Wednesday, 17 August 2022

Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022

Second reading

Debate resumed on motion of Mr WYNNE:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (10:37): I rise to contribute the lead of the opposition on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. Of course there are very few things more important than the access of Victorians to a home—a home that is permanent, a home that is safe, a home that is affordable and accessible. Homes are an essential element of our society, and the government has a very important role in making sure that there are adequate homes and adequate spaces for people to live and enjoy their lives. Most importantly, homes in this day and age are an essential part of ensuring good mental health and positive health outcomes for people, because the stress of not knowing where you are going to live, the stress of housing insecurity, the stress of not knowing where you are going to be and the stress of how you are going to look after your children and raise your family are all issues that a lack of affordable housing and accessible housing creates.

Disappointingly after eight years now this government has finally started to move on housing. It is worth the house taking note of where we have gone in the last eight years with affordable and accessible housing. In this state when this government took over there were 9990 people waiting on a priority list for housing. Under eight years of the Andrews government and billions and billions spent on all sorts of unfinished projects, they have managed to increase that list threefold. There are now, from the government’s own statistics, 30 508 people as of the last measure in March. That is a massive increase of 20 500 people desperately waiting for a home that they can call their own. Of course that is just the priority list; that is not the entire list. The entire list today includes both people in urgent need of priority housing but also people not in adequate, safe, secure or appropriate housing; that list now sits at 54 945. These statistics are important for us to be mindful of when we are assessing the bill today, because the government is lauding some pretty big figures in what they are wanting to do with their Homes Victoria approach. But when you see the scale of the problem that this government has created and allowed to continue month after month, quarter after quarter, year after year, then it is worth being aware of the scale of the solutions required.

The bill presented today has some good elements; there is no doubt about that. However, it does not go far enough in addressing the chronic housing shortage that we have. Worse still, it has an element in it where the government is seeking to unleash its corporate side, if you like. It is wanting to engage in every manner of commercial deal and operation with developers across the state to undertake independent business deals, and we will talk a little bit later about the appropriateness of that and the ability of the state to manage its commercial operations.

This bill largely sets about transitioning what was the department of housing to Homes Victoria. It contemporises the language throughout various housing legislation and of course provides for the ability of Homes Victoria to manage its properties, its tenants and its business relationships. So there are sort of mechanical, technical and structural changes to various legislation. There have been advisory boards for the department of housing in the past, and this establishes a new advisory system but under the new title of Homes Victoria Advisory Board, a skills-based advisory board. As a general mechanism they are not a bad thing, for ministers and governments to have access to people within the industry and outside, so there are no real issues with that. Apart from the name changes there is not a mechanism in here that encourages or insists that the government demonstrate on a regular basis to the community the benefits it has in the way it is managing its properties. In the rental housing market across Victoria around 640 000-odd people rent homes. That is largely managed by the private sector in various forms, who are accountable to their shareholders, are accountable to their business owners and are accountable to the people that give property to them. But the government, under this scenario, is not really making itself accountable, and in fact, in inquiries about what obligation the government has to publish the benefits of its business transactions or its management of property, the department has sort of been unwilling to have a mechanism that is transparent and clear to the community about any business deals that it enters into.

Speaking of business deals, this legislation—and I guess this is where the opposition’s biggest concern is—will include the ability of the government to establish companies, joint ventures, trusts and partnerships and lend and contribute funds to support any development of its private property with private developers. It is not only the opposition that have concerns about this government’s ability to do that. We only have to open the paper nearly every day to see yet another government project going over budget, huge sums of money being wasted and vast amounts being paid in wages to consultants and others that consume the public purse.

Victorians essentially want to know that when they are investing in public housing and in such an important element as providing a roof over a person or a family’s head they are getting good value. So there is concern about some of the projects already underway—for example, the project that is in Ascot Vale, which has had quite a bit of media coverage, where the government has decided to pull down a series of apartments that have been there for 50 or 60 years. That may in fact be reasonable, but the community said, ‘We actually like what’s there. Can’t we refurbish it?’. The sums that came back from an independent analysis of that indicated that that accommodation, that housing, could preserve the character and the lifestyle that the tenants have been used to there for just under $200 000 each—$182 000. But the government has opted for a much, much more expensive development in partnership with other private groups, and they are investing $413 000 for essentially the same outcome for the community.

I think it is fair and reasonable for not only independent housing advocates to be asking the question: why is the government spending that level extra for the same outcomes, and what is in it for the developer, what is in it for the state and what are the benefits? The benefits are not clear in that example. Unfortunately across the state’s estate there are vast areas of land that are now in very prime and sought after areas, and some of the areas we are talking about are well known to property developers—Ashburton, Flemington, Hawthorn, Richmond, Heidelberg West—and all now very desirable places for people to live. This government is setting itself up to get into bed very, very early with developers, and I think it is only reasonable that the Parliament should be able to have a clear view of what the benefits are. Where is the money going? Is that money being actively reinvested back so that those in public housing get the best benefit from it?

This legislation makes provision for a much closer connection between Homes Victoria and the Department of Treasury and Finance, and any casual observer of Victorian budgetary outcomes at the moment would be well aware that this state is fast running out of money. The debt levels in Victoria of course are at record highs. We have got now the debt equivalent of all the eastern states combined, and it is a valid concern that people would have that this money may in fact be siphoned off at some point, whether it is now or into the future. But more importantly, can the Victorian taxpayer be guaranteed that the benefit, the uplift in property values, the uplift in developments, is being given to the taxpayer, to the state, to the homeless of Victoria in the levels it should be?

I think we have learned long enough now, with these other projects that the government have undertaken, that we cannot take them on face value that they are in fact the best deals. So the opposition will seek to move an amendment to this piece of legislation essentially allowing for either house of Parliament—either our chamber or the other place—to move to disallow a business deal that this government enters into, because without that provision the taxpayers and the people of Victoria will find themselves unable to question or to stall or to insist that the benefit of that long-held public estate returns to the people of Victoria.

Another element that this bill seeks to work on is making available more affordable homes, and no-one could deny the need for more affordable homes. As I said at the opening, the list has ballooned month after month, year after year under this government; the list of people waiting to have affordable homes has grown considerably. One of the concerns we also raise is the lack of ambition in this bill. The minister in his second-reading speech—we are now up to another minister since the original minister, the member for Richmond, brought this in—made a claim that there was going to be, as part of this, an allowance for 2400 affordable housing places as a way for this government to help to ease the housing crisis. While 2400 may sound a reasonable attempt, it is again worth noting that just in the December–March quarter this year, as I point to this ballooning list for affordable housing, a further 358 people were added to the list. That has been a very consistent growth rate, and based on that you are talking 2400 over the course of a year—60 per cent of the people that are added just this year—not including the people that have been on the list now for 10 years. The backlog of people waiting to get into affordable housing continues to grow, and quite frankly a commitment by this government of 2400, while noble in its initial figure, is but a drop in the ocean. It is a five-year commitment for 2400 homes. Just in one year, just in this year alone, 60 per cent of that allocation would be consumed. At the end of a five-year period, there is no hope that the list will not continue to grow. This does not make a substantial hit to the growing and chronic problem of housing affordability and housing accessibility in the state of Victoria. It is in fact as they say, too little, too late.

