Wednesday, 13 November 2024

Matters of public importance

Housing

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

Victoria is number one for approving and building new homes and number one for supporting renters.

Katie HALL (Footscray) (16:01): I am delighted to propose this matter of public importance, because there is no more important matter for the people of Victoria than the dignity of a home. I am enormously proud of the data that Victoria is leading the nation in home approvals and building new homes, and of course we are leading the nation with the strongest protection for renters. As the Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and as the representative for an electorate with a very high proportion of renters and a very high proportion of younger people living in my community in Melbourne’s inner west, this is crucial. This goes to our values as Labor people. I think about our commitment as a government to a housing-first approach to policy, because you cannot find a job and you cannot sort out your healthcare needs or your education needs if you do not have access to stable or affordable housing. We know that more homes means more opportunities – more opportunities to live in the places where you want to live or where you aspire for your children to live or your grandchildren to live. We are delivering more homes where they are needed most as part of our $6.3 billion investment in social housing.

I would like to acknowledge the former member for Richmond Richard Wynne, who spent most of his working life trying to support vulnerable people in his community to have access to social housing. Former Minister Wynne worked tirelessly. He even worked on Fridays, unlike the current member for Richmond. It never would have occurred to him to go into the public housing towers, as the current member for Richmond does, and frighten people and spread misinformation and disinformation around our renewal of social housing in Victoria, which again speaks to our values as Labor people. We are getting on with it. We are getting on with the job of delivering more homes for more Victorians right across Victoria, despite the opposition from those opposite and their friends in the Greens.

I had the misfortune of being in the chamber earlier today when I heard the Leader of the Opposition speak about housing. In his wideranging contribution to the Statute Law Repeals Bill 2024, he was speaking about, without a skerrick of irony, the lack of infrastructure in places like Docklands. He was critical of the lack of infrastructure. He seems to have forgotten that it was his good friend Jeff Kennett who allowed developers to go into Docklands and build whatever they wanted without the City of Melbourne’s involvement. It was also his good friend the member for Bulleen who approved the Joseph Road development in my electorate of Footscray. That was approved without any developer contributions. Minister Wynne had to take the developers to court to retrospectively get them to pay contributions so the council could build roads.

Whilst we believe in building more homes, we also believe in doing it properly – that there is a right way to build housing and there is a right way to build communities. The suite of reforms introduced and announced by the Minister for Planning, the Minister for Housing and the Minister for Precincts demonstrates this government’s commitment to building great connected communities and building more housing where it is needed and where it is wanted, because in our great city of Melbourne and great state of Victoria we know that we have fantastic infrastructure. We are opening some more fantastic infrastructure just next year, with the Metro Tunnel and the West Gate Tunnel, and we know that there are good locations with access to infrastructure, to schools, to roads, to public transport and to hospitals in places and communities where people want to live.

It saddens me that for people in my own community of the inner west – and people have lived there for generations – younger people now cannot afford to live in the electorate of Footscray, like their parents or their grandparents. But we are doing something about that with the announcement of our activity centres across Melbourne. Again, this goes to our values. There is nothing more fundamental than the dignity of a safe and secure, warm home, and that is something that the Allan Labor government is getting on and doing. We have constructed 10,000 new homes, which are already underway or complete. More than 5000 households have moved in or are getting ready to move in to brand new homes, and we are on track to deliver 13,300 new homes right across Victoria through the Big Housing Build and the Regional Housing Fund. This is about building, not blocking, the homes that people want to live in in the places that they want to live.

Can you imagine standing on the back of a ute in your community and opposing housing for vulnerable people? That is what the Leader of the Opposition did, and it is shameful. But we got on with the job of building new homes in Bills Street in Hawthorn – 206 social and affordable homes there, providing warm, safe and dry homes for more Victorians and jobs for more than 800 people. It is not just in Hawthorn, it is all over Melbourne where we are building this housing.

I note that the member for Brighton is in here at the moment. I was appalled in 2018 when he committed to closing down housing for rough sleepers at 226 South Road in Brighton and to selling the site. I do not know how the member for Brighton sleeps at night knowing that he was fighting against vulnerable people having a roof over their head and opposing 84 townhouses on the former Xavier College campus, just 350 metres from a train station. There is not just one train station in Brighton; I think there are three. Then he organised an angry mob to come and protest the announcement of Brighton as the location of a new train and tram zone.

James Newbury interjected.

Katie HALL: The member for Brighton can bellow all he likes, but he is on the record opposing social housing and affordable housing for vulnerable people in his community. But there are some people on the Liberal Party side who are not opposed to reform. Mr Mulholland in the other place has said that he believes it is his duty as a millennial MP to do what he can in assisting his generation to achieve the great Australian dream of home ownership:

I believe it is immoral that large sections of our inner cities, flush with good transport, schools, health care and other infrastructure, remain almost flat, with obsolete overlays denying young Victorians a chance to buy their first home where they want to live.

I commend him for saying that. It is sensible policy reform, but of course those opposite are not interested in sensible or detailed policy reform, just blocking, blocking, blocking with their mates from the Greens. Their friend the member for Richmond – their preferences got her elected – when she was the mayor of Yarra council was the chief blocker of social housing and opposed social and affordable housing in Collingwood in 2021, and her Greens colleagues opposed a six-storey apartment block in Fitzroy North earlier this year. They are always getting in the way of building more homes; it is always ‘Not in my backyard’.

I think the Premier and this government can be proud that we are going to fight for younger generations, for millennials, who want to own their own home, and they should be allowed to own their own home in a suburb that they have a connection to community with. But that will not happen if those opposite, heaven forbid, ever have the great honour of being in government again, because they will put the brakes on, just in the same way as they tried to stop the Metro Tunnel from proceeding, they tried to stop the West Gate Tunnel from proceeding and they want to block the Suburban Rail Loop. They have no imagination, hope or aspiration for the great state of Victoria or for the people who want to live here and contribute to our city and our state.

I was very proud that, as part of the planning reforms that we have announced in our commitment to the renters and the aspiring home owners of the inner west, we launched the Pick My Park project in Footscray at Hansen Reserve. We are building more homes and making renting fair for the more than 50 per cent of people in the suburb of Footscray who rent, but they also need access to great public open space. The Pick My Park project was launched at Hansen Reserve in West Footscray, and I was absolutely delighted to be speaking with locals there about the kind of open space we want in my community in Melbourne’s inner west: quality, safe, accessible, usable park spaces that can be even better. These are the sorts of reforms by a government that is invested in community building and high-quality urban design – as we have done with our apartment design standards. We want confidence in the market. We want confidence in our communities. Part of our package of reforms is to make sure that the communities that we are building and that we are investing in remain livable.

One of the most exciting things I think for people in my community as part of these reforms has actually been our reforms to the building sector. I have supported a range of constituents, whether it be Pam Mulready of Seddon with her terrible experience with Extension Factory or the residents of the Shangri-La apartment building in West Footscray, for whom for too long the quality has been poor. Creating a new watchdog to bring together for the first time all aspects of quality control, regulation, insurance and dispute resolution will help return confidence to the market, especially in a community like Footscray, where people are happy to live in apartments as long as they are well built because we are connected to transport. Just like the member for Brighton’s electorate, I have a very busy transport hub in Footscray. I have a world-class hospital that is being built. We are getting trucks off local roads, because that is what we do as a government. We build and we invest in the infrastructure that will create great communities, and I am very proud of the government’s commitment to building more homes for more Victorians.

James NEWBURY (Brighton) (16:16): The government has brought a matter of public importance to this house today on perhaps their biggest policy failure as a government, other than of course their perhaps criminal economic vandalism through the life of their government. But it is in the lack of capacity in providing homes to the community where they have failed so badly. And they have done it today – today of all days – a day when Victorians have been seen to vote against this government. We have seen it. We have seen it in polling today. The ‘runner-up Premier’, the polls say today. The Premier has now become the runner-up leader of this Parliament, and when it comes to policy and when it comes to housing, we know why, because the housing policies the Premier has announced – she has staked her leadership on it in recent weeks – are the great reset. The Premier took a great reset by announcing, ‘Throw it all in on policy.’ And it has been proven to be a scam – a total scam. Do you know why? Because the policy on housing is about one thing: the Premier’s population growth.

The Premier keeps saying, ‘We’re going to double the size of this city to at least the size of London.’ Has anybody ever asked a Victorian whether they want to see Melbourne at least double to the size of London? Nobody has been asked. There is no mandate, so this hollow set of policy announcements is nothing more than a fraud, a scam. The Premier talks about building housing for people’s children, but it is about housing new population growth – that is what this policy is about – and in doing so turning Melbourne into a mega city. Did anyone ask this state whether they want a mega city? Did anyone ask? No, of course they did not. The Premier has swanned around, driven into Melbourne from Bendigo – from 150 kilometres away – to make her announcements, and those announcements will wreck this city. Melburnians know it; of course they know it. You have got a Premier who lives 150 ‍kilometres away, who swans on into town and says, ‘I’ve got a series of policies that are going to wreck your suburbs.’ Is there any wonder that all around the city you are starting to see big groups of people come together and rise up and say, ‘We don’t want our city wrecked. We don’t want to see the livability of our state destroyed.’ We were the most livable city in the world, and now the government has a plan to wreck it by turning certain suburbs into mega suburbs.

