Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee

Report on the 2021–22 Budget Estimates

Mr T BULL (Gippsland East) (10:17): I rise to make a few comments on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) budget inquiry, and I refer to page 103 and the references to planned maintenance on public housing in that report. I want to point out some of the failures that are occurring in this area that need addressing.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Gippsland East, can I just ask you to clarify again which report you are speaking to.

Mr T BULL: The 2020–21 budget estimates inquiry by the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you.

Mr T BULL: The matters that I want to raise around maintenance on public housing are causing a number of issues not only in my electorate but across the state. Understandably issues arise from time to time, but having public housing homes sitting uninhabitable for long periods of time is very problematic. They sat idle when often with a few days work the resident would be back in the public housing system and have a roof over their head.

On top of this we have got public housing tenants lodging complaints online around maintenance and they are just simply not responded to by the department. Sometimes some things can slip through the cracks, but over recent times we have had tenants from the areas of Maffra, Heyfield, Bairnsdale, Lakes Entrance and Orbost that have seen no response to the maintenance issues that they have raised through the online feedback system that is required for their homes. We have got this situation where the department is not being responsive to the matters that are raised and then when the home is deemed unfit to be occupied it is taking far too long for the rectification works.

A great case in point was one tenant who was being forced to move because of mould in her residence, which was raised many, many months ago. She is obviously keen to get out because it is uninhabitable and she wants to transition to a new home, but she wants to stop paying the rent on the public housing home. She raises this and raises this and there is no response from the department. They need to get in and help these people, and I call on the minister to fix these issues—issues of response and issues of maintenance.

I also want to comment on managing the bushfire risk, which is found on the same page of the PAEC report. In East Gippsland we have had roadside fuel reduction works stopped due to bureaucratic bungling between VicRoads and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP), and I have raised this matter in the chamber before. But the inspector-general for emergency management’s report into the 2019–20 fire season, which obviously impacted really heavily on my electorate, makes references to such things as the need to ensure agencies are now working together on fuel reduction measures and allowing government departments and agencies to work together to undertake fuel management works.

The report talks about several issues where it says we must put human life at the forefront of everything else. That means we are putting it before native vegetation issues. That is not occurring in my electorate. Native vegetation issues are stopping the works that will make these homes safer being done. That needs to be rectified. The annoying part in that report is it says there are already many avenues to address these matters but they are not being enforced. If we are putting human life first, agencies have got to put that over concerns around native vegetation. The report says it, the department’s guidelines say it, but we do not do it on the ground. The bureaucracy has taken over, and the ministers need to take control of these departments like DELWP and VicRoads and ensure that this work is done.

The minister recently announced 30 new staff to help speed up bushfire recovery. Has the minister been living under a rock? We are two years on—two years on—with so much infrastructure not fixed, and we finally get 30 staff announced to help with bushfire recovery. It should have been announced two years ago almost to the day. We have still got so many areas unopened from the fires, and some of the time lines stretch out to 2024. The fires were in 2019–20. Four years to rebuild a bridge. It is just a joke.

The other issue I want to raise in summing up is with these 30 new staff. I would like the minister to give consideration to locating some of them in the township of Omeo. Omeo had fire all around it. They have had a downgrading of staff numbers over recent years in relation to Parks Victoria and the local ranger is overwhelmed—doing a great job, part of the community, but overwhelmed—and needs some help, so I would encourage the minister to look at locating some of those 30 new staff in the township of Omeo.