Thursday, 12 September 2024

Housing

Sam HIBBINS (Prahran) (14:28): My question is to the Premier. The Premier has signed a $100 million contract to demolish public housing towers at North Melbourne and Flemington. These are the first three of 44 public housing towers the government plans to demolish across Melbourne, despite hundreds of residents still living at these homes and growing community opposition to the plans to demolish and privatise these estates. Will the Premier guarantee that no resident – in the middle of a housing and homelessness crisis, mind you – will be forcibly evicted from their public home at high-rise estates across Melbourne?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:29): I thank the member for Prahran for his question, noting it is the first question I have had in question time today. I thank the member for Prahran for his question, and I anticipate the member for Prahran will hang around for the answer. Are you going to hang around for the answer? The member for Richmond last night obviously had other places to go on her bike and could not stay for the matter she raised last night, but I am delighted to see the member for Prahran staying in the chamber to hear the answer to this question.

This is an opportunity to correct once again the atrocious, deceitful misinformation that is being spread by the Greens political party amongst some of the most vulnerable members of our community. The reason why I say this is because just this morning, as the Minister for Planning has identified, I had the opportunity to join the Minister for Housing at a fabulous project in Bills Street, Hawthorn, where we have taken a site that previously had 52 outdated public housing units and have used an opportunity to partner with the community housing sector –

Ellen Sandell: On a point of order, Speaker, I just ask, on relevance, for you to bring the Premier back to the question, which was, ‘Will any public housing residents be forcibly evicted in Flemington and North Melbourne?’

The SPEAKER: I am aware of the question. A point of order is not an opportunity to repeat the question. The Premier was being relevant, but I do ask her to come back to the question.

Jacinta ALLAN: The reason why I am being entirely relevant to the question that I was asked is because of the policy elements in how we have been able to achieve a fantastic outcome for vulnerable Victorians like Markrit, who I met this morning. The member for Hawthorn earlier in this chamber interjected and said, ‘What reception did you get this morning in Hawthorn?’ I will tell you what reception we got in Hawthorn this morning. We heard from a woman who talked about being homeless, who talked about her mental illness and who talked about how her life has been turned around as a result of this investment in social and affordable housing in partnership with a community housing provider.

The reason why I make this point and I am being entirely relevant to the question that was asked is that I am being very clear to the member for Prahran that his claims about privatisation in his question are wrong. When you partner with community housing providers, which provide the opportunity for vulnerable Victorians to have the dignity of a roof over their head, you give them the opportunity to wrap your arms around those Victorians and deliver quality services that they need to be able to get to work and to participate in community life, like Markrit spoke about this morning when she talked about how she was able to re-engage with her community. She had that opportunity. We will work with those residents in the public housing towers to also give them the same opportunity in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Paul Edbrooke interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Frankston, you can leave the chamber for an hour.

Member for Frankston withdrew from chamber.

Sam HIBBINS (Prahran) (14:33): My supplementary question is to the Premier. Despite signing a demolition contract for these two estates, there are no public plans for what will be built, no contract for the rebuild and no guarantee that there will be a single public housing home built as part of the rebuild, so I ask: given the government has previously used demolition contracts to evict residents and force them from their homes, Premier, is the government again bringing forward these demolition contracts to begin mass evictions of residents so estates can be demolished and, yes, privatised?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:33): Let me be clear for the benefit of the member for Prahran, in case he missed it in my answer to his substantive question: these are not privatisations, these are an opportunity to rebuild. The member for Prahran asked about information being made available and he has claimed that information has not been made publicly available. Let me remind the member for Prahran that nearly 12 months ago we released our housing statement, where we committed to the redevelopment of those 44 high-rise public housing estates. We committed, as part of that, to increasing social housing by 10 per cent across these sites and also to look at how taking the 10,000 homes on these sites can be expanded to be 30,000 homes. All of that information is in the public domain. What this is about is further evidence that the Greens are all about the politics, not vulnerable Victorians, not facts – all about the politics.