The Premier likes to play political games and pick the suburbs she does not like. Of course that is what has happened. We all know what has happened. The Premier cannot even see these suburbs with a pair of binoculars from where she lives. She could not even see the city with a pair of binoculars and has picked suburbs she does not like and said, ‘You know what, we’re going to wreck them.’ These are established, long-term suburbs where the community has spent hundreds of years, built these beautiful suburbs around them, and the Premier has said, ‘We’re going to put big skyscrapers in them, and you know what, community, you have to suck it up.’ That is what this policy is: a scam to fit the population growth that the Labor government has targeted, both state and federal, into our suburbs.

What has happened as a result? Victorians have turned on the Premier. I am 100 per cent sure that when the Premier said, ‘We’re going to put everything into this announcement,’ it was to do one thing: to turn around the polls. I do not think the Premier has any goal in her mind other than trying to turn the polls around for herself, so that is what these policy announcements were about. Today the Premier woke up with the faint hope that there would be some glimmer that the Premier’s reset, her big policy announcements, would pay a dividend, and Victorians have said no. Not only have they said no; they have made the Premier the runner-up. How embarrassing for the Premier. You can feel it in this chamber and you can feel it as you move around this building. The other side of the chamber know it. They are now looking at the boss and saying, ‘Oh no, something is wrong here,’ and there is something wrong. The Premier does not get Melbourne. That is the problem – the Premier does not get Melbourne, and that is what you can see in these policy announcements.

These policy announcements were an attack on the city. There is no other way to see it. The Premier will say, ‘If you stand up against what we are announcing, somehow there is something wrong with you.’ I have said it before and I will say it again: I would rather stand up and protect my community than be the Premier who wrecks it. That is what this Premier is doing. She has already announced that she will allow the wrecking of 25 suburbs through her major activity centre announcement, and the coalition has said strongly that where the community does not want it of course it should not be forced upon them. There are some communities that do, and they absolutely should be welcome to it. But when you see inappropriate skyscrapers being forced on communities that have none, purely because the Premier does not like the suburb, seriously, is there any wonder that Victorians have turned on the Premier?

We have been called a number of times recently into communities by community-led groups who have organised forums about what is being proposed in their area. This is not the Liberal Party organising opposition to the government’s announcements. These are groups in Box Hill, Niddrie and Essendon where the communities have turned out in their hundreds to say, ‘What is this government doing?’ What I have said to those communities is that, firstly, their local member has not stood up for them. In fact their local members are gaslighting them, because they are saying in this chamber they want what the government is foisting upon them, which is just not true. The members are gaslighting their communities and coming into this chamber and saying it is supported. We know it is not supported, because it is inappropriate. When the government talks about housing and community support, we know that is not true, and there are a number of other community events in coming weeks.

I know that in my own community on Sunday there will be a community walk. It will be a very big community walk, I suspect. But that community walk is not just people from Bayside. There are people from the Deputy Premier’s community who are coming across, there are people from Box Hill, there are people from all over Melbourne who are coming to say, ‘You know what, we cannot have a government who is attacking our communities.’ That is what is at the core of the Premier’s announcement.

What is going to become more clear to Victorians is that it is not just an attack, it is an attack based on a scam, because this is solely about population growth – nothing more. But the Premier has not asked Victorians if they support that growth; no-one has. Do we want to be the size of London? Has anyone asked? Of course they have not, and the Premier certainly does not have a mandate for it. So what you will see is Victorians continuing to turn against the government. Their members have not worked it out yet. They have not fully worked it out. You could see when the polls came in that something was not quite right, but they are always behind the curve. They have not yet worked out that Victorians have turned on the government, but even more so they have turned on the Premier. They have turned on the Premier. They do not trust the Premier. That is why the Premier is a runner-up. The Premier is a runner-up. To think – and how embarrassing – the Premier put everything into the housing announcement. It was going to be the great white hope, the saviour, of this Premier’s premiership. It was going to be the saving of the Premier’s premiership. Yet what happened? It sank like a stone. That is because Victorians have figured out two things: number one, the housing policy is based on a scam ‍– it is all about population growth; and, secondly, it is an attack on Melbourne from a Premier who lives 150 kilometres away.

Though we do not talk about it – and the government certainly has stopped talking about it – this follows the commitment by the former Premier to building 80,000 homes a year. I will tell you how incompetent the Labor government is. Since announcing the commitment to building 80,000 homes, the number of homes built this year will go down on the previous year. Only a Labor government could announce an increase in home builds and actually cause it to go down. You have to be a special kind of stupid to get it to go down. The former Premier announced the commitment to building 80,000 ‍homes, and we will see it go down. That is why Victorians have no confidence in the Premier’s plan. That is why industry has no confidence in the Premier’s plan. The coalition has and will have policies in this space and knows it very well. We do not want to see this industry fail, we want to see it succeed. What we know is as a result of a former Minister for Planning we saw the highest number of builds in this state’s history – the highest. So set aside all the words; the highest number of builds we have seen in this state’s history was because of former planning minister Matthew Guy. That is a fact.

Matthew Guy interjected.

James NEWBURY: He is a legend, he says. It is a fact, so we have credibility in terms of supplying housing. Housing minister Wynne – seriously, that guy slept. He was the Joe Biden of this Parliament ‍– good old sleepy Richard. This government has monumentally failed on housing. There is no question that this government has failed on housing in terms of the former Premier’s commitment, the commitment he made on the way out to try and show that he stood for something. His commitment – what a failure that has been. Housing has gone down. And now it is the Premier who has thrown everything into her housing commitments. Victorians have worked it out. It is based on a scam – this is about population growth. But nobody has been asked if we want to be a city the size of London, and the Premier certainly does not have a mandate. Secondly, it is an attack on suburbs the Premier does not like from 150 kilometres away. The Premier does not even have to live in the city she is wrecking. By the time it is wrecked, she is going to be out on a pension, one of the very few out on a pension – what a disgrace that is – having wrecked this city. This Premier has failed.

Ella GEORGE (Lara) (16:31): It is a pleasure to rise today to make a contribution on the matter of public importance submitted by the member for Footscray:

Victoria is number one for approving and building new homes and number one for supporting renters.

I am so proud to be a member of this government, which is committed to investing in housing for all Victorians. Unlike those opposite, we are delivering more homes for Victorians. Our $6.3 billion investment in housing is providing homes for Victorians in the places where they are needed most. Across the state there are more than 10,000 new homes underway or completed, and in fact we are on track to deliver more than 13,300 new homes. This is not by accident. It is happening because our government believes in more homes right across the state, including in Brighton. Thanks to our investments in the Victorian Big Housing Build and the Regional Housing Fund, that is exactly what is happening.

The electorate of Lara and the wider Geelong region are certainly benefiting from this investment. Under the Big Housing Build 408 new homes have been completed and 28 new homes are underway across the Greater Geelong LGA. One of those projects is the Ormond Road project in East Geelong, where I know the member for Geelong has long been advocating for upgrades to the ageing public housing units. This incredible project will see 18 existing homes replaced with 54 modern energy-efficient homes, including homes that are accessible for people of all abilities. But we also recognise the need to maintain the current housing stock that we have, and since May 2020 an investment of $20 million has provided or is in the process of providing crucial maintenance and upgrades across 1367 homes within the Greater Geelong region.

Delivering over 13,000 homes as part of the Big Housing Build would not be possible without assistance from the wonderful registered housing providers that we have across the state. The Northern Geelong Rental Housing Co-operative is one of these. They have been delivering property management and housing services since 1983 and have been a registered housing provider in the Greater Geelong region since 2009. Homes Victoria has partnered with them to provide social housing in our region. The co-op currently manages 61 properties. They are managed by their tenant members, who take an active role in the management of homes and running the co-op. Members are involved in decision-making, taking responsibility for housing and general living conditions.

The benefits of housing co-operatives, like the ones we have in the northern suburbs of Geelong, are numerous. Some of the key advantages that we see in our community include an increase in safety and stability for residents. Residents also develop a sense of community and a sense of agency for themselves. They are empowered to play a role in their co-op. This in turn upskills their members, who can bring their skills into the community and the broader workforce. Last year the member for Geelong and I joined the Minister for Housing for the opening of three new social homes in Camellia Crescent in Norlane.

Chris Couzens interjected.

Ella GEORGE: Incredible homes. These homes are beautiful standalone units, which meet the livable housing silver level design guidelines and include double-glazed windows, double insulation, solar panels and solar hot water. These new properties enabled existing co-op tenant members to move into suitably sized homes that better fit their needs when previously they were living in larger homes. In turn, this freed up the larger homes for families who were in need of housing. Community housing, like the homes managed by Northern Geelong Rental Housing Co-op, is such an important part of the thousands of social homes provided by the state government.