Combine this with the issue of significant property development and deals being struck with private developers, where literally land that was for the public use, that was to provide public housing, is now providing expensive townhouses and penthouse apartments. The Age listed recently one of the developments in Maribyrnong where apartments were going to be selling for $2 million and $3 million. Clearly apartments selling for $2 million and $3 million are not aimed at the affordable housing market. Clearly apartments selling at $2 million and $3 million are not helping ease this chronic and growing list of public housing shortage. Most importantly, the taxpayers, this Parliament, the people of Victoria do not know where that extra money is coming from. If the government is publishing the fact that on average it is costing around $400 000 to produce a public housing house and they are selling properties on these public estates for $2 million and $3 million, people quite rightly want to know where the difference is going.

There is a growing gap between the existing private market and social housing, and that is because social housing and affordable housing is not keeping pace with the demands of the market. This government in talking to the not-for-profit sector, in talking to other providers of affordable homes, whether they are through the NRAS system—the national rental affordability scheme—and others, has not been prepared to partner enough or clearly enough with these other groups to help get the volume of houses we need. As the state’s largest landlord, and the minister acknowledges that in fact Homes Victoria is a large landlord, the obligation for them to plan and manage properties in a way that is fair and equitable to the tenants and to those living in the public housing estates is paramount.

This legislation does actually go some way to working with communities in public housing to get fairer outcomes. There are two main issues that have come to my attention in preparing for this bill. They are around the management of tenants so that people feel safe in their homes and what they consider their local community, but they also have an expectation that the state will maintain those properties in a fair and reasonable way, as we expect any landlord to do. Over the last couple of years many have argued that this has led to a housing shortage and a housing accessibility shortage because of the many rigorous expectations that they now put on landlords, such as heights of rangehoods in kitchens, regular electrical testing and other issues. Certainly in rural and regional areas, and the member for Eildon has probably had similar experiences, much lower cost housing simply becomes unaffordable to rent in smaller regional communities because the landlords are not in a position to spend sometimes $20 000 and $30 000 on what many would consider are basic upgrades.

I think across most rural and regional parts of Victoria at the moment the housing availability is at 1 per cent to 2 per cent of properties available. Reports recently in Geelong, for example, had over 60 per cent of the houses that were being rented not being in fact affordable, meaning that more than 30 per cent of people’s income was being consumed in trying to pay the rent. Likewise, I met with some constituents on the Surf Coast only last week, and their single biggest concern was housing affordability.

Someone who is fourth generation in a small community, who has lived there all their life and who works—and in fact this person is a medic, an ambulance person, who is providing critical, much-needed services in that rural community—finds themselves now living many kilometres from where they need to be and in a caravan in a paddock, and the simple reason is they can no longer find any housing in any of the coastal communities that is in any way affordable for someone on a paramedic’s wage. That is of great concern, and sadly this bill will not really address that issue. But more importantly it highlights the very problem that this bill ultimately needs to fix and what this government ultimately needs to do, which is to find new and innovative ways to really eat into that affordable housing problem that, as I pointed out earlier, continues to grow.

So while Homes Victoria still do not have a strong focus on maintaining properties to what many communities would consider an adequate state of maintenance, some of the provisions of this bill are noteworthy in that they are attempting to support those residents in the way antisocial behaviours of some residents can impact on their lives, their safety and their security. They talk about community impact statements, and the opposition certainly welcomes that element of it—anything that can help people in sometimes complex situations—because where antisocial behaviour, perhaps even criminal activity, is carried out, many people are not prepared or are unwilling to put their name to complaints, and that is for obvious reasons. This bill in part works with the system to allow confidential impact statements to be used by VCAT and Homes Victoria to better manage the tenant mix. In order to broaden that appeal they have also decided to create a definition of common areas in relation to larger community complexes, flats and others, where there are common stairwells and common areas where everyone has to interact safely to move to and from their own premises.

So the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill will not be opposed by the opposition, but the opposition notes very clearly that while there are some good improvements and the government is at last after eight years acknowledging the affordable housing problem, this bill does not put in enough and guarantee enough to solve that problem. The opposition also notes that the government has given itself a much bigger remit to enter into all manner of commercial negotiations and processes, but it does not provide a safeguard for taxpayers or the Parliament to be assured that the best deals are being struck. There is no requirement for a public benefit statement to come from any deals that the government strikes so that we can be assured that the existing tenants and future tenants have the best deal possible.

Finally, I would just note that while there have been elements added into this that ensure that tenants can be better looked after, there is still a lot of feedback from public housing tenants and from others about the priority of maintaining apartments and dealing with problematic waste disposal. I was at a public housing estate recently where ongoing problems of excess furniture, old cars and other elements that aggrieve some of the tenants still are being very poorly dealt with by Homes Victoria. From questioning Homes Victoria they make it clear that their priority is putting a roof over someone’s head, and of course that should always be their priority. But the active management of the built and physical environments in public housing is also a very important element not only for the safety of those residents but for their dignity and wellbeing—that they feel that they are in a lived and built environment that is as appealing as it can be and as safe as it can be.

In conclusion I just make the point that while this bill seeks to allow the minister to formalise and make all the various consequential amendments and changes to various acts to allow for the new Homes Victoria, a name change, as we know, is not enough. This government has to be actually getting the runs on the board, not just be seen to be making grand commitments and massive departmental changes. They have got to get the runs on the board. The minister is here. I suggest to him that when you look at that endless ongoing growth in lack of priority housing, lack of affordable housing, and a waiting list that continues to grow, the only measure of success for this government when it comes to how it manages public housing and how it provides safe, affordable and accessible housing to Victorians is that these lists go into decline. I would suggest that when the total waiting list is growing at a rate of nearly 400 families—this is not 400 people but 400 families— a quarter, that is not something anyone can be proud of. As a First World state we cannot be proud of that sort of direction in our housing, particularly when people are waiting for a home, when people are finding themselves having to live in a caravan in a paddock, when families with two or three children find themselves in a one-bedroom flat or when there are people who are disabled or have mobility issues, as I found with a person in the township of Camperdown, where the fridge has to be in the hall and they cannot get their wheelie walker or wheelchair down the hall. These are all issues that are simply not good enough, and they need to be dealt with quickly and promptly. Those people of course will be looking at the media and at the various hard hat announcements of this government, standing in front of another railway or another half-built tunnel with another commitment to spend billions and billions of taxpayers money in Melbourne but forgetting about the essentials. Those essentials are making sure that there are homes for all.

The opposition will not be opposing this bill. But we believe it is our responsibility to raise these issues, and of course we reserve our right in the upper house to move an amendment that may see either chamber have the opportunity to disallow any development deal that the minister or the government may enter into if they cannot adequately demonstrate the public benefit to the people of Victoria.

