Housing
Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:51): (524) My question is to the Minister for Housing. According to the recent state budget, your government is currently demolishing and selling public homes at a rate that is not far behind the pace at which new ones are being built. Only 1554 additional homes were added to the social housing stock in the past year, while 1296 were either demolished or sold. Given the waitlist currently totals more than 120,000 people, at the current rate it will take at least 31 years to clear the waitlist – assuming that list does not grow, which of course it will. Minister, how are you ever going to reach your social housing targets given you are knocking down or selling almost as many homes as you are building?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:52): Thank you, Mr Puglielli, for at least your demonstrated interest in social housing. What I want to do is perhaps take you through the work that is happening across the register and the work that we are doing to address priority areas of applications and transfers. As you know, we are in the process of undertaking the largest renewal project in Australia’s history of social housing, and it means that we will deliver more than 15,000 new social housing dwellings across the state in line with the record investment of $6.3 billion as part of making sure that we are replacing old stock that is no longer fit for purpose; that we are making sure that we are getting into rural and regional Victoria, including through the work that Minister Tierney is doing through the worker accommodation fund of $150 million; that we are increasing by at least 1300 the number of social and affordable homes in rural and regional Victoria as part of the $2 billion regional package; and that we are continuing to develop a range of products that are ensuring that more people can move into homes that meet their needs.
I was just earlier this week and indeed last week at a range of estates, including Markham estate in Ashburton. Mr Puglielli, you were not in this place, but your predecessors from the Greens joined up with the Liberals to block that particular development. This is a really wonderful example of a community that is delivering housing for people most in need. Last week I was at Box Hill – again, the site of two disused council car parks – to deliver around 73 social homes, with about 158 affordable and private market rental homes.
Samantha Ratnam interjected.
Harriet SHING: Sorry, I will take you up on that interjection, Dr Ratnam; it is important that we do address this. You talked about land. It is being referred to by you as no longer being available for social housing. They were empty council car parks – literally zero homes on council car parks – and now contain hundreds of homes, including at least 73 social housing homes for people most in need. This is about taking the numbers that are on the register and reducing them by putting people into social housing.
Mr Puglielli, I welcome the departure of this ridiculous, divisive narrative since the leadership change in your particular party. I am looking forward to being able to continue to deliver thousands of new social homes. We will do this in partnership with the community housing sector. We will do it despite the demonstrated record of blocking and of opposition to housing estates just like Markham, and we will continue our record investment to make sure that what we are building now and into the future meets the needs of Victorians in the way that they deserve.
Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:55): Thanks, Minister. To reduce the waitlist and to address the housing crisis, surely we need to be building at 10 times the current rate. So I guess my question is: will you commit to building 10,000 public homes next year? For context, Berlin just built 16,000 in a year, and they have got about half our population, so I reckon we could do 10,000.
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:55): Thank you very much for that question. Again, I am not going to give you a dissertation on the distinction between the social housing policy frameworks in Berlin as they operate; I am very happy to take that offline. There is a very lengthy process of history around the way in which that has been developed across the area of Berlin – Brandenburg in particular – so let us take that offline when we have got a few hours one day. What I will say, Mr Puglielli, is we are working to the best efficiency that is available to us at the moment in allocating record investment and in also making sure that we are enhancing the availability and the opportunity for affordable housing.
Mr Puglielli, one of the things that is really important to note is that when we take pressure off a range of parts of the housing market, this continuum, we are also then reducing the strain on other parts of the system. For example, 30 per cent of people accessing homelessness services for the first time are coming from the private rental market. We also know that around 5 per cent of people are experiencing profound rental distress in the private housing market. We have got a lot of work to do. It takes place across the continuum.