I want to touch on a local constituent who resides in a property managed by the Northern Geelong Rental Housing Co-op. I met Margaret last year, and as we got to speaking she mentioned that she loves living in her home. Margaret was previously living in a home managed by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, and due to an issue with her neighbour her family had to leave. This resulted in Margaret having to couch surf and stay with friends. Margaret was informed about the work of the co-op and arranged a meeting with them. Since becoming a tenant, she says she has not looked back. Margaret said that although her home may be owned by the government and managed by the co-op, it feels like her home, and she says that sense of security is everything to her. It means sanity, not having to look over her shoulder all the time wondering if her house will be sold on her. She says that the Northern Geelong Rental Housing Co-op community she is part of is just that: a community. They hold functions at the co-op office, like Christmas parties at the end of the year, which help form a closer connection than just that of neighbours. Margaret said that it is truly their own community within the community.

In addition to this, Margaret mentioned how much she has learned since being part of the co-op. She says that she now has more of an understanding of just how hard it is for people in situations like she found herself in trying to get into housing. She said that she is empowered – empowered to open her mouth and to stand up for herself and for her community. She believes her time with the Northern Geelong Rental Housing Co-op has made her feel more knowledgeable and also more secure in her environment. I want to thank Margaret for sharing her experiences with me and giving me permission to share this with the Parliament. Margaret’s story is an incredible example of the power of housing cooperatives and community housing, because we know when it comes to housing there is no one-size-fits-all approach. For some people, community housing can be a life-changing and empowering experience, and these are exactly the results we see in our communities when we have a government that understands that everyone deserves a safe, secure and modern place to call home.

I am often asked about the issues that are impacting residents in the electorate of Lara. It is easy to answer because overwhelmingly housing is the issue that is most frequently raised with me and my office. The northern suburbs of Geelong, and in particular 3214, the suburbs of Norlane and Corio, have one of the highest rates of social housing, and these suburbs have high rates of tenants renting their homes. According to ABS data from 2021, 45.4 per cent of the population of the 3214 postcode rent their homes as opposed to 28.5 per cent across the rest of the state. According to socio-economic indexes for the area, these suburbs are ranked as the first and eighth most disadvantaged suburbs in Victoria. It is only our government that is doing something to address this. It is only the Allan Labor government that is building more homes to address disadvantage across Victoria.

Not only are we building more homes for more Victorian families, we are protecting renters’ rights with a series of reforms aimed at closing loopholes that drive up the cost of living for renters. These reforms will give renters certainty over their leases and living standards and help to resolve tenancy disputes faster. Labor has implemented more than 130 rental reforms to restore fairness and respect for renters everywhere. Earlier this year we announced that even more will be done and introduced to the Parliament over the coming months. These include: we will stop landlords making dubious bond claims without evidence; we will ban no-fault evictions so that you cannot be kicked out of your home for no reason; we will ban the extra fees that get charged when you pay your own rent, including on rent tech apps; we will ban charging for background check fees for rental applications, because applying for a rental should be free; we will cap the cost of breaking a lease so that no renter pays an eye-watering amount in compensation; and we will ensure that if you need an extra key or fob for your apartment you will get one. These reforms build on many years of work from the state Labor government to protect renters, including establishing Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria, creating a portable bond scheme and establishing the renting taskforce to crack down on dodgy landlords and agents. In Victoria we are leading the nation when it comes to renters’ rights, and on this side of the house we are so proud to do so.

As a relatively young person in this place, I probably have a better understanding than most of just how hard it can be to enter the property market and purchase a home. But when we build more homes in Victoria, when we approve more homes in Victoria, we are making it easier for each and every young person to get their own start in owning a home. And when we support renters we are supporting young people, who are overwhelmingly renters. More homes means more opportunities for young people to be close to universities and TAFEs, to be close to jobs and to be close to their families and friends in the places where they grew up.

It is only under a Labor government that Victoria is number one for approving and building new homes and number one for supporting renters. Only under a Labor government do we see real investment and real action in housing. On this side of the house we are busy building, not blocking. We are delivering more homes for more Victorians where they want to live. Members on this side know that these investments in housing mean more opportunities to live closer to things that Victorians need – reliable public transport, secure jobs, world-class health care and great public schools – closer to friends and families and closer to the communities where young people have grown up. That is why I am so pleased to speak in support of this matter of public importance.

Peter WALSH (Murray Plains) (16:41): I rise to make a contribution on the matter of public importance today from the member for Footscray:

Victoria is number one for approving and building new homes and number one for supporting renters.

I start off my contribution by saying that self-praise is actually no praise. I go to the proverb or definition of ‘self-praise’:

Praise of oneself is inherently worthless or dubious, as one cannot be objective of one’s own work or accomplishments.

That stands out very, very clearly from the member for Footscray’s motion and the contributions of all those on the other side, that self-praise is no praise. Also:

Praising oneself reveals one’s arrogance or selfishness, which in turn lowers other’s opinion of one.

Both of those proverbs very much fit this issue that is before the house at the moment. The Labor government are saying they are number one in approving and building new homes, when we have had a number of housing statements, the main one being about 800,000 houses over 10 years – 80,000 a year – which has never been achieved and has never even looked like being achieved. How can they say they are number one for approving and building new homes?

They also say they are number one for supporting renters. If you look at rental availability, it is actually decreasing. I have been out talking to real estate agents in my electorate in the last couple of weeks about what is happening to their rental books and what is happening with the availability of rental properties with the tax changes that have happened here in Victoria and the regulations that have changed around renters’ rights versus landlords’ rights, and they are saying that their books are shrinking.

I live in a cross-border community, and the real estate agents have a cross-border issue with having two sets of rules – one for our side and one for the New South Wales side – but that is not the issue for the debate today. But what they are saying in Echuca is that all the inquiries about the purchase of properties for rentals are for Moama. No-one wants to invest in Echuca. No-one wants to invest in Victoria, because they are going to get a land tax bill. Everyone is complaining about the land tax bills, and that is driving people out of owning rental properties here in Victoria.

We have the self-praise of this government that they are somehow number one for supporting renters, but they are actually driving landlords out of the sector, and it is landlords that provide the rental properties for people to rent and live in. Renters need to understand that it is the Allan Labor government that is making it harder for them to get a rental and is making it more expensive for them to get a rental, because the landlords have to pass their costs on. They have to pass on the land tax increases. So the government saying they are number one is just so disingenuous. It is about self-praise. There is no praise. As I said, it is about arrogance and it is about selfishness. They just cannot comprehend that the decisions they are making are actually making it harder for renters in Victoria and harder for people to buy a home.

If you look at the UDIA statistics around the cost of a new home and the state-based taxes and charges that go into the cost of a new home, their last report said 42 per cent of a new house and land package is actually state government charges and taxes – 42 per cent. If you think of a young family saving up to get the deposit, scraping together the money, making the sacrifices over time to get that deposit together, going to the bank, effectively mortgaging their life to get the loan to buy a house and they find out that 42 per cent of that money they are paying out is actually state government taxes and charges, they would be appalled. If they actually got a statement that set out, of the $600,000 to $800,000 house and land package they are buying, that 42 per cent is state taxes and charges, people would be horrified, but that is what those on the other side of the house are doing.

We did have 55 new and increased taxes here in Victoria. We have now got 56, because there is a death tax that has been added to those 55 new taxes and charges. We have all heard the saying about lawyers being ambulance chasers. The Allan government is actually a hearse chaser. They are chasing the hearse to the cemetery to charge death taxes. We have got the Allan Labor government being a hearse chaser. You die, you pay. You pay taxes all your life. You pay exorbitant taxes under the current government. You pay the tax if you are an employer; you pay the WorkCover tax increases. If you are a large employer, you pay the mental health levy, which is going into a black hole, and mental health services have not actually improved in Victoria for the billion dollars a year they are raising. You pay your land tax. If you and your brothers and sisters own a holiday house you share, you are now paying ‍–

The SPEAKER: Through the Chair.

Peter WALSH: Through the Chair. The Speaker may own a holiday house with her brothers and sisters, and she is now paying land tax on that. And a lot of people have to sell those houses because they just cannot afford the land tax to keep them. You are seeing a whole generational change in what is happening because of the land tax that has come into this state.

You had the windfall gains tax introduced – supposedly a windfall, but all that does is actually add $20,000 to $30,000 to the price of a block a land. It is not a windfall for anyone, and what you see particularly in country areas is that people are no longer doing the subdivisions and no longer selling that land, because it is going to cost them too much in tax to do that. We are actually seeing a reduction in the supply of land. Again, to say that the Allan Labor government is number one for approving and building new homes is a falsehood. I have spoken about it in the Parliament here before.

Amendment C117 is the big planning amendment on the west of Echuca – 5000 lots. It took seven years to get that approved, and it was not because of local government. It was not local government at all. Everyone blames local government. Those on the other side want to take the powers away from local government because they believe they can do it better somehow. It was not local government that was that was holding that up. It was the state bureaucracy. It was the old Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. It is the new Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA). It is whatever department you call it. It has a new name, but it is the same faces. It is the same people that sit behind those desks that are blockers. They are absolute blockers. For anyone on the other side that wants to listen, it is your departments, it is your bureaucrats that are the blockers when it comes to housing supply here in Victoria.

