Questions without notice and ministers statements
Housing
Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:00): (805) My question is to the minister for housing. Minister, as your government plans to knock down Victoria’s public housing towers, my question is about the public land on which those towers are built. As Labor for Housing convener Julijana Todorovic was reported saying in the Age:
It is critical that the land remains in public hands, otherwise it will be for future generations to buy back the assets like we’re seeing with the SEC.
Can you please assure Victorians that across the redevelopment of all 44 public housing sites none of the public land will be sold or leased to private interests? And if you cannot provide that assurance, what percentage of public land will actually remain in public hands?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:01): Thank you very much for your question, Ms Copsey. What I would say at the outset has characterised a significant departure from the operation of the Greens party on the matters of housing is that since the departure of Dr Ratnam you have actually reached out for a briefing on social housing policy. That was after dozens of invitations from me for the purpose of that discussion. So I want to say thank you for engaging on that work and on the processes, including as they relate to towers relocations and to the very careful work that is being undertaken with residents to address the concerns that you have raised in particular on engagement around offers and around the areas that people are nominating for the purpose of relocation. I just want to say thank you for that work. I think the briefing happened last Thursday, and there were some matters that were taken on notice by departmental representatives who attended that meeting – so a welcome departure from Dr Ratnam’s legacy.
I want to also go to the work that has been happening on the towers relocations, and this is one of the areas where misinformation and disinformation have really caused an awful lot of distress and anguish for people who call those towers home. I have been really clear on many occasions that I am under no illusions about the impact of change on communities who call the towers home. We have got around 6660 homes across these sites. It is about 40 hectares of land. One of the things that we have announced as part of that towers redevelopment process is a very clear confirmation that people will not be left homeless as a result of relocations – that people will have a right of return, that we will continue to work with people around the redevelopment of these sites and that once the relocations have been undertaken and that redevelopment has occurred there will be a right of return to the sites or to the neighbourhood, obviously where ongoing eligibility is maintained.
I am continuing to work on and work with and work within communities and governments around the future planning for the use of this land – whether it is for the purpose of public housing or whether it is a ground lease model, for example, where land remains in public hands – and to understand how we can meet that densification that again is part of addressing the broader challenges across the social housing system and the lack of availability that we know renters everywhere are continuing to grapple with as part of the broader housing statement work.
Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (12:04): Thank you, Minister, I note that you did not come to the particular question that I asked, but thanks for the background. Across all the states and territories, Victoria has the lowest percentage of social housing in the country by far, with only 2.9 per cent of all households in our state being either public housing or community housing. New South Wales, by comparison, has 4.4 per cent; South Australia, 5.9 per cent; and Tasmania, 6.1 per cent. Minister, do you have a target for social housing as a percentage of all households in Victoria, and if so, what is it?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:04): Thank you very much for that question. I want to take you to the report on government services. I suspect that is where you are heading, around the Productivity Commission report and the ongoing demand for housing assistance, and this is not just in Victoria but around Australia. Our capital expenditure of $1.38 billion on social housing is now the highest in the country, and we also have the highest expenditure on homelessness services of any jurisdiction. This is again about making sure that we are addressing the need for social housing across the entire state, not just in metropolitan Melbourne, and this is where the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build, plus the additional $1 billion in the Regional Housing Fund, amongst other programs, take the investment across social and affordable housing capital and services and programs to well over $9 billion since 2014.