Thursday, 15 August 2024

Housing

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:32): (628) My question is for the Minister for Housing. The most recent public figures show that Colac has 246 households on the priority housing waiting list. Over the past year there have been several public promises to build 50 new public homes in Colac, including by former Premier Daniel Andrews. As recently as 13 October last year, during the Commonwealth Games select committee inquiry hearing, Simon Newport, CEO of Homes Victoria, confirmed the 50 homes planned for Colac were specifically public housing. Recent reports state that this is no longer the case and that there will now be 30 social homes and 20 affordable homes built at this site. Minister, is it true that there will now be no public housing at this site?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:33): Thank you, Dr Mansfield, for that question. There are a few things in your question that I do want to address, particularly around the assistance that we are providing through a range of funding sources. There is the Big Housing Build, as you know. But then there is also the Regional Housing Fund, and at the same hearings last year we actually had an exchange in relation to the provision of housing under the latter fund, which is the $1 billion under the Regional Housing Fund for the purposes of at least 1300 additional social and affordable homes across the state. We are determined to provide housing across rural and regional Victoria that meets the needs of families and communities, again, in a variety of different configurations, and that also sits alongside the $150 million fund that Minister Tierney is administering for worker accommodation across rural and regional Victoria.

The Colac homes that you have referred to are about making sure that we can provide housing and support for people, including in response to natural disaster and emergency, and those homes were announced as part of the first tranche of allocations under the Regional Housing Fund, as well as the partnerships that we are working on across the Big Housing Build. We will continue to work to develop that social housing, and it will be done in consultation and in partnership with local government and with other agencies and community organisations who can provide that wraparound support. I am looking forward to continuing those conversations and very happy to provide you with briefings as those projects progress.

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (12:35): That did not actually answer my question, though, Minister. It was specifically about whether there would be any public housing at the site. I will take your answer as possibly a no. But the Greens have heard from many constituents who have been successful in the government’s affordable housing ballot but then have gone on to be denied housing because their income was deemed too low. The acceptable rent-to-income ratio is up to 30 per cent of total income for people to be eligible for affordable housing. I note that the average rent-to-income ratio in Victoria is over 30 per cent, so most people are technically earning too little to be able to access affordable housing. So given your government’s income test for affordable housing, will those who are on the priority waiting list in Colac be eligible to live in the 20 affordable homes that you are proposing at this site?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:35): Dr Mansfield, I really wish you had asked that as the starting point for the question, because you have raised some really significant issues around the interface between affordable housing and the definitions in the planning and environment control act and the way in which social housing operates. This is something that I have also raised with the Commonwealth at the ministerial council discussions that we have been having around Australia. This is not a unique issue for Victoria. We are looking at the gaps between the systems whereby affordable housing kicks in and social housing ends, and it is my determination and commitment to this place and indeed to you that we continue to work to identify where those gaps arise so the people who are sitting on the edges of those eligibility criteria are able to access housing that is fit for their needs. Again, affordable housing, as you know, is defined by the terms and the amounts of income set out in the planning and environment control act, and we do want to make sure that we are calibrating that amount to what it is that people need by way of housing. In regional Victoria that amount, as you would know, is set lower in reflection of the incomes that people have outside of Melbourne. I am very happy to provide you with an additional briefing and information on that Colac site as it relates to social housing but also affordable housing there and then more broadly across the Colac area.