I am very passionate about this issue because I want to make sure that there is development in regional Victoria, and it is DEECA now that is the blocker. It is the regulations and the rules and the inane way they go about them that mean for a developer they have got the holding cost of that property. For those that bought the land in Echuca West, it was seven years, seven years of interest, seven years of all the holding charges. They finally turned the first sod, but what has happened? DEECA have come back and want to renegotiate some of the rules around that particular land. As I said, for the Allan government and for the member for Footscray to actually move that they believe they are number one for approving and building new homes is an absolute falsehood. Self-praise is no praise. They should hang their heads in shame. The fanfare around the housing strategy is around 80,000 houses each year for 10 years. It has not been achieved and will never be achieved under this government. To have 54,000 built in the first year and something like 60,000 going to be built in the second year is a long way away from 80,000 per year. If the cumulative shortfall is 30,000 houses a year, that is 300,000 ‍houses that will not be built over the next 10 years in this housing strategy.

To say that the Allan government is number one for renters – have a look at the reduction in the rental books that are available at the real estate agents because there are less people owning rental properties because of the legislative changes this government has made over the journey. They have made it harder for landlords to even want to invest, and the double whammy is they have now got their land tax bill. They are throwing their hands up in the air and they are saying, ‘We’ll sell this property. We’ll go and invest in Adelaide.’ Particularly a lot of them are investing in Queensland because it is far more attractive. It is a repeat of the time when fortunately Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the former National Party Premier of Queensland, took away death duties. We now have a government bringing in death duties, but Joh actually took away death duties. People started leaving Victoria to go to Queensland. Victoria had to get rid of death duties. As these housing investors go to Queensland the government is going to realise they are going to have to reverse that decision or the rental stock will decrease further.

Gary MAAS (Narre Warren South) (16:51): It gives me great pleasure to rise and to speak to this matter of public importance (MPI) that has been put forward by the member for Footscray. And to follow that – it was a little bit like Abraham Simpson just yelling at clouds, wasn’t it? It was a little bit like that. To have an advocate like the member for Footscray, who is our Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and who is ensuring that we have the opportunity to speak to this matter of public importance, really is a terrific thing. Victoria is number one for approving and building new homes and number one for supporting renters. You know Abe Simpson-like characters yelling at clouds just ain’t going to cut it.

Here in Victoria more homes means more opportunity. In Victoria we always run on making sure that we have security, opportunity and community. We make sure that we have the jobs that people need to be secure in their lives. We make sure that they have the transport and the education to help create opportunities, and now we are investing in the housing so that people have dignity, so that people have a roof over their head and so that they can participate in community – security, opportunity and community.

I am grateful to have the chance today to speak to what our government is doing to make sure that Victorians – especially families, younger people and vulnerable people – can have the chance to own or rent a home. A house is an opportunity. It is the opportunity to start a family if you choose, get involved in your local community and create the life you want to close to work, friends and family. It should not be something that is difficult to find. It should not be a market that people are locked out of because it is too expensive to save for a deposit or there are too few houses available. It is a reality for many. Here in Victoria we are committed to changing this so generations to come have that security, have that comfort and have that opportunity that they deserve.

We know that housing pressures are impacting house prices and rental prices and reducing the ability of those in lower socio-economic circumstances to secure a roof over their heads. This is something I hear from my community in Narre Warren South, particularly as the outer south-east is one of the major growth corridors in our state. The Labor government’s housing statement tackles this issue head-on by building more homes and in turn making them more affordable. Building more homes is just one solution to the problem, but we know there is much more to this story. It is why we have also delivered reforms to protect and strengthen renters’ rights. It is why we are building the infrastructure to make sure our suburbs are close to the public transport that keeps our state moving through projects such as the Metro Tunnel and the Suburban Rail Loop. We are building and approving homes faster than any other state in the country, and ABS data from October 2024 confirms this, with more than 60,000 home completions over the last 12 months. That is nearly 15,000 more homes than New South Wales. Victoria is also leading the nation in protection for renters, with more than 130 rental reforms to ensure fairness and respect for renters.

There was once upon a time a federal Treasurer who, back in 2014, talked about a nation of lifters and leaners. We now have an opposition in this state where we can talk about this notion of builders and blockers. Let me tell you this: they will keep yelling, and boy, don’t they love to yell, especially in this chamber. They will keep screaming for housing to be built, but you can guarantee that they will keep blocking. While they block, we build, and we are delivering more homes where they are needed, most as a part of our landmark $6.3 billion investment in housing. More than 10,000 new homes are already underway or complete across Victoria, and we are not stopping any time soon. I am proud to be part of a government who is doubling down on housing.

We recently made a series of announcements to help build more homes and create more opportunities for Victorians. This includes: planning for more homes near public transport, with the announcement of 50 activity centres – that announcement made I think in Church Street, Brighton, recently; slashing stamp duty to make it cheaper for people to buy a townhouse, unit or apartment off the plan; tackling subdivision reform to make it easier to build a second home or granny flat on your property; and announcing a new and more powerful building quality watchdog, the building and plumbing commission. The new regulator will have tougher powers to crack down on building work that is not up to standard. We are creating a simpler, fairer system for infrastructure funding for parks, community facilities and paths in the area where you build your homes. There is also a $150 million fund for local infrastructure in growth areas in Melbourne, with the new growth areas infrastructure contribution funding round to focus on transport services. Through this scheme, developers will continue contributing funding for important projects in the places where more homes are being built, not just taking the profits from building those homes. This fund will service our local government areas of Casey as well as nearby Cardinia and Hume, Melton and Whittlesea in the north and the west too. The fund ensures our growing communities do not miss out on the infrastructure that they need, with funding for public transport services, school upgrades, health and community facilities, hospitals, sport and rec facilities, open space and much, much more.

We have also launched a $30 million Pick My Park grant program. It is a fast process for well-designed houses that look great, and we are providing funding to boost planning capacity in regional councils. As a part of our landmark housing investment, we are also delivering 13,300 new social and affordable homes right across Victoria, with more than 10,000 already underway or complete, because as I said at the beginning of my contribution, everyone deserves a safe, secure and modern place to call home.

It would of course be remiss of me not to talk about the Suburban Rail Loop. The Suburban Rail Loop was first announced by this government on 28 August 2018. I remember the date – it was three months before the election in 2018, and we went to that election with the promise to get started on building a Suburban Rail Loop, a transport and urban planning project that will change the way our city moves, lives and grows. The project, I am very happy to say, is powering ahead. We have just signed the final tunnelling contract for the Suburban Rail Loop East, with tunnelling to begin in 2026. The SRL is going to connect our suburbs, slash travel times and support the delivery of 70,000 homes in the suburbs. People want to live close to schools, parks and services.

Steve McGhie interjected.

Gary MAAS: The member for Melton has just reminded me that that 2018 election was won by the then Andrews Labor government. It went again to election in 2022 and again that policy proposal got up. Now this government, this Allan Labor government, is continuing to deliver the SRL, beginning with the SRL East. The project is going to make sure our transport and homes are in the right places to manage the growth of our urban fringe, linking all those major railway lines from the Frankston line to the Werribee line via the airport as well as creating more activity in our middle suburbs in the SRL precincts. The SRL will especially impact my electorate of Narre Warren South by opening up much better access to key health and employment, new homes and education destinations in the south-east.

It is with great pride that I support the member for Footscray’s MPI, and I do so because Labor is the only party in this state that gets on with the job of providing more – that is more homes, more opportunities, more transport and more jobs. Unlike the Greens and unlike the Libs, who will just complain about it, we get on with it and we are doing it. We are doing it now. I support the MPI.

Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (17:01): When we are talking about housing approvals – and I know we were talking about it last time, but now we are talking about it again – you are talking to the king of housing approvals, and that is me. I like kings. I like Elvis Presley very much, I really do, whether it is Burning Love or Viva Las Vegas, even sometimes Suspicious Minds. I like the king’s Suspicious Minds when I look opposite, but I like the king very much, and I am the king of housing approvals.

I know this government is gloating about 180,000 lots over 10 years, which is like gloating you are going to build Adelaide’s housing strategy for a city the size of Queensland, because we have got more people living in Melbourne than live in Queensland, and Labor’s response is to say, ‘We’re going to release 18,000 lots each and every year for 10 years, and we’ve got a plan to get there.’ The Minister for Planning is here. This is really good. I will school the minister while I can – a bit of Guysplaining ‍– because for the four years that I was the Minister for Planning in this state we averaged 51,578 lots each and every year, not 18,000. We averaged 51,000 lots each and every year. And do you know what that did? That put 51,000 couples, singles and families into a home in a growth area each and every year. That is our legacy. Our legacy is not whingeing, like the Labor Party did certainly back then, or trying to fix a problem 10 years after you caused it. Our response was to get in there and just say, ‘Look, we’ve got a job to do.’ We approved homes for 577,000 Victorians; that is the population of the Gold Coast. But this government has now got so few cranes on the sky –

Lauren Kathage interjected.

Matthew GUY: Goodness me! Someone got the red cordial out. The red cordial has been shipped up to Yan Yean; I think you are from Yan Yean.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Yan Yean is warned.