Ms HENNESSY (Altona) (11:03): I am delighted to have the opportunity to rise and make a brief contribution on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. May I assure the house of—and not one member of this Parliament should be in any doubt about—the depth of commitment that our government has to addressing the issue of housing insecurity and ensuring the most basic of human rights, and that is the right to have a decent roof over your head that is fit for purpose. That sits at the heart of all of the housing reforms that our government have pursued, embraced and troubleshot.

There is absolutely no question that too many people live without housing security. We see that in the data of waitlists in terms of access for public and social housing. We see that in terms of those that are seeking to change their lives in the context of family violence. We understand issues around insecurity of housing given the rising costs of rent. And this is not just an issue that impacts those that are economically vulnerable. We have got a growing class of those that are not able to access affordable rental properties, let alone some of the meta-issues about buying a house, the great Australian dream. Those are of course impacted by a whole range of government and market policies at many levels of government. But rest assured, to the extent that the Victorian Andrews government can access and influence a lever on those matters, it has, and I would absolutely assert that its commitment to improving housing affordability and accessibility is rolled gold.

It has been a long time coming. I have been in this Parliament for perhaps too long, and over that period of time I have seen—

Ms McLeish interjected.

Ms HENNESSY: Could we just note those that contest that as a proposition. That is very kind of you. I have seen in that period of time many laudable and notable attempts to improve housing affordability and accessibility, and whilst they might have made some impact on the margin, they have not got to the fundamentals. What I would put to you is that the Labor government’s housing policy, that which is enabled partially in this bill, is about changing the fundamentals of affordable housing in this state. It is critically important, but of course it needs to be seen in the wider context. I mean, you do not have a government committing $5.3 billion to a big build for housing that is going to deliver over 12 000 social and affordable homes if they do not take the issue of housing seriously.

I have seen the issue of social and affordable housing kicked around in respect of lowbrow politics about the mix and the demography of people that live in social and affordable housing. A former Liberal Party member for Western Metro Region for many years used to propose that we sell the public housing flats down at Williamstown, the undertone being that those views were too good for people that were vulnerable or on low incomes. We have heard one of the former housing ministers, also in the other place, make egregious comments about the sorts of people that live in social and affordable housing and that ‘We wouldn’t want to put them in areas where there are middle- and high-income people, lest they can’t afford the right sneakers’.

I think it is time for us to really Etch A Sketch a lot of the lowbrow politics out of the housing debate and for us to absolutely concede that we need to change the fundamentals. In order to do that we need to take the structures of delivery from a government perspective. This bill effectively does that in an important way through the establishment of Homes Victoria. Homes Victoria is a conversion, in large part, of what would have been known as the old director of housing. It establishes a board that will bring a robust governance process to that work—to actually have people scrutinising the work of what many people would refer to as the department of housing and enable them to have a very strategic forward program to deliver on the investment that the government has made in order to improve the access and availability of social and affordable housing. Understand that there are some incredible people out in the not-for-profit sector that deliver social and affordable housing, but we have these very navel-gazing debates about how we can improve the stock of housing. Then we talk about various different financial methodologies we could use, various different partnerships we could use. Many of them kind of weigh into areas where you hit other commonwealth regulatory issues, either from a prudential point of view or from a corporations law point of view.

What this does is it acknowledges that there are many great partners and that we absolutely have to be innovative and creative about how it is that we build and deliver more social and affordable housing. That might mean joint ventures with the not-for-profit sector. It might mean looking at different financing structures in order to deliver that. You do have to have a credible governance process to be able to do that, and this bill makes a very important contribution to that end by establishing it. I also want to just note that in doing so it also makes sure that it is a board that reflects the diversity of the Victorian community and where some of the paucity in availability and access is.

My friend who spoke before me referred to some of the issues around regional Victoria. There are a whole host of groups of people and regions where housing affordability is a particularly acute problem. Making sure that we have got a board that is able to look through many different prisms as to the availability and affordability of the housing that is being delivered is going to be an important improvement. Having things like KPIs to deliver on housing rather than kind of cavorting along at the pace of a Snuffleupagus, having a board that actually drives the outcomes and drives progress and holds people accountable—that is the kind of scrutiny that this bill will enable for Homes Victoria as well. So I want to indicate my very, very strong support for that.

In my time in Parliament it is the first time I have seen something really significant in the structural change as to how we procure and deliver housing. To really try and make some meaningful progress around the very interesting ideas, from social bonds to the use of things like pension funds and industry super to help deliver housing—to actually get structure in place to nut these things out—I think is absolutely critical, and more power to Homes Victoria’s arm when it is established.

My friend also made some comments indicating concern about the heads of power contained in the bill—that it will give the minister approval—and I would just like to make the argument that what the bill actually says is that when there is a development proposal or a particular finance proposal that has been suggested or approved by the board, it requires ministerial approval. I think that is a very sensible policy position, and I think it is a very sensible governance position. It does not enable the minister to go willy-nilly and involve him or herself in various development proposals. It basically is a form of approval and scrutiny and ensures that what is being proposed by Homes Victoria accords with government policy, has been the subject of due diligence and accords with whatever the other housing priorities of the day might be. So I do not think that we should have any undue concern about that.

I do just want to also very quickly make some brief comments about some of the proposals about resolving some of the disputes that can sometimes occur. Now, as local members, many of us are the subject of those or on one side of the debate and know how difficult it often is to get disputes between neighbours resolved. The bill puts some pretty sensible propositions as to how we can potentially avoid those things and involve people in a debate and discussion through the use of community impact statements. But I would just like to say this: it is not just people in social and community housing that have neighbourhood disputes. Certainly the evidence is really clear that the biggest source of disputes is actually not social and community housing but privately owned housing, and it is always over fences and tree roots. You can look at insurance data and VCAT data to bear that out.

Having said that, it is important that we have got ways in which we can quickly get these disputes resolved in a way that is fair and gives confidence but also protection to people. The evidence identified in the course of the development of this bill was that people felt that if they made a complaint about someone, their identity would be known and they would be the subject of repercussions. This bill deals with that in a very, very sensible way and gives them some protections, and I am confident that at the other end vexatious complaints will be managed through the processes that are set out in this bill. I think that is a really sensible improvement from where we are.

In closing I just want to acknowledge the wonderful new Minister for Housing, who is with us. I know of his personal commitment to public and affordable housing. Long may he continue to deliver such great reforms.

Mr T BULL (Gippsland East) (11:14): It is a pleasure to rise and make a contribution on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. I note the comments from the previous speaker and certainly agree with the majority. I would challenge that the majority of disputes between residents of social housing and neighbours are predominantly around fences and tree roots, but I will get onto that a little bit later. There are some elements that are far, far more serious than that which come into my electorate office on a regular basis.

