Wednesday, 1 May 2024

Housing

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:11): (503) My question is for the Minister for Housing. This week the Dunlop Avenue housing development in Ascot Vale has been in the news for the concerning conditions that residents are living in. This site formerly consisted of public housing on public land but under this government’s public housing renewal program it was one of the first to be privatised and not a single public home remains at the site. Toilets that will not flush, water leakages and buildings not even a year old with mould growth, cracks and TV connectivity issues have been left unresolved for a year. These are just some of the issues residents are facing. Residents are reporting that their community and affordable housing provider is ignoring maintenance requests for weeks and months at a time, and some residents are now being threatened with eviction. The housing provider in question, Evolve, which is a New South Wales based organisation, refuses to accept there are issues with the way they are managing things, all the while their parent company is turning a profit of $16.1 million. Minister, what are you doing to support the residents of Dunlop Avenue?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:12): Dr Ratnam, no matter how many times you say it, social housing is not a privatised environment. Community housing delivered by community housing providers involves bringing stock to address the waitlist to people based on a not-for-profit for-purpose model delivered by organisations with charitable status, and it could not, unless we are talking about the alternate universe occupied by the Greens, ever be described reasonably as privatised. Yet again you perpetuate this myth. You are responsible for disinformation. What I can say to people and will not stop saying to people is that social housing incorporates public housing and community housing and that we need both tranches of not-for-profit delivery, whether by the state or by community housing providers that the state funds, in order to make sure that people have the wraparound supports that they need. Dr Ratnam, you could have just asked the question. But instead you presupposed it with yet another political narrative about privatisation. I am never, ever going to let that stand. It is disingenuous. It may speak to your audition, but frankly it does nothing for your integrity.

What I would say, Dr Ratnam, is that Dunlop Avenue has delivered more than 200 new social and affordable homes – social homes, Dr Ratnam – across that particular development, and we are making sure that we can provide homes that are secure, modern, sustainable, energy efficient, fit for purpose. These are the homes that are delivered when you have responsibility for addressing a ‘crisis’, of your verbiage, that needs to provide availability and affordability to meet demand. This is not a uniquely Victorian challenge. What we are doing here, however, is investing record amounts of money in social housing – so social housing, not private housing, again, Dr Ratnam, as you persist in characterising it. In relation to accessibility, Built Pty Ltd has complied with the contract documentation, building regulations and town planning permits. Five per cent of homes at the development are fully Disability Discrimination Act compliant and there are compliant spaces. We are also making sure that we can continue to identify defects, which is a standard process, as you would know, for anyone who builds anything to be able to have defects remedied. It is part of a contract. It is part of being able to make sure that for a period after the completion of a project there is an opportunity and a process whereby defects as identified can be remedied and rectified.

Dr Ratnam, I am getting pretty tired, as I am sure other people are, of the mischievous characterisation of social housing as being something that only operates in a privatised environment. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:15): Thank you, Minister. You might want to understand your own PHRP and ground lease model program more to know that half or more of these sites are not community or public housing. So what is left on the sites? What kind of housing is that? You might understand what I mean by privatisation if you actually understand your model.

Residents of Dunlop Avenue are not alone in facing issues with social and affordable housing providers. The community and affordable housing sectors remain woefully under-regulated. I have asked many times in this place for the release of the social housing regulation review, to no avail. While we wait for the government to act, residents are falling through the cracks. They are facing enormous stress trying to figure out where they should go to when they have issues with their homes or what they should do when their requests for help are blatantly ignored. Housing providers, Homes Victoria and the National Affordable Housing Consortium have been passing the buck on taking responsibility for supporting Dunlop Avenue residents. Minister, can you tell community and affordable housing residents where they should go for help while we wait for social housing to be properly regulated in Victoria?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:16): Dr Ratnam, there was an article today in which a former member of the Greens described the party as having ‘precious little humility, introspection or generosity of spirit’. I never thought I would quote someone from your party in support of a critique of your party. But he is no longer a member of the party. He left because of the sort of narrative that you insist upon perpetuating. And, Dr Ratnam, it is really nice of you to approach this discussion with the level of patronising narrative that is probably going to make for a useful social media reel. Where there is a Wills, there is a way, perhaps.

Dr Ratnam, what I would say in that regard is that social housing – and what a shame that you do not understand how the framework operates. The Residential Tenancy Act applies in this –

Members interjecting.

Harriet SHING: I am literally answering the question.

Samantha Ratnam: On a point of order, President, with 5 seconds left on the clock, I asked a specific question that has not been referenced once by the minister in her response to date.

The PRESIDENT: I kind of gleaned that she was about to answer. What I might do is call the minister and let her have 5 seconds on top of the 5 seconds she has left to be able to answer the question.

Harriet SHING: Anything for a bit of lack of introspection. The Residential Tenancy Act 1987 applies, Dispute Resolution Victoria – read the housing statement, Dr Ratnam. When and as you remain here, I will continue to have a conversation with you about social housing in Victoria.