Matthew GUY: Goodness, you must have found Danielle Green’s Tang or red cordial. Sorry. If I were you, I would just be schooled by the king at this point in time, because we approved 577,000 ‍lots. We also reformed the development contributions plans (DCP) so that they could be taken off the shelf so that – wait for it – infrastructure could be delivered much, much quicker than at the rate this government is currently doing. We the Liberal and National parties brought in place works in kind, and that meant the developers could even bring in infrastructure before the houses hit the market, which was in fact then abolished by the Labor Party. Can you believe it. They abolished it. Why would you do something as dumb as that? Well, you could come up with a lot of reasons. But I introduced it, the Liberals introduced it, the Nationals introduced it, and do you know who blocked it? Do you know who opposed it? The Labor Party. They opposed it.

I have got a list of things the Labor Party blocked, now that we are talking on the matter of public importance, because I remember Daniel Andrews, the then member for Mulgrave, and his shadow planning spokesman Brian Tee opposed – it is like a game show – not one, not two but all of the 206,312 lots, saying, ‘It’s going to create slums’ – their word – ‘in the outer suburbs.’ They also opposed the tens of thousands of apartments – homes – that we put in place in the downtown area of Melbourne, which rose to 74,000 units over four years. Do you know what has been done under the Labor Party in the last four years? 17,000. They opposed every single one and said, ‘They’re all slums in the sky’ – their language. ‘Slums in the sky’ were Daniel Andrews’s and Brian Tee’s words, and that was supported by the then member for Albert Park Mr Foley. That was supported by the then member for Richmond Dick Wynne, who became planning minister, and – wait for it – where did he put height restrictions? In his own seat. Who would put height restrictions and setback restrictions through Fitzroy, through Richmond? But he was not Robinson Crusoe on this, because then he was ably followed by another planning minister, the member for Carrum, and what did she do? She also put height restrictions in her own seat.

There was me, the former minister, going up as we used to do – we came in here, there would be breakfast and you would get a toaster – and I sidled up to Dick Wynne. I am only 5 foot 7½ – remember the half. I sidled up to Dick Wynne – he is a big man – and twice I said to him, ‘Minister, Doncaster has mandatory heights of up to 17 storeys, and the council and I would like to get more, more, more in central Doncaster, because we can handle growth there. It would take pressure off parts of the city where that growth would be inappropriate – say, Brighton, parts of Malvern, parts of Templestowe – but you can put it in activities areas.’ And do you know what he said? ‘Oh, that would have to be a planning scheme amendment process. It might take 18 months.’ I said, ‘Minister, I am offering it to you. I am saying my community can understand that central Doncaster is a place for major growth. We accept it. We can see it. And if we take the pressure off our suburbs and grow sustainably and sensibly, we could put growth where it should be.’ No, he would not do that. He went off and took his raisin toast – he is probably a brown toast kind of guy with no butter, I suspect, just a little bit of Vegemite – and I never got that planning scheme amendment. The council in Manningham never got that. And now we are still stuck with mandatory height requirements in the CBD of Doncaster.

So now, on record formally, I ask the Minister for Planning sitting opposite me in the chamber – here are the supposed blockers uttering: ‘Will you finally intervene once and for all, stop mucking around and please take off mandatory height requirements?’ We look at Box Hill and say, ‘We can manage growth. We can accommodate growth’, but the government block it, block that growth, just like they opposed and blocked houses in Footscray. The lead speaker on this motion – they opposed it. They blocked it. They wanted to stop it, just like the member for Bentleigh. He opposed anything. The guy did not even want backyards to have a place for your grandparents. He wanted nothing – ‘Lock it up. Leave it.’ Blocker. I like the member for Bentleigh, but now he is apparently all for it – ‘Gotta get into the ministry, so we’ve got to get in there and say we’re all for this stuff.’ He opposed it.

When the coalition government offered, for regional growth, to say, ‘Our regional cities like Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo should be offered the chance for a capital city’s own capital city zone with controls throughout those CBD areas so that we can grow urban populations, take the pressure off the suburbs and put them in a place where they can go,’ guess who opposed it in Bendigo? Guess who blocked it? ‘Oh, no, we don’t want Mr Skyscraper coming to Bendigo’ was the cry. But now it is okay for Mrs Skyscraper to head down to Liberal electorates around the state. But Mr Skyscraper over here said, ‘Let’s do it sensibly and sustainably in places that can accommodate growth’ – in places, I might add, like Fishermans Bend, which has got a 30-acre park in the middle of it. The DCP would have built trams down Plummer Street. With the highest DCP on developers in the state’s history, it could have accommodated, wait for it, 80,000 new residents in one precinct. But it was blocked and opposed by Labor, because the true blocker of development in this state is the Australian Labor Party.

If they cannot block it through planning scheme amendments, they block it through tax. That is why they have taxed the industry out of existence in Victoria; that is why they oppose growth in regional centres; that is why they oppose growth in the outer urban areas when we approved homes for 580,000 ‍Victorians; that is why they opposed our zone structure, which they use still today – because it was the best; it was good. That is why, frankly, no-one believes this government when they say they want to build homes. They just want to tax the development industry. They want to put more land tax on Victorians, because this government is a woeful government, a short-term government, a government all for the politics and not for the outcomes. That is why they are polling at 28 per cent, with the Premier at 29 per cent. As the member for Brighton said, she is the runner-up Premier, who frankly will lose the next election.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (17:11): I am very pleased to rise to speak on the topic that Victoria is number one for approving and building new homes and number one for supporting renters. I think we have to be careful when we are talking about gloating or otherwise. We have every right to rebut certain contentions that are put forward in the chamber. That is the point of debate. So to suggest that when we are referring to ABS data that is gloating I think is a stretch at best. I will seek to be absolutely clear about the matters that we are putting forward to the chamber, and I hope there is no incorrect inference of gloating, because we are actually being factual about what has happened.

If you listened to the opposition, nothing has been built and nothing is being done. It could not be further from the truth. We have been working closely with industry and the community to build more homes for Victorians right across the state. There is an important element which I think the member for Bulleen left out, and that is of course a quality product when you are talking amenities – not leaving infrastructure to the market and hoping to wing it, leaving residents in a very difficult situation. He was referring to Fishermans Bend; I am very happy to take up that topic. Of course people need schools, they need accessible parks et cetera and they also need apartments that are built appropriately, with windows and other things, such as light coming into the apartment, dare I say, et cetera. There were a number of those approved I believe during the era of the member for Bulleen that we could call into question. Henceforth the imperative has been not just building homes for building’s sake but building homes that people can actually live in with a quality of life and also extending the choice around the state.

I see a lot of the opposition looking down their noses at people in high-rise housing. I actually live in a high-rise, and I wonder: am I considered somebody who lives in a ghetto because I am in a high-rise? I do not know, but I get a lot of negativity from those opposite. I really love the community. I am in Southbank. There are 22,000 people there, and the majority of them are living in high-rises. I do not know about the attitude of the Liberal–National parties towards people in high-rises. I only hear very negative and pejorative commentary from them, and I find that quite disparaging and disheartening, because it is a really connected and warm community. There are lots of families living there. Who knew? They love the proximity to great schools, probably most of which the Andrews and Allan Labor government built, such as South Melbourne Primary School – because, lo and behold, those opposite forgot about these important elements – and South Melbourne Park Primary School. That was also built under the Andrews Labor government. They are fantastic schools and amenities, nice and convenient. This means that those people who choose to live in Southbank, just as an example, are not having to necessarily travel an hour and a half to get to work, assuming they may work in proximity to the city or otherwise.

This is all about choice, and I think this is a point that – and I am seeking to paraphrase here – both the Minister for Planning and the Premier have said a number of times. It is not saying everyone must live in X location. The whole point is: do you want to be in a greenfield site? Is that where you can see your family, your friends and community? Fantastic, so we are opening up choice in that regard. On the other hand, do you want to be in a built-up urban environment, such as I choose to be and many of the 22,000 people in the Southbank community choose to be? Fantastic, great. Or maybe you want to be a little bit further out into the suburbs in a middle-ring suburb – and heaven forbid, it is such a pity the opposition could not care less about millennials and opportunities for them into the future. Saying there are certain suburbs that are absolutely barred from any kind of development is extraordinary, to say the least. No-one is having a go at or criticising the premise of a suburb such as Malvern, Brighton or Templestowe, but simply putting up the gate and saying, ‘No, nothing is allowed here,’ I find absolutely galling, because there are opportunities in proximity to great transport. This makes really good sense. I think it is about having a more flexible attitude and thinking about the community. It is also thinking about the fact for further generations coming along the line: do you want them to be 2 ‍hours away from you or do you want them to be closer to you?

This is one of the greatest things, I think, about the housing statement, and obviously the plans that we are putting in place and rolling out fast are thinking about keeping you connected to those you care about. The only way we can open up those choices is to build more choices and more opportunities across the state. If you say, ‘Only in this place or that place is where you can build,’ that is limiting the choices, particularly for younger generations. Contrary to what the member for Brighton has said about this being some sort of lead weight, I have to say I have had overwhelmingly positive feedback particularly from younger people saying, ‘Thank you. Thank you for thinking about us. Thank you for giving us hope.’ I am not gloating in that statement. Legitimately I can show you the emails and communication that I have had that give me hope too. That is also backing in exactly what we are doing here.