The main purpose of this bill is to amend the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 in relation to rented premises as follows:

to provide for Homes Victoria to provide a community impact statement with certain applications for a possession order; and

to provide for Homes Victoria to specify certain areas to be common areas …

It also amends the Housing Act 1983 and the Residential Tenancies Act, which I will get onto a bit later, in relation to the provision of affordable housing and the functions and constitution of Homes Victoria, and it establishes the Homes Victoria Advisory Board. It also extends the default commencement date for the Social Services Regulation Act 2021 and extends the operation of regulations under the Supported Residential Services (Private Proprietors) Act 2010—all elements and all amendments to the various bills that those of us on this side of the chamber have no problem with. But there are indeed some questions to be answered.

The bill does establish the Homes Victoria Advisory Board, which will provide advice to the minister and CEO of Homes Victoria in accordance with written terms of reference, and the second-reading speech says that:

This embeds the board as an enduring structure to provide the governance and oversight of Homes Victoria.

Well, to my knowledge and my understanding Homes Victoria already does have an advisory board that functions quite well and that works quite effectively and already reports to the minister. So what we would need to know is more specifics around the changes to this, because the second-reading speech simply says that it will embed the board as an enduring structure—questions like, ‘Are there any extra costs or payments to board members, any extra expenses?’. I think our lead speaker covered off on some of these concerns, so I will not go into them in any great level of detail, but they are questions that it would be handy to have a little bit more information on.

The second-reading speech says it will enable the:

… streamlined delivery of the Big Housing Build by embedding and clarifying the transaction structures available to Homes Victoria …

and being able to implement so-called ‘innovative financing models’. Again, our lead speaker, who had half an hour rather than my 10 minutes, was able to go into that in a higher level of depth and detail, so I will not repeat those concerns, but how those new financing structures will work is something that I think all members of this chamber and the general public would also like some more detail on.

Through amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 the bill also clarifies requirements for providers and renters of affordable housing. One area is the application of eligibility criteria for schemes that assist people on lower incomes that are in rental situations. One such program is the national rental affordability scheme, known as NRAS. We all know that this is a commonwealth government program that is based on providing affordable housing. It seeks to address the national shortage of affordable rental housing by offering financial incentives to organisations that provide renters on low to moderate incomes with homes at a rate of about 20 per cent below the market value—a good scheme. To remain eligible NRAS providers must ensure the income of renters in their properties remains below that eligibility cap. Recent reforms, we are told in the second-reading speech, to the Residential Tenancies Act have resulted in there being no means to ensure properties are only being rented by eligible renters. I would have thought that was fairly important, making sure that properties being rented under this scheme are only being accessed by eligible renters, and it seems that this impact must not have been realised in recent amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act and we are now backtracking to some degree to fix up that anomaly.

The bill also ensures the continuity of the NRAS scheme in Victoria by ensuring that providers can continue to house renters who satisfy this income criteria, so I would have thought that that would have been a key element and that we should not have to be coming back into this chamber to have that anomaly fixed. A similar situation applies under the provisions of the Victorian affordable housing programs to enable providers of affordable housing under a declared Victorian affordable housing program to continue—again, similar to the national scheme—to house renters who satisfy the program’s criteria. Again, this is another scheme where we have question marks over the eligibility that are only being fixed now, and that should have been done when previous legislation was tabled.

I want to take up a comment from the previous speaker. I agree with nearly everything the previous speaker said, actually, but just that final comment is an area I had down to discuss. There was some commentary that the majority of issues around disputes relate to tree roots and fences. The second-reading speech goes to some length and detail in explaining how some of the behaviours that take place are quite serious—I would not have thought tree roots and fences were that serious—to the extent where neighbours are concerned about standing up to raise their issues because of fear of retribution. I have had a number of instances in my electorate alone—and I am sure it is probably no different for other members of the chamber, regardless of which side of the chamber they are sitting on—where I have had claims coming into my electorate office around serious abuse, high levels of vandalism and drug use. I have got people who are neighbours who are not seeking extra protections to be able to put this information and their concerns forward; they are more than happy to put their concerns forward and stand by their claims because they want them fixed. So whilst neighbours are happy to stand up, I have got some that have documented between 20 and 50 cases of serious abuse, violence and vandalism, and little action is taken on the perpetrators of these actions.

We have tenancy laws in place, and I know that it can get complicated when you have got children involved in these situations, but I have had cases where there are no children involved where people in public housing are not respectful of the opportunity they have been given to get their life back on track and be afforded a public housing home and where they are putting their neighbours through an absolute nightmare situation. There is an element in this bill that says, ‘We’re going to put in place more provisions to allow people to speak up and be protected’. The problem that we have got is that those people are already speaking up and are prepared to diarise all these areas of concern—all these issues around drug abuse, vandalism, getting their letterbox torn off their fence, palings torn off, things thrown through their windows, things thrown onto their roof—and after this happening time and time and time again over one- or two-year periods, we have still got these tenants in these homes with no respect for the law, no respect for their neighbours and no respect for their communities. So whilst we are making it easy for people to make their complaint, for goodness sake, when people are receiving these threats and living a nightmare—I have got people coming into my home, neighbours, who have not had a good night’s sleep for months because of the behaviour that is going on next door—we must take stronger action.

Having a public housing home—and I am a strong supporter of public housing—is something that just should not be taken for granted. It is a hand up that should be respected and observed as that. It is not a privilege, it is not a right, it is something where the government is genuinely trying to assist these people. So whilst we have made this step through, in those cases, making it easier to give this information, it is not all about tree roots and fences. It is about very, very serious issues, and I would hope that the government in time would consider—and it probably does not need legislation, it probably needs just a direction from the minister—taking stronger action against those who abuse this right. I conclude my contribution with those points.

Mr KENNEDY (Hawthorn) (11:24): I am glad today to be speaking on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. The fundamental effect of this bill is to improve our government’s provision of social and affordable housing for all Victorians. No government in Victorian history has done as much on housing as this side of the chamber. We have committed over $5.3 billion to the Big Housing Build. This is the biggest single investment in social housing out of all the states and territories of this country. We are building 12 000 homes, including 2400 affordable homes for the Victorians who need them most. This includes 260 new homes in my electorate of Hawthorn at Bills Street, and I will have a bit to say about Bills Street a bit later in this speech and make some generalisations drawn from my experience there. These homes are currently under construction and are emblematic of our policy commitment on housing. We are making sure that every Victorian has a roof over their head. These are not just promises. Homes Victoria has already passed the halfway mark, with 6300 homes completed or underway.

I will just say a few words now about Homes Victoria. The importance of the Big Build has been eloquently stated by my colleagues many times, and I would like to contribute to this debate by explaining how this bill will allow for the streamlined delivery of the Big Build. To achieve our ambitious goals in this area we need to make sure that Homes Victoria has the powers it needs to participate in the property development market. This bill is the government supporting the evolution of the director of housing into Homes Victoria. It is part of the broader revitalisation of housing policy under this government, as this bill formally establishes Homes Victoria as a contemporary housing agency with contemporary governance structures. It will create a sleeker, more efficient housing body whilst keeping the goal of every Victorian having sufficient housing at front of mind. This will allow the agency to better achieve its dual goal of social housing for our most vulnerable and affordable housing for low to moderate income earners, including essential workers.

