more pressure on the system.

But my suggestion to the government is this: if you are really serious about reducing these numbers, if you are really serious about getting these homes delivered, one way you should look at it is that there is a lot going on in construction. I think part of the problem is that there is so much going on at the moment. The government is probably finding it hard to find the resources to do these builds with everything that is going on in infrastructure and everything else. You know, probably the one bright light of the Commonwealth Games getting cancelled is it could free up some resources to push into this. But maybe the government should think about reaching out to the smaller builders. If there is a house there that is a one-bedder or a two-bedder on a freestanding block, reach out to some smaller builders around Victoria. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. Expand your resource base so you can actually get this delivered quicker, because it is very important. We all know we are in a housing crisis, and it is no more critical than when it comes to the most vulnerable in these communities. And it is communities around the state, it is not just my community.

I did listen to the minister today when he said Baw Baw shire is getting a $35 million investment, and I welcome it. Any investment into Baw Baw I will welcome with open arms. Going on that figure of $441,000, that is about 80 homes. The problem is we have got 1000 applications, so we are a long way short, and it is not just my electorate. I understand this. I know it is across the whole state. But I think the government does need to start updating its data, because the data is not looking good at the moment. If we look at the data, it is only saying we have a net gain of 74 homes. Now, I am sure it is more than that. I am going to give the government the benefit of the doubt; I am sure it is more than that, but I would like to see the accurate data. When we say 2800 households moving in or preparing to move, I would like that to be narrowed to actually say what is happening. When we are talking 7600 homes started or built, let us narrow that down. Give us the data. Is that at planning stage? Have they got the drawings done – the architects, the engineers – or are they at slab stage? Have they started construction? The best way to stop the criticism is to be more transparent. The best way to stop the criticism is to get the data right, and I think that is very important. It is not just important for this side of the house, it is important for all Victorians. But my concern is, with 67,000 applications, we are only talking at the moment of 13,300 builds, so we are a long way short of where we need to be. So how do we improve that? Do we have the budget for that? Because when we look at this, we have got to multiply that by five. That is a long way short. Now, how is the government going to fix this problem?

The government has been here since 2014, and I do get a little bit frustrated when we get attacked. We have been in for four years out of the last 24 years, and when we were in, in 2014, we had 9900 on the priority waiting list. Now we have got 37,000. If I take the minister’s word for it, it is going to be about 31,000 for June. So I do not think you can look at this side of the house and be overly critical. We had good figures. The government has had time to fix this, but they were very late out of the box. They introduced this in 2020, and the government had been in for six years already – this is something they should have started in 2014–15. This is something the government delayed, and now we are really paying the price for it – and it is all our communities. It is both sides of this house. Bipartisan pain is the best way to put it.

I have said a lot on this, and this is my second contribution. I will reinforce this message to the government: if you are going to invest a combined $6.3 billion into this, get your best value for money. Use smaller builders, if need be, in regional areas. That will boost their economies and their employment. Look beyond the scope. Look outside the box. That is what the government needs to do to improve this situation, because this situation is not getting any better – it is getting worse day by day. But I am very pleased with my electorate of Narracan that we have been able to contribute to this and at least get four people out of crisis where they have been.

Michaela SETTLE (Eureka) (17:50): I am delighted to rise and talk on this matter of public importance. I obviously have much to talk about in terms of the wonderful things that this government has done in this space, and I will certainly get to that, but I just feel the need to pass comment on some of the other contributions that we have heard today. One of the interesting things that I have heard, both from the member for Narracan but more recently from the member for Prahran, is this sort of talk of the lists growing. It shows a complete lack of understanding about what is actually happening out there in the community – this is a worldwide issue; I was reading an article in the Age today about the rent crisis that they are facing in New York. So yes, those numbers have grown since the last time you were in government – which, let us face it, was quite some time ago – but that is the nature of the world, that it moves on, and we are facing very particular issues.

But look, I do need to pass some comment on the member for Prahran’s contribution. I was delighted to see that two Greens felt it appropriate to be in the chamber for a couple of speeches, good on them, it is a hard week’s work, but they of course have left now. I guess it is an RDO from here on in. But what I wanted to comment on – I have two young sons, they are young adults, so 19 and 22, and listening to the member for Prahran, it is akin to listening to some of their first-year politics mates, you know? They have got hold of this word ‘neoliberal’ and they think that they are very clever and they love waving it about. I am not sure they really know what they are talking about. I think sadly it is actually a much more cynical prospect from the member for Prahran, because obviously they are the market that they are chasing. You look out on the steps of Parliament today and the member for Richmond has got another one of her little stunts, you know, ‘queue for an inspection of Parliament house’. This is obviously the market they are chasing, so I can only assume they are speaking the language of undergraduate politics students, because they are the people that they are trying to chase.

But can I just stop for a minute on the nature of undergraduate politics students. As I say, I have got a young son, and he is a regional boy – he comes from the regions. Coming down to Melbourne Uni for him has been very confronting. He is currently living in a house in North Melbourne paying $100 a week, and there is no window; it is the size of a bed, and he is in the middle of a house. I just reflect on the member for Prahran and the member for Richmond – I believe the median house price in Richmond is $1.4 million and Prahran $1.7 million, so let us just be absolutely frank who we are talking about here: we have got a bunch of white, middle-class doctors and artists who studied in France; I bet they did not struggle when they were trying to pay their rent as a student. So they are chasing this market, but they are about as white and middle-class as you can get, living in their million-dollar properties in the inner suburbs. But of course, they want to keep the inner suburbs for themselves, because really bike lanes are for them and them only.

