Thursday, 24 March 2022

Ms Lovell (Northern Victoria Region)

Ms HENNESSY (Altona) (09:48): I rise to condemn in the strongest possible terms the offensive, inaccurate contribution that was made by Ms Lovell yesterday in the Legislative Council, and I do so on behalf of my constituents, my neighbours, my friends and my family who have lived in public housing and social housing for many, many years. The contribution that was made yesterday was nothing more than an attempt to argue for a form of economic ghettoisation. To suggest that children and their parents were somehow less deserving of living in certain suburbs, to make a contribution that essentially sought to propagate unfair stereotypes, was a disgrace not fitting of this Parliament.

Certainly I am very, very proud of the contribution that our government has made around housing, and as a person who lives next door to people who live in social housing, as a person who knows and loves many people that live in social and public housing, the implications that were made in respect of the contribution were so fundamentally offensive. I certainly believe that it would be fitting for the opposition to distance themselves from those and for the speaker from the other place to apologise for those matters.