Whilst on collective failure, I would like to address very briefly, because I know this will be taken up by one of my colleagues later today, the opportunistic approach of the Greens on this issue. Whilst it will shock no-one that the party who exclusively target the most progressive Labor members are again making spurious claims and undermining progressive policy, here they are again. Individuals like the member for Brunswick consistently lament that we are not doing enough, and whilst I listened very intently to the member for Brunswick, who I respect very much when he speaks on health, I believe that he is not on the right track here. It will not fix the issue, but it will make a significant dent in it. It seems as though the Greens would like us to start building another 16 000 homes before the first 16 000 are finished. We promised this ambitious goal two years ago and are already halfway. This is on top of the rental reforms which protect renters in a massive way. After all, who could forget the Greens Yarra council vetoing the building of one of 100 new social and affordable housing units. These tree Tories will continue to promise policy they will never deliver, whilst this progressive Labor government will continue to get the job done. But the moment they have a chance for real change they reject partisanship, they reject social housing. Indeed they almost remind me of the Victorian Liberal Party.

Let us talk about Bills Street. The Bills Street project in my electorate of Hawthorn will be one of the first projects delivered under the Big Housing Build, with 206 homes being built for those who need them. This is an incredibly important example of a Homes Victoria project, and I have enjoyed working with that organisation. I chair and regularly attend the community reference group organised by Homes Victoria and have been continually impressed by their response to feedback. Not only will this project create stable housing for 500 Victorians, it will also create 1050 jobs. It will contain 103 social housing dwellings and 103 affordable housing dwellings. It will be an integrated community, which I am confident will serve to make Hawthorn a better place.

However, in talking about the Bills Street project I would like just to comment a little bit on the very disappointing and indeed disgraceful behaviour of the Liberals in the area, including Liberals on the Boroondara council, the previous member and now candidate for Hawthorn and various others, who I believe were unhelpful in trying to raise the level of anger and heat on this project. Whilst I think it is perfectly reasonable for local residents to be concerned, there needs to be balance in this, and we need to try and reduce some of the political impact of it all so that it is not just a case of disguised nimbyism, for example—‘We don’t want them here’. There were some appalling things. Research showed that a majority of the people moving into Bills Street will be single women over 60, yet these were being presented as presenting a drug problem and that they could be trafficking and so on. Well, just think about that. I notice that in an earlier speech today the member for Caulfield spoke about shoeboxes and what I call the great euphemism for nimbyism, ‘overdevelopment’. When in doubt use the word ‘overdevelopment’. It covers a multitude of sins and aspirations, if you like, and I just think that throwing all those sorts of words around was really unhelpful. I was disappointed in Boroondara council in particular and the way they behaved in regard to the matter. Certainly they have a role to protect their citizens, their ratepayers, if you like, but I do not think they have any right to keep building up the heat.

The interesting thing about that reference group is that when we first started to meet, we probably had very much full attendance, and they were drawn from different sections of the community involved. There would have been maybe about 14 or so on the group. Time has gone on and the project has begun, and at the last meeting we had two people turn up. I think that is a good example of how initially people can be afraid of the future and fear the unknown and so on. But as more information became available and they started to see that this was not the worst thing that could ever happen on this earth, the interest waned and they just got on with their lives, so much so that the next one has had to be cancelled because there is nothing further to go on with. So I think that the Bills Street thing is an exciting project. I was disappointed by the behaviour, or the language, if you like, and the disposition of the Liberals on this, and I hope that we can look forward to more cooperation, particularly when the lead speaker today was speaking so fondly of social housing and the need for it and so on. So I look forward to perhaps something new in that respect.

I would like to move on to a couple of other things. One thing we can all agree on is that, despite the recent progress made, our social housing stock is still too low. The Big Build is a significant step, as is this reform of Homes Victoria. However, we still have work to do. In the suburb of Hawthorn 45 per cent of people rent and 39 per cent live in apartments. I would recommend the article in the recent Sunday Age by Michael Koziol about ‘light greens’, which sheds light on the residents of these apartments. I think that we have made a great start. There is a lot more to be done. This bill will enhance Homes Victoria and our housing system, and I commend the bill to the house.

Mr McCURDY (Ovens Valley) (11:34): I am delighted to rise and make a contribution on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. The main purpose of the bill, as we have heard, is to amend the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, particularly on rented premises; to provide for Homes Victoria to provide a community impact statement where the application is for a possession order; and to provide for Homes Victoria to specify certain areas to be common areas. The bill will also amend the Housing Act 1983 and the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 in relation to provision of affordable housing, in relation to the functions and constitution of Homes Victoria, formerly the director of housing, and also to establish the Homes Victoria Advisory Board.

I have got real concerns about this advisory board. My understanding is there is already a board in place, so this is a board to advise the board. I have got real concerns that we have seen over time that this government has plenty of jobs for mates, and on face value this looks to be another such board until it gets proven otherwise. I suppose with the amount of retiring MPs we have got coming this November we might need more boards to fit all those snouts in the trough. So we are here again in this place debating a bill that is short on detail about remuneration of the board positions or even what classification they come in.

May I say housing in regional Victoria is at a crossroads. I know the Ovens Valley—as in most other regional centres, but I know the Ovens Valley better than other regional areas—and towns like Cobram, Yarrawonga and Wangaratta are really feeling the pinch in every aspect of housing. I hear particularly from constituents nearly daily about the lack of rentals available, because sadly renters who are being forced to leave through either their property being sold or owners wanting to move back in simply cannot find other rental opportunities. It is a scarcity of supply.

Other parts of the legislation will extend the default commencement date of the Social Services Regulation Act 2021 and extend the operation of regulations under the Supported Residential Services (Private Proprietors) Act 2010.

Our concerns go further with regard to profits generated by joint ventures. Will they go directly to the general fund? There is no guarantee these funds will be redirected to Treasury. The Treasurer assured us that all money remains for Homes Victoria, as per section 25 of the Housing Act. Furthermore, there are other concerns: do profits gained by joint ventures go directly into the project fund? There is no guarantee these funds will be redirected to Treasury, as I said a moment ago. Money may be permitted to be paid out of the project fund, including any amount to be paid into another project fund on the written approval of the Treasurer. So risk-sharing arrangements are by project and oversight is by the Treasurer, but the specifics are shady and there is a lack of transparency again.

Clause 24: current legislation does not stop Homes Victoria from participating in these types of transactions, such as joint ventures, corporations, trusts, partnerships or non-profit bodies. The bill will make it clear that for entering into such structures the transactions require approval from both the Treasurer and the Minister for Housing, who will use high-value or high-risk finance assurances to show money is not given away for free. Again there is a lack of transparency, as I mentioned before.

Housing is at crisis point, as I have mentioned, in the Ovens Valley and all around the Victorian regions. I know Myrtleford and Bright are really feeling the pinch as well of this predicament, trying to get rental houses built. In my recent meeting with three of the mayors in my electorate they all raised that they are struggling to keep up with the demand for housing, and this government has done nothing to help regional Victoria. It has certainly been left behind, and people are suffering at the hands of the booming housing market. It is creating more and more problems as we go forward.

