Wednesday, 5 February 2025

Housing

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:40): My question is to the minister for housing. Minister, housing data released for the last 12 months shows just 61,260 new homes were completed, just 75 per cent of the target Labor set for itself. Why has the government yet again failed to meet its new homes target of 80,000 homes per year?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:41): President, I might seek your guidance on this and –

Members interjecting.

Harriet SHING: I am trying to assist, Mrs Hermans. When I first got the portfolio of housing I outlined the responsibilities for housing, which relate to homelessness, crisis accommodation, transitional housing and social housing, which is public and community housing, and then a measure of the allocation and inventory on affordable housing. The matters that you have referred to and the nation-leading approvals and building numbers that we have that outpace New South Wales and Queensland by I think about 16,000 and 7000 respectively are actually matters that sit with the Minister for Planning. She has spoken extensively about this work, including on the planning reforms that have been intended to facilitate better and faster decisions around meeting that 800,000 target. President, I am very happy to take some guidance from you. I can answer as the minister for housing in very general terms, but I suspect, Mr Mulholland, that you will remain dissatisfied with that answer. In the interest of assisting you, again, it might be something that is most appropriately directed to the Minister for Planning. I have been really clear on this though previously.

Evan Mulholland: On a point of order, President, the minister is now the minister, as I understand it, for housing and building and Development Victoria. The minister has on several occasions in this place used both ministers statements and other opportunities to talk about the housing statement. I would consider it appropriate for the minister to be able to respond to a question as such.

Harriet SHING: On the point of order, President, the housing statement itself – and I was at pains to point this out – covers a number of different portfolios: planning, housing, regional development, precincts –

Bev McArthur: Including housing?

Harriet SHING: You are right – and Development Victoria, the work around industry and jobs, local government. Again, I want to make sure, Mr Mulholland, that when you are asking me about housing you understand the nature and the scope of the housing portfolio. If you want to talk about building, I am very happy to go to the detail of building, of codes, of the work that is happening with the VBA, the work that Anna Cronin is leading. I am very happy also to talk about precincts and the work around Development Victoria and precincts development. But again, Mr Mulholland, you are talking about a target at large that the Minister for Planning has led around easing those planning constraints around pathways for approvals.

The PRESIDENT: Further to the point of order was kind of like the answer to Mr Mulholland’s question. The fact is Mr Mulholland and any non-government member has a right to ask any question to any minister. In line with that, any minister has a right to answer that that question may not fall inside their responsibility in their portfolios. I think, Mr Mulholland, you would like your question to stand, and I will call the minister to answer the question.

Harriet SHING: Noting what I have just put onto the record about the interface between various portfolios, what we have done, Mr Mulholland, is a significant overhaul of the system of planning, of building, of industry and developer partnerships, and of the work that we are doing to develop and to make better use of land, including disused land, government land, around the state. This includes development, for example, of the old VicRoads site in Kew, which will convert that site – it is about 4.7 hectares off the top of my head – into around I think about 467 homes. Now, again, the fact that I am standing up and talking about planning matters, which the Premier announced with the planning minister, means that again I would ask for a little latitude to be given in this space. One of the things though that we know is that a point of congestion for the development and delivery of homes and of new builds was planning approvals and resources. It was also about a streamlining of those pathways. This is where the development facilitation program has been incredibly important. It is those partnerships through the investment affordability statement and the partners that we have there.

This has been part of a series of ongoing conversations, whether it is with the Master Builders, with the UDIA, with the property council, with investors or indeed with our partners across the housing sector. We know that when we invest, for example, in a small second dwelling, where you have a pocket of land of at least 300 square metres, you can create a small second dwelling, also known as a granny flat, of up to 60 square metres without need for a planning permit. We also know that work is being done around improving access to and streamlining the stamp duty exemption for people who are buying off the plan, irrespective of whether it is a first or subsequent home, an apartment, a unit or a townhouse. These are the sorts of systems-wide changes that are the very levers that we are pulling that are making a difference.

So when we look at the statistics, when we look at the figures, we have gone from a system that had a number of congestion points in it to something which is actually realising rates of approval at a pace faster than any other jurisdiction in Australia. What we are doing is working, and it is working because we have a whole-of-government approach. It is working because we are partnering with industry, we are partnering with communities, and we will continue to do that work. We are seeing efficiencies being delivered in everything that we do. Again, this is why those nation-building projects, the infrastructure that enables the delivery of housing – and this is where SRL is so important – enable us to deliver housing in a way that also informs livability. Plan for Victoria has also been a process of extensive consultation and discussion and the review of course of the Planning and Environment Act 1987. So, Mr Mulholland, I have been very general there. I hope that that does assist.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (12:48): Minister, you have stated in this chamber on five separate occasions a promise of 80,000 homes each year – one at least on 3 October 2023, ‘80,000 new homes each year for the next 10 years’. Do you accept at least partial responsibility in your capacity as minister for housing, building and Development Victoria for the government’s failure to achieve its promised housing target of 80,000 new homes per year?

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:48): What I accept, Mr Mulholland, is that it is tough going when we have the member for Brighton peering in a window opposing the development of precincts that will enable housing to be delivered.

David Davis: On a point of order, President, this is a very simple question that has been asked. The fact is the minister should answer the question rather than attack the opposition.

The PRESIDENT: I call the minister back to the question.

Harriet SHING: What I will accept is the circumstances in which we find ourselves, and the circumstances in which we find ourselves relate to constant opposition – constant vocal, vehement opposition – from you and from your colleagues who are implacably opposed to delivering new housing. Mr Mulholland, when you talk about my portfolio of housing, I think back to a number of the projects that you in fact blocked. You used this chamber to block housing. You used this chamber to block housing across a number of social housing projects. You have opposed them. You and the Greens have teamed up to oppose the delivery of housing. So, Mr Mulholland, the real question is: do you accept responsibility for your inaction?

David Davis: On a point of order, President, the minister is defying your ruling, attacking the opposition again, accusing the Greens and the opposition of blocking things, but none of what she has referred to occurred since the government announced targets.

The PRESIDENT: I do not think that was a point of order. I think the minister’s time has expired.