Thursday, 17 August 2023

Public housing

Sam HIBBINS (Prahran) (14:29): My question is to the Premier. Premier, yesterday one of the items agreed to at national cabinet was the consideration of the phased introduction of inclusionary zoning and planning to support permanent, affordable social and specialist housing. I ask the Premier: will new developments that are built as part of the upcoming planning reforms be subject to inclusionary zoning, including a binding, mandatory requirement for 50 per cent of them to be public and affordable homes?

Daniel ANDREWS (Mulgrave – Premier) (14:30): I thank the member for Prahran for his question. The housing statement has not been finalised yet by the government. When it is finalised it will be released and everything that is in it will be obvious. And I am sure from the Greens point of view everything that is not in it will be equally obvious and they will talk about that in equal measure. I am drawn, though, to make the point that even if such a framework were put in place, it would still be opposed – that and more – by Greens-dominated councils, no doubt on form by Greens senators in the Commonwealth Parliament and, who knows, by Greens as local members. I was at a social housing project in this member’s electorate on Tuesday with the Prime Minister, and he opposed it.

Sam Hibbins: On a point of order, Speaker, the relevant sessional order states that answers to questions need to be direct, factual, succinct and relevant. The Premier has literally conjured up a scenario out of his mind that some future reforms are going to be opposed by X, Y and Z. That cannot be in any way relevant to the sessional orders, and I would ask you to bring him back to actually answering the question.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier was being relevant to the question that was asked.

Daniel ANDREWS: The point of order invites us again just to remind every member of this place, including, it would seem, the Greens, who perhaps have convinced themselves they are not opposed to these things, that the Greens political party have voted against more housing than they have ever built. They have tried to frustrate more social housing projects than they have ever supported. I was at a project in Windsor, where there is a 90 per cent increase in social housing –

Gabrielle de Vietri: On a point of order, Speaker, the Premier is misleading the house. There are Greens-dominated councils like Yarra –

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Richmond, that is not a point of order.

Daniel ANDREWS: As I was saying, I was in the member for Prahran’s electorate with the Prime Minister just the other day at a project that is nearing completion. It will be finished I think toward the end of this year – a 90 per cent increase in social housing. There will be in total some 620 people who will live there. Cheaper, brighter, safer, brand new – that is what we are doing. We do not just want the fight about housing, we want to work hard toward the fix. We do not oppose social housing, we get on and build it. The credibility of those who oppose everything and then come in here pretending to be supporters of it, great champions of renters and great champions of the downtrodden – stop opposing these projects, and then you might be taken seriously when you lobby for them. It is pretty simple: if your track record is one of ‘no’, if you are a bumper-sticker protest party and nothing more than that, then you will be treated that way. When you have got no substantive record and all you ever do is stand in the way of the most vulnerable in this community having a roof over their head, do not come in here lecturing this government, which has built more social and affordable housing than any government in the history not just of this state but of this nation, about what ought to be done. Whatever is done will not be enough for you, because you are after the fight. The Greens political party are after the fight, not the fix – never the fix. That is why they stand opposed to social housing whenever they get the chance and twice on Sundays.

Sam HIBBINS (Prahran) (14:33): I direct my supplementary question to the Premier, who is obviously confused about the difference between opposing the privatisation of public housing and building more public housing – a very easy distinction for us to make, very difficult for neoliberal Labor to make.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! I cannot hear the question.

Sam HIBBINS: But my question goes to this: the Premier often refers to the issue of supply, but surely it is also the type of housing and the type of supply that matters. Last year the government backflipped on a social housing levy after developer pressure. This time I ask: will the Premier side with people in need of homes over developers, and make developers build their fair share of public and affordable homes as part of their private developments?

Daniel ANDREWS (Mulgrave – Premier) (14:34): The government will release a housing statement, and I can guarantee you that it will be about more housing. It will not be a Greens political party plan that is called a housing plan but actually delivers less housing – less housing – for Victorians. You cannot come in here – seriously, more front than Myer – and be lecturing the government that has built more social and affordable housing than any government in the history of our country – from people who oppose social and affordable housing. I will just give the member for Prahran a tip: of those 620 people, about half of which are in social housing that will move into that project in his electorate, none of them are going to stand at the threshold and say, ‘Oh, no, this is social housing. I want public housing’.

Tim Read: On a point of order, Speaker, responses need to be factual.

The SPEAKER: The Premier was being relevant to the question.

Daniel ANDREWS: They want a roof over their head, and that is exactly what this Labor government, despite the frustrations of the Greens political party, will deliver for a record number of Victorians on current policy, let alone those announcements we will make – well-considered announcements, in due course, as part of a housing supply strategy. It will be a housing strategy to build more houses, not to block houses for vulnerable Victorians.