The Alpine shire has seen house prices more than double in the past few years, and rental prices have increased at a similar rate. This is forcing hundreds of locals out of the region that they grew up in and they have lived in their whole life, and I hear these stories on a regular basis, with locals calling me about their troubles finding somewhere to buy or somewhere to live. Indeed just the other day I had a gentleman from Myrtleford contact me regarding the government’s homebuyer scheme and why he is being excluded purely because he chooses to live in the community he lives in. Again, regional Victoria is not high on that radar. That gentleman now faces having to move further away from his community so he can afford his first home, which also means commuting further to work. I do not really think this is satisfactory, and I hope that the government can see fit to have a long, hard look at the guidelines and how they discriminate against regional Victorians.

We are also seeing a rise in Airbnbs, like all communities, and other short-term rentals in the region and that is putting more pressure on the housing market. Property owners can make an extra $10 000 per annum by renting their house out as a short-term rental rather than on the long-term, traditional rental market. Local councils are doing what they can to try and incentivise property owners to lease these houses out as long-term rentals in order to provide for expanding workforces and places for people to live closer to their workplace.

It is also felt in Wangaratta, where the government’s outdated and out-of-touch planning red tape has caused the delay of a 90-home social and affordable housing development. Now, there is one objector to this. This one objector, granted, needs to be heard, and I understand the process, but this is going to set this whole process back probably two years in the end, from start to finish—not the start and finish of the project but to actually get the project going. We call on the government to try and assist some of these planning departments, because we know about the concerns out there. We know about the building industry; that is on a knife edge as well. I have got builders who talk to me about how they cannot get to lock-up stage because they need doorjambs or they need cabinets or they need windows or something. We know there are significant payments at the lock-up stage, so obviously the client can withhold payment until they get to the lock-up stage. This can drag on and on and on. So if not for the goodwill of all involved—the traders and the clients and the hardware suppliers and all those—we really could be at a standstill already. So we do not need something like this 90-home social and affordable housing development in Wangaratta to be held up any longer than absolutely necessary. As I say, we should be building walls with bricks and mortar and not with red tape. Wangaratta desperately needs this development, and it would certainly help to alleviate and reduce the rapidly expanding list of people in need of crisis housing. Instead we are waiting to be dragged through a long and protracted VCAT hearing.

If the government were serious about housing reform, they would be introducing a bill to reform planning and remove the obstacles that our local councils face. I mentioned earlier today in a previous speech Yarrawonga and the growth and development of a town like Yarrawonga, the fastest growing regional town in Victoria. People are moving to Yarrawonga in droves, and the building industry cannot keep up with what is going on there—which is great for the town and great for the community. We need other infrastructure to keep pace with that. There are ongoing housing developments already, but they are selling out very quickly, ahead of schedule, and the council just simply cannot keep up with the demand. We know North East Water have got some concerns about trying to service these new developments with water and sewage and whatnot in various communities throughout the Ovens Valley. I do not know whether this happens in other regions, but certainly that is holding up some development. We just do not need anything else that stops or slows down this process.

Regional Victorians are suffering, and the government comes out and taxes housing developments with a new windfall gains tax. Again, that just puts more stress on different areas. We know that this state financially is certainly struggling because of the Big Build in Melbourne. We know with the health crisis and all the other housing development things, we are trying to move forward and to get back after COVID. We all knew it was not going to happen overnight. Getting back on our feet, getting our communities active again, as I say, was not going to happen overnight. We need all the help we can get. Instead of just ‘head down, build more tunnels’, we really need to get back to the basics and get back to trying to understand how regional Victoria ticks and how we can service those communities in housing, health and roads, and the list goes on. With that I will commend the bill to the house.

Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote) (11:43): There is nothing more fundamental than the safety, security and dignity of a home. We all know this personally and intrinsically. We know it as legislators in this Parliament. We know it morally and materially. It is why we have a housing act and why its core objective is to ensure that every person in Victoria has adequate and appropriate housing at a price within their means.

The reality of achieving this is complex and paints a picture of social and economic disparity in this state. It is a picture that has many layers: market forces, gentrification, cost-of-living pressures, wage stagnation, gender inequality, entrenched disadvantage and sometimes violence. The truth is that the need for housing is both great and urgent, and there are no simple solutions. We need lots of tools in our toolbox if we are going to achieve tangible and rapid boosts to the supply of social and affordable homes in Victoria. The amendments in this bill give us more of these tools.

The bill formally establishes Homes Victoria as a modern housing agency with a robust governance structure, including an independent skills-based advisory board. Critically, though, the amendments give Homes Victoria the capacity to implement innovative financial models so it can continue to invest in new social and affordable housing at a rapid rate—and that affordable housing component is important. We know that housing insecurity is experienced on a continuum. There is the devastating, acute end where people are sleeping rough. There are those in crisis accommodation or long-term social housing, and there are also many low and moderate income Victorians who are in precarious housing or being priced out of their communities. We are seeing this play out in the inner-urban suburbs like Northcote, once an affordable option for migrant and working-class families. Suburbs in the inner north are increasingly out of range for low and moderate income earners. Rents are high, housing prices are even higher. Close to jobs, public transport, great schools, services and amenities, areas like Northcote are desirable places to live, but it is critical that as our suburbs continue to grow equity and diversity of housing choices are built in at the foundation.

This bill allows the minister to declare a project to be a Victorian affordable housing program. It means there will now be a legislative framework to provide eligible households with access to affordable properties managed and accounted for distinctly from social housing. It also includes models which can support housing for essential workers, such as nurses, police, teachers and care workers in regions that need them most. This is a big step forward in delivering more affordable housing across Melbourne, and as I said, everyone deserves a safe place to live. Social and affordable homes are core to achieving this goal.

You would think that something as fundamental as the right to a home would elicit support across the political spectrum, but it is with sadness, disappointment and frustration that I must report to you that it does not. Across the inner suburbs the Greens have stood firmly in the way of multiple social housing projects in our communities. Just last year we saw the Greens-controlled Yarra council block a proposal to build a minimum of 100 social and affordable homes next to Collingwood town hall, including 1000 square metres of new community space. It was a project three years in the making and backed in by a substantial investment from the state government, and they threw it in the trash. And then there is Flemington and Ascot Vale where I am sure the member for Essendon, the now minister, can tell you about his dealings with the Greens political party as they fought to prevent new homes being built. In the last parliamentary term they opposed giving working people the decency of affordable, safe, modern homes, a chance to break out of the cycle of disadvantage.