So let us just remember, while they are chasing this rental market, they do not represent it other than in their fairly puerile use of undergraduate explanations of political systems. But there you go, that is my rant over for them for the minute. Let us get back to the MPI. Again, I did say this when I was speaking to the Greens stunt MPI the other day, that I want people to understand when we are discussing this that we are talking about real people. The Greens are very good at throwing around, you know, ‘neoliberals’ and ‘social housing models’ and so forth, but they are not very good at talking about real people. I doubt they have very much to do with them. I am not sure how many of them would have studied in France in that same art studio. So I do not know that they have those relationships that people on our side of the house do.

I was extremely fortunate to be asked to open the exhibition from the Central Highlands homelessness collective to mark national Homelessness Week last week at Ballarat Trades Hall. It is a fantastic exhibition, and the thing that it really wants to do is put a face to those names. The Greens are not very good at putting faces to names; they are just talking about childish political notions and arguing about the best way to deliver them. I looked in the eyes of a wonderful woman called Sherrie. She spoke after me at the launch, and she talked about having been 15 years trapped in a cycle of homelessness. Uniting Housing support workers were there to support her and got her out of that cycle.

Now, I want you to remember that Uniting Housing support workers are the people that the Greens are saying are neoliberals and are privatising land. Can we just be clear that the government is not selling off any land? The government continues to own that land. What the government is doing is going into partnership with very important community housing organisations to provide more housing. Partnership is not a word that sits well with the Greens, because the only way they know how to get elected in any seat is to try and offer themselves up as, you know, these unicorns fighting for – God knows what they are fighting for, frankly. But they would like to talk about people like Uniting as neoliberals, and that breaks my heart. I look at the work that they do. I look in the eyes of people like Sherrie and all the work that has been done. And as the wonderful member for Footscray pointed out, a lot of these community housing organisations are about wraparound services, and that is incredibly important.

In the 2023–24 budget $12.7 million was provided to homeless services in my region. That is a pretty big amount, and it was looking at everything – transitioning housing, private rental assistance, youth support and crisis support. The member for Footscray talked about the wonderful McAuley House – we have a McAuley House in Ballarat as well. It is quite an extraordinary model. It is about providing housing to women but also providing employment – hardly the most neoliberal organisation I have ever heard of. I am very delighted that this government invested $0.36 million in McAuley House in Ballarat in the most recent budget.

So there has been a lot going on in my electorate. I hear from the other side that we have not done anything, and I find it pretty extraordinary. In the Shire of Moorabool $22 million has been promised and there are 30 houses completed – can I just repeat that; they are completed – and 30 more underway. In Ballarat there are 128 new homes completed – yes, that is completed, for those on the other side – and we have still got another 200 underway. So there is a lot of really important work being done here.

The member for Prahran said the fundamental role of government is to provide housing. Could he – to use the words of one of my esteemed colleagues; I cannot remember who it was – pick up the phone? Who picked up the phone?

Mathew Hilakari: They are all esteemed.

Michaela SETTLE: They are all esteemed. Pick up the phone and talk to people in Canberra. Talk to your Greens mates in Canberra, because you have got a government there who wants to get on and start providing housing for the community. It is pretty extraordinary, pretty hypocritical, that the member for Prahran can stand there and lecture us about the fundamental role of government providing housing and be the biggest roadblock. His party is the biggest roadblock that we have seen in providing housing. I think it is pretty tragic. I said it in my previous contribution and I will say it again: housing policy has got to be about the people – the people that we house, the people that we provide homes for. It is not about trying to win votes. All I ever see from the member for Richmond is her running around tweeting things, doing stunts, bringing people into the gallery. Why don’t the Greens actually do something for once instead of just posturing about this? They have the audacity to say that it is all about politics for us on this side. We are actually getting on and doing it. We are building houses. We are putting people that need housing in houses. I do wish sometimes that the Greens political party would stop trying to appeal to undergraduate students and actually get on and have some concern.

The good old member for Richmond talked whoop-de-do about our rental reforms. They are just about to be adopted Australia-wide. In the national cabinet most recent to today they are talking about copying Victoria’s fantastic rental reforms. I know that my friends Michael and Greg, whose pets are their children, are very, very pleased with the rental reforms from this government that allow pets to live with them. So whoop-de-do to you, Richmond.

Jess WILSON (Kew) (18:00): With the short time I have left today I am delighted to make a contribution on the matter of public importance. From the time I have been in the chamber I have heard the consistent back and forth between the Labor Party and the Greens about who is to blame for the housing crisis. If you listened to the debate today, you would not know from the stories coming from the government that they have been in government for nearly nine years, yet we are in a housing crisis. We have just heard from the member for Eureka that the Commonwealth should adopt Victoria’s rental approach, despite the fact that we are in a rental crisis, we have vacancy rates at around 1 per cent in Victoria and Victoria’s rents are going up faster than any other capital city.

Today the Property Council of Australia put out data that said that nearly three-quarters of the people they surveyed do not want to see rent caps, yet another promise from this government in a deal with the Greens to get through their taxation bill is to put rental caps in place. This will not solve the rental crisis.