Housing
Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:17): (824) My question is for the Minister for Housing and Building. The federal housing minister Clare O’Neil recently stated that their government does not want to see house prices go down; rather, they want sustainable price growth. Meanwhile, in Victoria finding an affordable home has never been harder. According to Victoria’s own housing statement, families on a median income can afford fewer homes than ever before, and since the early 2000s the average time to save for a deposit has almost doubled. So my question is: will the minister commit to making housing prices in Victoria cheaper?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:18): Thank you, Ms Payne for your question, and it is a question that draws on themes which cover a number of portfolios. But what I would like to do is acknowledge at the outset a number of the challenges that are being faced not just in Victoria but all around Australia. Financial pressure and distress is being experienced by people who are home owners with mortgages and by people in private rental. We know that mortgage stress and rental stress are causing an enormous amount of pain for people. The recent decision by the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent has made some difference, but after 13 successive rate rises there is a long way to go before people with mortgages will feel a measure of comfort that enables them to address many of the other expenses that are continuing to mount across the household budget.
Ms Payne, what I would also say is that rental affordability has been one of the significant driving factors of financial stress. Again, when we apply that 30 per cent framework to what it is that people are paying in their rent, we can see that all too often people are having to resort to a range of different approaches to meet the charges associated with rent, whether that is taking on tenants to live under the same roof, families living together or people needing to move rental properties on a semiregular or periodical basis when rent increases are announced for the purpose of their leases. So we can see that that pressure is coming from a range of different places.
There are measures that are geared towards addressing the challenges of affordability across the entire housing spectrum. We know, for example, that private rental assistance program support is a key part of that – more than 10,000 people a year receive assistance through that process and the private rental bond loan scheme – but also the federal government’s Help to Buy initiative.
That builds on the work that we did with the homebuyers fund, which helped around 11,000 people get into the market and into home ownership. But maintaining a mortgage can be a really, really difficult and stressful thing, particularly when wage rises have not kept pace with inflation.
Bringing additional supply into the market is one way that we can alleviate some of the upward pressure on market prices. We do know that as we continue with the largest volume of building and approvals anywhere in Australia, this work is beginning to have an effect, with downward pressure on prices. There is a really long way to go, though. We are seeing a slowed rate of growth with rental prices. We have also got a range of reforms across Residential Tenancies Act reform, and we are making sure that people have recourse where there is an effort to gouge the market.
A lot of work is being done. We are partnering with the Commonwealth government. It has been great to see that after nine years of inaction the Albanese government has been prepared to partner with us. Peter Dutton will scrap the Housing Australia Future Fund as a part of his pledge, billions of dollars will go wanting.
Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:21): I thank the minister for her response. By way of supplementary, some people are now calling for a state of emergency to be declared for people experiencing homelessness. They believe that disaster management powers would provide a powerful tool to engage emergency shelters and address the issue with the urgency it requires. Would the government consider using disaster management powers as a next step in addressing the housing crisis and homelessness emergency?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:21): Thank you, Ms Payne, for that question. When we talk about the impact of natural disasters and emergencies on vulnerable people, we know that they are disproportionately affected, and this is where there is an investment of $300 million in homelessness and crisis and transitional housing, plus an additional $197 million to be able to assist people most in need. There are a range of additional measures that are intended to support people. Again, I will go to a very specific experience of people: victim-survivors of family violence are vastly over-represented in the statistics around homelessness and rough sleeping. It is about wraparound support, whether it is refuges and bringing those additional transitional accommodation facilities online or partnering with housing and homelessness organisations for immediate respite. I would be really happy to perhaps look into that a bit further. I am not able to answer the question around emergency services powers and how they might relate to addressing homelessness, but with the objective being to reduce homelessness, we can absolutely talk through that. I would welcome an opportunity to have that conversation.