Wednesday, 13 November 2024

 Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (10:03): I wish to rise this morning to make comment on the government’s Big Housing Build. It is the fourth anniversary this month of that commitment the government made. The former Premier, Premier Andrews, stood before the people of Victoria and said, ‘We will increase social housing by 10 per cent.’ And here we are, four years later, and where are they with this commitment? This commitment has fallen well short. This government is not even a third of the way. They are not there yet on providing public housing. The Premier made a commitment to the homeless, to the needy and to the desperate in Victoria that there would be 8600 ‍new homes by this time. And where are we at? Barely 2600. At the same time this complete lack of performance has seen the Victorian housing register, the list of people desperate for a home, grow exponentially over that time. And just in the last reporting quarter 3000 extra families were added to that list. Can you believe it? Three thousand more families were added in one quarter over what this government has been able to provide in housing in four years. It is a terrible indictment. And not only is there poor performance there, but the overall bed numbers for the homeless in Victoria continue to decline – 3000 fewer beds are available to the homeless of Victoria.