Talking about facts, not gloating – let us distinguish these – the latest ABS data shows Victoria completed building more than 60,000 homes in the last 12 months, nearly 15,000 more than New South Wales. That is just a factual statement. If you deem that to be gloating, well, so be it, but that is a factual statement from the ABS. And we have approved more homes than any other state over the last 12 months – 52,392 new homes were approved in Victoria, 18,000 more than Queensland and 9600 more than New South Wales. Who knew? Now, if we had only listened to those opposite, we would have thought absolutely the opposite. We can absolutely see here that the numbers do not lie. But of course we know there is more to do. That is exactly the point. We are getting on and doing it, doubling down on this work. We are pulling every lever to try and unlock housing supply and approve affordability.

The other thing that is really interesting is they are always trashing Victoria and saying everyone is leaving, but, guess what, we are the fastest growing state in Australia. Our population is set to hit 10.3 ‍million by 2051. We must be doing something right here. I darn love our beautiful state. I think Victoria is an absolutely fantastic place. We have got wonderful citizens here. It is a great place to live, and it is a shame those opposite think it is so terrible and awful and think it is a dreadful place to live, because I absolutely love it, and we collectively are –

Mathew Hilakari interjected.

Nina TAYLOR: That is right; there are choices. If they do not like it here, they can always go interstate, but we think it is absolutely fantastic. We also know that when it comes to the issue of housing affordability it is really essential that we build more and we build more in a smart way and give Victorians choice. That is why I thought it was absolutely galling earlier today when the Leader of the Opposition was talking up housing et cetera, but at the same time we know he has been seen on the back of a ute talking down the Bills Street, Hawthorn, development, which has since seen 206 ‍social and affordable homes adjacent to this site, absolutely fantastic homes that Victorians, fellow people in our community, can enjoy. It is a bit of a contrast. It is that forked tongue again we have from the opposition, because they pretend to care about housing but any chance they get they jack up against it. We know that it is very important that we continue on this path. We resist those who are against providing more choice and more opportunities for Victorians to live where they want to live, particularly proximate to public transport.

We have to continue on this path because that is what they are telling us they want. It is not just some pie-in-the-sky thing. We have actually been engaging with community, and I know that they want accessibility and they want convenience. Actually it is a common topic in my electorate, and I have to say that since 2022 we have increased bus services by almost 1500 – that is, routes 235, 237 and the 606. When we are talking about infrastructure and supporting Victorians and particularly locals to get around the great seat of Albert Park and beyond, we are well aware that you have to look holistically. You cannot just leave it to the market, particularly with infrastructure. This is government’s job, and this is exactly what we are doing.

Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (17:21): Renters are at breaking point. A report this week from Better Renting found once again that renters are cutting back on essentials just so they can pay the rent. Seventy per cent said that they would skip meals or cut back on groceries, 50 per cent are cutting back on medication and 60 per cent do not raise issues with their landlord because they are scared of a rent increase in retaliation. That is why for so many renters, even if legislated standards are improved and even if they are given better protections, nothing will change – nothing – unless this government fixes the unlimited power that landlords have to hike up the rent and force renters out.

Just a few weeks ago I visited James. He is a Fitzroy renter whose home floods every single time it rains. Bricks in the hallway crumbled when I touched them. Holes in the walls let mice and rats in and out. It clearly did not meet minimum standards, but did the real estate agent care? Not one bit, because they know that renters have to put their life on hold and have to fork out exorbitant amounts of money and time just to have their basic rights met. And once you piss off your landlord, you can bet that they will find a way to kick you out, and that is usually by hiking up the rent so much that you give up and move out.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: as long as landlords have unlimited power to hike up the rent and force a renter out, most renters will be too scared to ask for their minimum rights to be met and will continue to live in overpriced, substandard and insecure homes. I am not exaggerating when I say that most renters are constantly worried about paying their next month’s rent and live in fear of their next rent increase. The situation is dire; you cannot spin it any other way. In Melbourne less than 1 per cent of private rentals are affordable for full-time workers in vital roles like hospitality, construction and early childhood education.

I know members opposite must be hearing from renters in their electorates saying, ‘I can’t get by.’ Just one property in Victoria is affordable for someone on the disability support pension, and not one property in Melbourne is affordable for someone on the DSP. There are no properties in the entire state that are affordable for a single person or a single parent with a child receiving youth allowance or JobSeeker, and here is Labor patting itself on the back, self-declaring that they are number one for renters. They have manufactured a sustained state of hopelessness, of stress, of financial precarity which takes a huge toll on renters, with substandard living conditions literally resulting in renters having a lower life expectancy than home owners. Labor is not winning at anything. How dare you! It is so embarrassing. Labor is failing renters. In fact this year rental affordability has hit its worst levels since records began. The Better Renting report is scathing and it is right when it says Australia’s rental system causes real harm. It stops people from living their lives. It puts their health at risk. It makes them homeless. It allows domestic violence to fester. It brings instability into children’s lives. People deserve rewarding, meaningful lives that are not just about working and paying the rent, so when Labor makes a song and dance about some basic reforms and has the audacity to take up 2 hours of parliamentary time to gloat about them, I think I would speak for the hundreds of thousands of renters in Victoria who are struggling to get by when I say the only way to make renting truly fair is to make unlimited rent increases illegal.

What is the use of roof insulation if you are too scared to ask for it and cannot afford to keep the roof over your head in the first place? While Labor tinkers around the edges, renters are drowning in unlimited rent increases. In the last two years, rents in Melbourne have gone up by 23.4 per cent. If Labor had introduced a rent freeze in January 2023 like the Greens proposed, guess how much renters in Melbourne would have saved? They would have saved $9938 each in rent increases, almost 10 ‍grand. Isn’t that outrageous? Labor could have saved every single renter in Melbourne 10 grand, but instead they are signing hundred-million-dollar contracts to demolish public housing and they are handing out tax breaks to developers and investors.

Here is the truth. As long as Labor take policy advice and donations from property investors, they will always be the party for landlords. Shame on you. One year after Labor’s housing statement, Victoria’s housing crisis has worsened on nearly every key indicator. More people are in housing stress in Victoria than any other state or territory, and Victoria has the lowest investment in public and community housing out of all the states and territories. Meanwhile, Labor’s landlords collectively made approximately $905,200,000 in 2020–21.

Why is Labor so determined to ignore the obvious, to turn away from renters when all they need is the stability and the security that rent controls would bring? What is the big barrier? Sixteen countries across Europe have some form of rent controls. Renters in the ACT, where the Greens have been in power, enjoy the security of rent controls. The Greens will keep fighting for a rent freeze followed by a cap on rents of 2 per cent every two years to allow wages the chance to catch up with astronomical rents. But there are models that Victoria could choose from around the world other than capping rents to a fixed rate, including tying it to rent ranges or a formula or linking rent increases to other indexes like the wage price index or the CPI.

What is the big problem, Labor? Why won’t Labor bring in rent controls? When I asked the Treasurer last year, he said Labor could not introduce rent controls, because it would distort the market. What did he mean by that? As though the market is this perfectly formed, perfectly functioning system and that any attempt to regulate rents would disrupt this perfect balance, disrupt the natural forces of supply and demand – those very same forces that allow landlords to exploit renters, particularly when things get tough. But we know there is nothing perfect about the rental market unless you are one of the 1 ‍per cent making a buck from it. The Treasurer’s unwillingness to distort the market shows how this government continues to prioritise profits for landlords and developers over the basic needs for secure and affordable housing. It ignores the reality that in Victoria the housing market has already been distorted by speculative practices, home hoarding and a focus on luxury developments for investment rather than addressing the pressing need for genuinely affordable homes. What this argument fundamentally overlooks is the human cost of market-driven housing policies.

Labor is prioritising the health of the economy in terms of investor and developer profits and capital accumulation at the expense of people’s wellbeing. Housing is a human right, not a commodity to be traded for profit. By rejecting rent controls Labor is effectively endorsing a system where people are increasingly vulnerable to rising rents and displacement, with no regard for the social consequences. The real distortion is the prioritisation of a few people’s wealth over human dignity, as hundreds of thousands face housing insecurity while developers continue to profit. Instead of leaning into the status quo, ignoring renters’ real misery and listening to property developers for their policy advice, Labor should be challenging this market-driven narrative and ensuring that everyone has a safe and affordable home. Rent freeze now.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind the member for Richmond and all members that using the word ‘you’ reflects on the Chair. I also remind members to use parliamentary language.

John MULLAHY (Glen Waverley) (17:31): It is an honour to rise in this chamber in support of the member for Footscray’s matter of public importance, and I would like to acknowledge the member for Footscray’s excellent contribution. Today I am honoured to speak about why Victoria is number one for approving and building new homes and number one for supporting renters. Melbourne is a global city, and it is not a museum where everything stays the same, for our best years lie ahead of us. The Allan Labor government is delivering the necessary reforms that will help cater to our growing population, projected to reach the size of London’s by 2050. These reforms are underpinned by the landmark Victorian housing statement released last year. This statement is charting the course for the next decade across planning reform, housing construction and strengthened rights for Victorian renters. We know it is a bold plan. We are committed to this bold plan because we are fully aware of the pressures many Victorians are under when it comes to housing and housing affordability.