Let us not forget in my own community where the Greens-dominated Darebin council acted to deliberately delay our critical social housing project in Preston. This is a project that will deliver 99 homes for some of the most vulnerable and isolated members of our community, and in a disgusting display what they did was delay the project for eight months—eight months until we had to take it out of their control and go through the Minister for Planning for approval instead. If not for these delays, construction would have started so much earlier and we would be well on our way to having these critical homes built, homes that give people opportunity, hope and a chance to live with dignity and aspiration. I raised this travesty in Parliament as a question to the former Minister for Housing. In his response in May 2021 the minister said:

If not for this unnecessarily protracted process with council for no avail, the construction of the 99 social housing dwellings for the most vulnerable members of the community would have already commenced.

He also pointed to the difficulties and unnecessary delays they had to deal with in getting development plans approved, noting that:

Timely consideration of applications has not occurred, irrespective of how much consultation, flexibility and common sense approaches the project team offer up to progress the project.

Yet, in some kind of collective self-delusion, the Greens try to paint themselves as champions of social and affordable housing. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Greens political party could not care less about social housing, but they sure do recognise an opportunity to appropriate a cause so that they can market their supposed moral credentials. Well, we see through it. Those of us who are actually out there actively working to build equity into our suburbs, actively working to make a tangible difference to the lives of people who are less fortunate but equally as deserving, we see through it.

They stand on their pedestal and preach to us about how they care about social housing, affordable housing and the people who need those homes, but time and again the Greens’ track record has shown their words are empty, nothing more than marketing spin, while they put roadblock after roadblock in front of critical housing projects. When it comes down to the wire the Greens political party are not interested in delivering social housing, at least not anywhere near their strongholds. It does not serve them. In their sinister calculations it just does not serve them. So what do we get? Opposition, delays, protests. These frauds are actually not interested in wealth creation for disadvantaged people; they could not care less. They are not interested in raising people up or in backing in a proactive and progressive Labor government that is building these homes. Twelve thousand new homes are being built as part of the Big Housing Build—$5.3 billion in funding, the biggest single investment into social and affordable housing in Victoria’s history. Yet at every step all the Greens are interested in doing is undermining our work, all the while offering nothing but marketing and spin while they expect us to swallow this message that they give a damn about housing tenants. Give us a break. I mean, seriously, do they think that we do not see through the smoke and mirrors? The Greens are on a mission all right, but you can bet your life that it is not a mission about helping the most vulnerable Victorians. It is their mission. It is their political mission.

I have got 2 minutes left. We are now over halfway towards our target of 12 000 new homes, including 2400 affordable homes, with 6300 already completed or underway. Many of these homes are for people with mental illness, people with disability, women and children escaping family violence, as well as First Nations Victorians. These are people and families who deserve a chance. They deserve security and safety. They deserve to be part of a community—our community. The Big Housing Build and our investment in social housing is transformational. It is changing lives. I have seen this firsthand. Just last week I joined the Minister for Housing for a visit to one of our local social housing builds in Fairfield. This site has a long history. A hundred years ago it was a home for pregnant and unmarried women before becoming a refuge and then a boarding house. In partnership with Unison Housing and a $3.3 million investment from the Labor government we have transformed these 22 cramped bedrooms into 38 beautiful self-contained apartments for women. These are light, bright, modern and safe, and they have got regular staff on site as a point of contact and support. This is the kind of thing that we are doing through our Big Housing Build. It is transformational. The Greens need to get behind it rather than continuing to undermine it, particularly at local government level, where they have the power to approve these projects being built. It is disgraceful, and it needs to be called out.

On that note, I want to see more social housing in the Northcote electorate, and this bill goes towards doing that. I am part of a team and a government that is committed to delivering on this goal. We have done a lot already. There is more to do. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr McGHIE (Melton) (11:53): I rise to contribute on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. Before I provide my contribution I just want to acknowledge the contribution of the member for Northcote—her passion, her emotion, her feelings. I know she probably wanted a lot more time. I would love to forgo my 10 minutes and give it to the member for Northcote, because it was an unbelievable contribution, and I thank her for it.

I had great delight in reading the former minister’s second-reading speech when this important piece of legislation was introduced to this house. The fantastic and dedicated work he has done in this portfolio will continue with the new Minister for Housing, who shares his passion for this portfolio, and I note the new minister is at the table. In the former minister’s speech one thing that stood out to me was his acknowledgement of the many essential workers who got us through this pandemic—our healthcare workers, our essential services delivering the water and the energy that we all need, the supermarket and food workers, our delivery drivers, our first responders and everyone that contributed to keep this place going during such terrible times in the pandemic.

Of course many of these workers are often priced out of the housing market and can become vulnerable to the price pressures of a volatile private rental market, and we know that in my electorate there are many, many people that could not afford the rental prices throughout the electorate, so it is quite right and correct that the minister acknowledged that the Andrews Labor government implemented this Big Housing Build for these workers and others in society who are vulnerable.

Electorates like mine of Melton on the fringes of metropolitan Melbourne have often been a pocket of housing affordability and lower rents that help many low- and middle-income families. It is constituents like mine that often felt the effects of the pandemic harder than others, but it is also important that all suburbs have affordable housing. Regardless of whether you are in Melton or whether you are in Brighton, affordable housing is important, irrespective of the shoes that you wear or the phone that you might be able to use. Essential workers and lower income families still have a right to safe and affordable accommodation, and I think all of us in this Parliament have on one occasion had constituents reach out to us after facing a crisis or a time of need and housing becomes a need that they require assistance with. I know that I have had many contacts with constituents for these very reasons. Increased reporting of family violence in particular during the height of the pandemic can be a prime example of the need for programs like Victoria’s Big Housing Build, and recently I had a constituent come into my office for that very reason—a family violence situation, no housing available, and fortunately we managed to assist in providing a house and some furniture to furnish the house.

I was lucky enough to join the former minister in Melton South to tour some extraordinary, amazing houses that became available through this government’s investments. Those houses were welcoming, they were warm and they were fitted out with energy-efficient appliances. They were like the many houses that surrounded them, and the pride the builders took was the same pride that they took in all their properties, even their own private properties. So social and affordable housing provides many Victorians with the safety, security and dignity of a home. The residential tenancies, housing and social services regulation amendment bill will bolster this government’s commitment to an expanded, effective and sustainable social and affordable housing system.

The Andrews Labor government is delivering more homes for the people who need them most because we know a safe and secure home is the foundation to a good life. I know in my background, I was born and bred into a housing commission area in the western suburbs in Braybrook, a very low socio-economic area. We lived in that house for 30-odd years. My family moved there in the late 1950s. It housed eight family members—my parents and six siblings—and I cannot say enough about having that roof over our head. That neighbourhood was a fantastic neighbourhood. All the families contributed, everyone had a job and kids went to school. I heard stories from the opposition about complaints and things like that about public and social housing and how some people wreck the housing and things like that—well, I can assure you in my time in Braybrook that never, ever happened. People took pride in their housing commission house, and I daresay around the state today people still take pride in the public housing that they are provided with. The $5.3 billion Big Housing Build is the biggest single investment in social housing out of all the states and territories and in Victoria’s history. This Big Housing Build will deliver more than 12 000 homes, including 2400 affordable homes for the Victorians who need them the most.

