Wednesday, 28 August 2024

Adjournment

Enver ERDOGAN (Northern Metropolitan – Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (17:56): I move:

That the house do now adjourn.

Housing affordability

Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (17:56): (1086) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Housing. My constituent Emily Ross is a mother of five children, and she has four weeks to find a home – another home – as her private rental is being sold off and she has been issued with a notice to vacate. She is desperately trying to find another residence and has approached every real estate agent in the Latrobe Valley, wanting to keep her family near friends and family, and she has approached every housing provider as well. She is on the waiting list for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing apparently, in the Gippsland section, and she has approached Community Housing and Quantum housing for assistance but with no success. Despite having a very good payment record and paying her rent on time, she has a very low income, and Emily is being overlooked in the private rental market due to incredibly high competition. In a cost-of-living crisis Emily is frantically trying to save her children from going onto the streets.

We know from the Council to Homeless Persons chief executive Deborah Di Natale that data shows that Victoria is desperately behind the rest of the country in terms of public and community housing. We are the worst in the nation, and that is no comfort to Emily and her five children. It is the lowest, and this minister has been a few years in this role and this government has been in for almost 10 years. Time after time we hear the minister get up and spring forth with a whole lot of platitudes about what this government is doing for social and affordable housing. Well, 10 years in power and we are the bottom of the ranks for social and affordable housing. This is not good enough. Can you imagine the desperation of this mother, this beautiful mother who has friends and family in the Latrobe Valley, who is desperate to put a roof over her head? The action I seek from the minister is to actually intervene in this case and ensure Emily and her five children do not become homeless and are not turfed onto the streets.