This Labor government understands that if we do not take decisive policy action the pressure will only grow as Victoria’s population soars beyond 10 million in the coming years. This is why we will be using every lever available to the government to create the conditions to deliver our landmark $6.3 billion investment in housing. We are streamlining planning decisions to make good decisions faster. We are building more housing closer to jobs and amenities, and we are strengthening the rights of renters. There is no shortage of work before us. While those opposite bury their heads in the sand, we are creating more opportunities for young people, helping millennials into homes and ensuring our kids and grandkids know that owning a home is within their reach. I am proud to be part of an Allan Labor government which is committed to doing the work and delivering outcomes for Victorian families, including those in my electorate of Glen Waverley, where a crucial part of Australia’s largest housing project lies: the Suburban Rail Loop East.

The Suburban Rail Loop is a shining example of our commitment to creating a better future for all Victorians. It will forever change Melbourne. It will revolutionise how we move, how we work, how we study and the communities we live in. It will help by tackling housing supply and affordability, with 70,000 new homes that will be delivered in the right places. This rail line will attract more homes and businesses as people choose to live closer to world-class public transport with quality jobs, services, amenities and open spaces nearby. We are working with the community, councils and key stakeholders to ensure that growth is well planned and delivers high-quality neighbourhoods along the SRL rail network. Those who want to block this project and the homes it will bring prefer to do nothing. They take the easy way out, but we are not blockers; we are builders. We are delivering this project because we cannot afford not to.

On Sunday I joined the member for Ashwood and the member for Box Hill to welcome the Premier and the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop to the east for an important and exciting announcement. The fact that the announcement took place in the member for Box Hill’s electorate did not dampen my excitement. We announced the signing of the contract to build the twin tunnels between Glen Waverley and Box Hill. By 2026 there will be 4000 workers on the SRL East, with four tunnel-boring machines in the ground and twin tunnels being built, with major construction underway at every one of the six station sites. When delivered it will transform the way people move across Melbourne, and even more importantly, it will also deliver 70,000 homes in our lovely communities where people want to live. It is a testament to our commitment to a brighter housing future for all Victorians, and with the announcement on Sunday we are getting another step closer.

There is more work to do. The Allan Labor government is using every tool at our disposal to get on with approving and building more homes for Victorians. That is why in addition to the Suburban Rail Loop we are making the most of existing land in established suburbs to make room for more homes and more opportunities for everyone. We are doing so by unlocking and rezoning in both metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria across over 50 activity centres, which creates the conditions to build 300,000 more homes by 2051. Our efforts to deliver new homes in established areas will take pressure off the urban fringe, leading to shorter commutes and homes near services, jobs and open spaces. We are committed to ensuring that growth is well planned and delivers high-quality neighbourhoods. This approach is in stark contrast to the haphazard rezoning of Fishermans Bend by the member for Bulleen, done overnight without any planning.

Our commitment to housing development and support for renters is unwavering. The Suburban Rail Loop and our efforts to unlock surplus government land are just two examples of how we are leading the way. At the same time we know more Victorians are renting than ever before, and that is why we are committed to further strengthening renters rights. For the benefit of the house, I thought I would take a trip down memory lane to look up the reforms in this space. My research looking into the last Victorian Liberal government returned an unsurprising 404 error. I am sure you are all well aware what the 404 error is. The policy inaction of the previous Victorian Liberal government resulted in no rental rights reforms. Fast-forward to the current Allan Labor government; the contrast could not be clearer.

I am proud to be part of a Labor government that takes action protecting and strengthening the rights of renters. Victorians are renting more than ever before, and it falls on us to take action. Back in 2021 we passed 130 strengthened protections for renters. Some highlights of this package of reforms included stronger antidiscrimination provisions, maximum bond amounts and limits to rent paid in advance. We also capped rent increases to once a year. We introduced mandatory minimum standards and expanded the definition of ‘urgent repair’.

Earlier this year I was honoured to support the passing of the Estate Agents, Residential Tenancies and Other Acts Amendment (Funding) Bill 2024, where we continued to build on our action to protect renters rights and make the system fairer and more reliable for renters. We banned all types of rental bidding and closed the loopholes to make it illegal. We made rental bonds portable rather than having to pay a brand new bond each time. We also increased the notice required for rent increases and evictions to 90 days, and we created Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria to make it faster and easier to solve issues and disputes.

With more Victorians renting than ever before, we know that the number of rental disputes has increased, and the process of dealing with disputes is stressful and time-consuming. For many renters the cost of the process also adds to the already increased cost of living. Renters should not have to find themselves caught up in a protracted VCAT case to have straightforward repairs carried out to get their bond returned. Timely, affordable and proportionate access to justice in these situations matters deeply, and the creation of Rental Dispute Resolution Victoria is a crucial piece of this puzzle. By establishing this independent agency we took a positive step towards meaningful change to Victoria’s rental dispute resolution landscape, and we have made it fairer, faster and cheaper for Victorian renters and landlords.

Put together, these changes are about ensuring that Victorian renters can make their house a home and giving landlords peace of mind. It is important work, and I am proud to be part of the Allan Labor government, which has made this a reality. It is truly a team effort to make it a reality. I would like to acknowledge all the work being done to realise the aims and ambitions of Victoria’s housing statement, to build the Suburban Rail Loop as the biggest housing project in Australia and to support and strengthen renters rights. Whether it be the Minister for Planning at the table, the Minister for Precincts and Minister for Development Victoria, the Minister for Consumer Affairs or the Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, under the leadership of the Premier there is a power of work being undertaken in this space.

I am proud that Victoria is leading the nation on renters rights. I am proud that Victoria continues to lead the nation in the supply and construction of new homes. I am proud that Victoria is number one in home approvals and number one in home starts and home completions. I am proud that Victoria is number one in approving and building new homes and number one for supporting renters, and I thank the wonderful member for Footscray for raising this matter of public importance.

Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (17:40): My National Party colleague rose earlier and made scathing comments about the delusional nature of this matter of public importance today. This government seriously thinks Victoria is number one for approving and building new homes and number one for supporting renters. Only a serious case of mental fatigue and delusion can be responsible for such a statement coming from this government. We will go through it this afternoon, and there is nothing, there is not a fact, that can prove those statements. It is a matter of public importance for the people of Victoria that they currently have a government in place that is prepared to put that statement down in light of the facts that are there for all to see. The worst part about a housing crisis – a government-led, a government-caused and a government-created housing crisis – is that it is a cruel thing to do to people and to society to handle housing so poorly and to offer so little hope to not only the most desperate and those without homes but to future generations who are trying to get homes and access homes and who simply cannot.

What are some of those facts? It was only 12 months ago – just a little over 12 months ago – when the then Premier Daniel Andrews got up and said to everybody, ‘We are going to embark on yet another reset of our housing policy. We’re going to create 80,000 homes a year.’ It is an absolute, blatant lie. It is a lie because it is misleading and a mistruth to the people of Victoria to put that statement out when you have done absolutely nothing to create it.

It was only four years ago that the first Big Housing Build promises were made to the people of Victoria. Those Big Housing Build promises were a series of promises made to the most vulnerable people in Victoria. They were promises made to the homeless, to people without homes and to the lowest income people in this state. What did the then Premier Daniel Andrews and his housing minister Richard Wynne promise? They promised within four years – so right now, today – for the homeless in Victoria a 10 per cent increase in social and public housing. What have we seen? We have seen barely a 3 per cent increase. Why is that? It is because this government, with so many of the projects it undertakes, does not know how to complete a project properly. It does not know how to complete a project efficiently and with purpose. Instead they have actually over the last six months, from the most recent figures that they have allowed to be released to the public – because we are running 12 months behind – gone backwards. The most recent figures, leaked to the opposition, show that we actually went backwards in public housing. Can you believe that? We have spent $4.5 billion and we have gone backwards in public housing.

But the 400 or 500 homes that we have gone backwards are only half the problem. The bigger problem is that after four years of the big build we have 3500 fewer bedrooms in public housing in this state. You talk about this line, ‘We’re number one for supporting renters.’ What about the most vulnerable families in the state, who desperately need housing provided by the state? They have got – after $4.5 billion, after four years and after an ironclad guarantee from this government that they were going to improve public housing – 3500 fewer bedrooms. There is only one way this government can even begin to work on the homeless list, which, mind you, is 300 per cent higher than it was when we left government in 2014. You have increased the homelessness crisis in Victoria by 300 per cent, you have gone backwards in bedrooms, you have decreased public housing and you have spent a heck of a lot of money. That is an extraordinarily poor performance.

What is worse is that I was prepared to cut this government some slack as Shadow Minister for Housing and say, ‘Oh, well, they’re not going to get a 10 per cent increase in the first year and maybe not the second year.’ But their commitment was pretty clear: after four years, a 10 per cent increase in housing. We thought, ‘We’ll let them have a go and see if they can get that.’ When the most recent Victorian housing register, the homeless list, came out with the most recent figures, can you believe that the list went up 3100 families in one quarter? That is a third of the total homeless list that existed when we were in government in 2014. I mean, it was bad enough then, in 2014, at 9900, but this government added 3100 in just one quarter – after spending $4.6 billion and after promising everybody that within four years there would be a 10 per cent increase. So when we talk about this matter of public importance, it is absolutely a matter of public importance. This government is not number one for approving and building new homes, and certainly not its own homes. I mean, it is an abject failure at building its own homes, but then to say it is supporting renters – can you imagine the distress and the heartache? Literally more than 60,000 families – approximately 120,000, 130,000 people – every day in Victoria are waiting longer for less from this government, and it is a crisis here in Victoria.

