Housing
Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:14): (518) My question is to the Minister for Housing. Victoria has the largest public housing waitlist of any state or territory. More than 120,000 people are currently waiting for housing security, all the while homelessness is rising, the housing crisis worsens and more people are priced out of even the private housing market. Yet at the same time Victoria has the highest public housing vacancy rate in the country, according to Productivity Commission data. Last year alone more than 4000 public housing dwellings sat empty as the waitlist continued to balloon. It is worth noting that this is not some new statistical anomaly either; Victoria’s public housing vacancy rate has been higher than the Australian average since 2018. Minister, why are there so many unoccupied dwellings in Victoria when vulnerable people and families are in desperate need of a home right now and over 30,000 people are homeless in Victoria on any given night?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:15): Thank you very much, Dr Ratnam, for your interest in housing. As I keep saying, I am always very, very happy to provide you with a briefing. Again I note that you are yet to take me up on that offer. Perhaps your schedule might enable that to happen now.
What I do want to acknowledge is that across the board social housing investment is being rolled out like never before, and that is not happening by accident. It is happening because we are investing billions of dollars into making sure that housing is fit for purpose; complies with modern standards around fire, flood and seismic risk; and has the energy efficiency standards built into it. We know that where we have older housing, maintenance is necessary and upkeep is necessary. It is important that we are in a position to be able to make sure that where housing is not fit for purpose – where needs are not being met within existing configurations – we are making sure that people are able to get that, including through being relocated to enable housing improvements to take place.
It was just a couple of weeks ago, Dr Ratnam, that we saw at Park Towers, for example, that the ageing sewer stacks in those buildings required people to be relocated in order for those deficiencies to be rectified. As we see with ageing stock, it is necessary to undertake works to make sure that maintenance needs are able to be met and that people are able to live in their homes – homes that are to a standard that one should be able to expect. That in and of itself, Dr Ratnam, whether you like it or not, answers fundamentally the question as to why our investment in new social housing across the board is such an important part of providing people with the standard of living that they should rightfully expect.
We do want to make sure that we have modern and fit-for-purpose housing for people, and that is why as of 31 March less than 1.8 per cent of public housing homes were vacant and in the re-letting process. This compares to a private market vacancy rate of 2.1 per cent for metropolitan Melbourne in December last year and 2.2 per cent for regional Victoria in December 2023. We also had 2.3 per cent of homes being held for asset management related purposes that were not available to re-let. That also includes a focus on making sure that the condition of people’s homes is improved.
Dr Ratnam, we are not doing this for purposes associated with denying people homes in a mischievous way. There is no ulterior meaning here. This is about making sure that the homes that we provide are fit for purpose, and that is why we have made record investment into maintenance. But we are dealing with old and ageing stock, which again, needs and deserves to be upgraded so that everybody has the right to a home which meets the standard that you would apply to your own circumstances.
Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:18): Thank you, Minister. I am actually not talking about temporary events that are giving rise to some of those vacancy rates. My concern stems from just how long a high vacancy rate has been an issue here in Victoria. The vacancy rate has increased every year since 2016, and other states just do not seem to have the same problem. Queensland and New South Wales have both managed to keep their vacancy rates at around 2 to 3 per cent for the past eight years. Meanwhile, despite the figures that you are touting here today, Victoria’s rate is currently sitting at 6.3 per cent vacancy. If the condition of buildings has been consistently preventing thousands of people from accessing public housing over the past eight years, it would indicate chronic underfunding in the maintenance of Victoria’s public housing stock. This is confirmed by the Productivity Commission’s data, which tells us the government’s spending on the maintenance of social housing is the lowest per capita in the country. We are in the midst of a housing crisis. What are you doing to make sure people can live in these 4000 homes?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:19): Thank you, Dr Ratnam. Again, I am just going to pull you up on a number of the assertions in your supplementary question. I am not sure whether you were as interested in the state budget last week as you will probably be in the federal budget this evening, but this budget commits $18.7 million in additional funding to deliver modern maintenance IT systems and triage to improve maintenance services for public housing renters, and we also have planned maintenance services being provided to over 67,000 dwellings at a cost of $315.5 million. There are 350,000 maintenance activities undertaken per year, Dr Ratnam, and when you compare the statistics of what you have just talked about, these include maintenance requirements for jobs involving tiles falling off or indeed corridors not being fit for purpose because they are situated in ageing, outdated properties, such as the towers that are no longer fit for purpose and no longer comply with disability access standards. Dr Ratnam, you cannot have it both ways, much as you would like to.