So what do we know about that? We know that if you are a family escaping domestic violence and absolutely desperate for shelter, for a home, for somewhere safe to keep you and your children, you are now waiting twice as long as you did six years ago. You are waiting 24 months. Interestingly, in this year’s budget the government keeps trying to reset it, and every year it puts in the budget an estimate that it is going to be a 10-month wait. It does not get to 10 months; it just keeps increasing. Every single year of this government since 2014 the waiting times for a home have increased; the waiting lists have increased. The only way you can deal with increasing waiting lists and longer wait times is to increase housing stock and increase bedrooms. What has this government done in order to combat the ever-increasing wait times? They have decreased bedrooms, they have decreased public housing stock and only a marginal increase – less than a third of what they promised four years ago – has been delivered in the overall social housing space. It is an indictment on this state.

What we also now know is that not only have this government single-handedly destroyed, held back and just shown no capacity to deliver on social and public housing but they are now attacking the private housing market. How do we know that? In Victoria once again we are number one, but we are not number one for solving the housing crisis, we are not number one for providing good tenant options and we are not number one for getting more houses; we are now number one for the most number of distressed sales of homes here in Victoria. They are distressed sales because the people who bought them cannot afford to keep them.

But what is worse is that increasingly landlords across Victoria are selling up. Depending where you are, between 40 and 60 per cent of the homes going on the market are rental homes. For some reason this government is unable to connect the fact that if you overtax landlords and over-regulate landlords they can take their money from the private housing market, they can put it into the stock market and they can invest it elsewhere; they will get better returns and less hassle and they will pay less tax. This government has not connected that, because it is broke, it is desperate, it has got out-of-control budgets and it does not know how to deal with the housing crisis. It is pulling every lever in the wrong direction. It is putting its foot on the accelerator as it goes around the corner. It is not heeding the signs, the warnings and the advice from the private sector, from the public sector and most importantly from those that are looking for somewhere to live in the state of Victoria. It is out of control.

This government cannot in any way claim it is number one as a landlord, it cannot claim it is number one at building houses and it cannot claim it is number one for renters rights. In this crazy situation of penalising the private property market through out-of-control land taxes and out-of-control regulations ‍– I mean, the government has again trumpeted and foreshadowed even more penalties, costs and charges to put on landlords – these are all the wrong settings. They are heading in the wrong direction, and this state has a massive problem. People judge the capacity of a government by the way it treats its most vulnerable, and this government has done an appalling job at looking after the most vulnerable. After all the billions that have been spent, to think that we have less now to offer our most vulnerable: we have less bedrooms, we have less homes, we have less opportunities; we have people waiting longer – lists growing longer – for somewhere to call home. This government cannot in any way claim any credit. The only thing they can claim is that they are 100 per cent responsible for the mess that we find in housing, rentals and critical housing in the state of Victoria.

Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (17:50): I am so pleased to contribute to this matter of public importance, and can I start by acknowledging that we have in the chamber right now a fantastic Minister for Planning and Minister for the Suburbs. I know that my colleagues here will agree that she has done and continues to do a fabulous job. I think one of the things that set our minister apart is the way that she listens. She listens to communities, she listens to families and she listens to members about what is needed for a good life in Victoria. Before this most recent announcement she put the hard yards in travelling the state, talking to people about the vision for Victoria, putting people first and putting families and family life first.

Can I contrast that with the former Minister for Planning, who we had in the chamber before. Boasting, he said, ‘I am the king of housing approvals’ – boasting, really, about putting developers first, about releasing land lots and making some people very rich. Is that something to be boasting about? I think the former Minister for Planning should have listened less to developers and more to community, which is what our fantastic minister does and has done.

I can give you an example. We have a minister who comes and listens about issues around schools and parks, who understands that for a good life in Victoria we cannot have this ‘king of housing approvals’ approach where the former minister said that he had 577 lots approved. Can we also compare and contrast that he was very proud of that number, but he did not speak about the number of dollars spent on infrastructure for those communities where he released the lots. He certainly did not boast, ‘I’m the king of infrastructure.’ No, he said, ‘I’m the king of housing approvals. I’m the king of opening up lots,’ not of infrastructure. Let us be really clear about that, because when they were in government they did not spend a cent on infrastructure in Yan Yean, so shame on them for that and shame on him for coming in here and boasting of his record as a planning minister, because we continue to grapple with the impacts of his decisions.

One of the great things that the minister has done is to work on the phasing and staging of precinct structure plans over the coming year. Over the school holidays I doorknocked over 250 families in Wallara Waters and Newbridge in Wallan and spoke to them about life, how things are and how I can help them, and one of the key concerns for families and community members there is around the sequencing of development, so making sure that when we build a school we have got the roads that are ready to take the traffic and when we open up new lots we have got jobs that are ready for people to work so they do not have to travel as far.

Of all the announcements that have been made over the past few weeks by this government, the one that pleases me the most is the sequencing and staging of PSPs. For example, those families that I spoke to in Wallara Waters and Newbridge can look forward to having a new primary school built. The sod has been turned. We are advertising for a principal, and a fantastic new public school will open in 2026. In the coming weeks we will have excavators and augers doing geotech assessments for the Wallan ramps. I know the member for Kalkallo joins me in welcoming seeing those getting built. We will have a new maternal child health service. We will have two new kindergartens for the community. This is all before the new lots are open.

We do not have a minister boasting about opening up new housing lots. We have a humble minister who is going about making sure – I might tear up – that families have what they want and what they need in the outer suburbs. I know those opposite are not interested in the outer suburbs. I know the member for Brighton does not want our type in his area. But I am telling you now that the humble and hardworking people of the north are the best of Victoria, and I am so proud to represent them.

A member interjected.

Lauren KATHAGE: I know the west is the best too. Can I tell you, talking about that same community, a Liberal member of the upper house was quoted in our local paper. That sequencing, staging and careful thinking through of development he is quoted in our local paper as opposing. He says it means that developers will have to pay increased tax or increased costs while they wait until they can sell their lots to the public. So his concern is about developers’ hip pockets. His concern is that developers will not make as much money. His concern is developers’ balance sheets, and our concern is busy families making ends meet. It tells you everything about the difference between those opposite and us. We are focused on families. We are focused on delivering for them. I am really proud to be part of this government, because it is about being fair. It is about being fair and making sure that all Victorians have access to good services and good facilities, and sometimes those opposite think that as well. Sometimes they do. We know that when some of the Liberal members are talking it sounds like they are talking about the member for Brighton. We have seen some protesters lately, haven’t we, and one member said:

… protesters … swoop in quicker than a seagull to a chip on St Kilda beach. To put it plainly, these Green-tinged councils and political elites are the new xenophobes. While these do-gooders and hand wringers might think they are fighting a holy war … all they end up doing is sending young families packing to growth areas like Mickleham, Beveridge and Wallan.

That was a Liberal member of the upper house speaking, and it was as though he was speaking directly to the member for Brighton, who does not think that we are good enough. It sounds like I am exaggerating, but of course the upper house member who represents the same community as I do in the areas of Whittlesea and surrounds – does anyone know which quote I am going to? – famously said:

There is no point putting a very low income, probably welfare-dependent family in the best street in Brighton where the children cannot mix with others or go to the school with other children or where they do not have the same ability to have the latest in sneakers and iPhones et cetera. We have got to make sure that people can actually fit into a neighbourhood.

Well, she represents the same hardworking and humble people as I do in the north. I hope they do not ever hear what she said, because quite frankly it is very upsetting and it is really unfair.

In contrast, again, to the ‘Let ’em rip’ policy of those opposite, which has created issues that we continue to work on and address through listening, through caring and not through boastful development of developers’ bottom lines, we are focused on creating the best life for communities and the best life for families, and we recognise that a house – a good house where you want to live and where you have that choice in housing – is a big part of that.

Can I close by sharing an anecdote about our down-to-earth minister who joined me at a local park where I wanted to show her that the developer-built park was lacking in toilets. I had told her, ‘This is a place where people come during the day to relax,’ and when we arrived an elderly couple, parents from India who were visiting their child, happened to be there. That was the family of Neelkanth Ravi. The gentleman, in his best English, asked us for a washroom. The minister thought that I had staged it for her, but I had not. The Pick My Park project is going to be fantastic for our area, and I look forward to seeing it roll out.

Brad ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (18:00): I rise to address the matter of public importance submitted by the member for Footscray. In the 53 seconds remaining in the debate, I just want to bring home a really obvious truth that members of the government should know. If you tax something more, it does not get any cheaper. If you tax something more, it gets more expensive. After 10 years of Labor and 10 Labor budgets, of their 55 new or increased taxes, there have been 29 taxes on property, meaning that housing and home affordability is more out of reach for Victorians than it has ever been before. Victorians cannot trust the people who created the problem to fix the problem. It is as simple as that. As recently as yesterday in the Legislative Council the government and the Greens had an opportunity to extend stamp duty concessions for more than 12 months, but they both voted against it. They cannot be trusted when it comes to affordable housing in this state.