I would like to acknowledge the great community organisations that target homelessness in Melton. We have wonderful programs like Hope Street, with their work with youth experiencing homelessness. Youth often are just that little bit more difficult to house. Hope Street have developed positive relationships with many local real estate agents where they are prepared to go on the lease at times, but such is their relationship that many real estate agents trust Hope Street to transition their clients from emergency housing to rental housing. And there are great plans for Melton—I and many of the western MPs meet regularly, both state and federal Labor MPs, and we have worked collaboratively to address homelessness in the west. That work of the many homelessness agencies has been fantastic, and I applaud them for all their efforts.

We have also been working with some of the unions and our comrades at the Health and Community Services Union and the AMWU as we look to address the needs of those that need public and social housing in the west. This bill will help ensure that through Homes Victoria we can continue to boost the supply of modern, energy-efficient, affordable homes for Victorians most in need so that they have a place to call home, and that is what I referred to before in regard to my family. It was really important that we had public housing as we were growing up. It was a place and it was a home, and we enjoyed that upbringing and cherished that roof over our heads. It is an important point; energy efficiency is an important need. As older private rentals often do not have access to insulation and energy-efficient heating or solar, it is vital that the government helps deliver this energy efficiency to those who are most susceptible to the rising costs of energy and those who cannot invest in energy efficiency as they do not own their homes.

Something flows on from this government’s investment in free TAFE, and this has been a game changer in regard to the involvement of the Big Housing Build and how we are recruiting people to work in the construction industry. We are helping and including a high number of women in the construction industry, and I think that is fantastic. Indigenous Victorians have also been helping out in the construction industry, so I think that is fantastic as an outcome of this Big Housing Build.

The bill formally establishes Homes Victoria as a contemporary housing agency with a robust governance structure, and it also provides powers to bring a more commercial way of operating to Homes Victoria but which keeps at the forefront the objects of the Housing Act 1983 to ensure that every person in Victoria has adequate and appropriate housing at a price within his or her means. The bill formalises the transition of the director of housing to Homes Victoria and establishes an independent skills-based Homes Victoria Advisory Board to provide strategic advice to the CEO of Homes Victoria and the minister. The board will be required to present an annual forward plan to the minister and support Homes Victoria through its independent oversight, providing expert advice on Homes Victoria’s long-term strategic direction, financial performance and stability, strategic risks and opportunities and the corporate plan and performance indicators.

Just before I finish, I want to respond to the member for Ovens Valley. He referred to the fact that regional Victorians are not being provided for by this government, and I have just got to refute his comments. It is my understanding that regional Victoria will receive $765 million in the housing build across all of the regions. In fact in the Ovens Valley region Wodonga will receive $30 million, Wangaratta $20 million and even further towards the west, I suppose, Shepparton $45 million, so in total that is $95 million that will be spent on housing through that corridor of the north-east. I do not know what the member for Ovens Valley was referring to when he said that regional Victoria is not being provided for.

These reforms show the value of the Andrews Labor government in its transformational way of investing in our communities, our workers and our families. The benefits go far beyond the economic. This massive policy will shape Victoria for years to come. I support this legislation, and I commend this bill to the house.

Ms HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (12:03): I also rise to make a contribution on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. I think, as previous speakers have put it well, this bill seeks to further deliver and consolidate our Andrews Labor government’s commitment to an expanded, effective and sustainable social and affordable housing system, and it will do this in a variety of ways. As has been spoken about, when there is community attitudinal change or other things change, whether it is technology or attitudes or funding or the way our society works, we need to have legislation that is up with the times, whether it is through changing wording or how we refer things. In this case of course it is about a massive new system that the Victorian Labor government is bringing into play, which is a massive rethink, a rebuild and a great injection of funds in order to revamp our affordable and social housing system in the state of Victoria and ensure it is providing for Victorians as best it can and getting the best value for money.

This legislation really is talking about making sure that any innovations, new ideas, new ways or new partnerships can be developed to maximise the dollar spend in terms of providing as much housing as possible and in models and systems that people need, that reflect the way people live, rather than just plonking down something and then saying to people that they have got to go and use that facility or go into that house. We all know, for example, that as members of Parliament we get a number of residents that may come to us seeking affordable, social or public housing, and not everybody is the same. Their families are different. The way they live their lives is different. So there has to be some understanding and accommodation of that when providing housing to Victorians, because a basic human right for all people is the right to a home and to shelter.

Before going into the contents of this bill I would like to in particular give an example of a new model that is occurring in the Thomastown electorate. I was there with the former Minister for Housing not that long ago, and it was great to be there, to announce and turn the first sod on a project that is called the Riverlee estate, which is on Cooper Street, a stone’s throw from the Northern Hospital and two stone throws from the shopping centre. There is the community health centre there; there are a whole lot of services. This Riverlee project, which is going to be almost the size of a small town, has included in it—and this is the first work that they are building—151 social housing homes, which include 79 one-bedroom and 72 two-bedroom homes. This is a collaboration with both the developer, Riverlee, as well as Haven; Home, Safe, which is a homelessness service that also acts as a referral agency and places people in homes. This collaboration in building these 151 social housing homes is going to be a system where Haven; Home, Safe not only builds and owns the properties but also will provide a caretaker service, case managers and other people that are actually on the premises acting to ensure that everything runs smoothly because there is always some sort of neighbourhood dispute in any street or place. This system will be where there are extra services provided in place, if you like, within that housing tower which will be part of the Riverlee estate, which also will include a private hospital, private dwellings—both houses and apartments—and so on.

Getting back to the bill, the bill will make a number of amendments to the Housing Act 1983 and the Residential Tenancies Act 1997, and it allows the vision that our government has in terms of making social housing fit for purpose, maximising value for money and also providing the housing that actual people need and in the way they need it. I need to mention that we are talking about a $5.3 billion investment.

This bill will formally establish Homes Victoria as a contemporary housing agency, and it will have a very robust governance structure. Homes Victoria has been established as the reformed and repositioned director of housing, and it aims to support Victorians who are finding it difficult, as we know, to secure stable, affordable housing. It will manage the $31 billion in housing assets that currently house more than 112 000 Victorians in public housing. It will also oversee the renewal and expansion of those assets, as I have mentioned, as part of the Big Housing Build. It will also be expected to enable a sustainable housing system that can deliver for the generations to come. Again it is talking about, in line with the times and with the way of modern living, what is needed, what Victorians need. We need the governance and organising structures to fit in with the new times.

There will be new powers under the rebranded and reconfigured Homes Victoria. Part of it will be to expand housing stock and to look at different ways of doing that, whether it is through different financial arrangements or whether it is through partnerships, and also to look at what types of models of housing are required for different people. I think it is pretty fair to say that there has been a fairly locked-in system in the past about how social and affordable housing is provided, managed and maintained, but this is trying to create a new vision where there will be the ability within the legislation, with lots of accountability and good governance, to look at innovative ways to make the dollar go further as well as look at the type of housing and the way that it is provided to people.

I think an important aspect that probably has not been looked at before is the ability in this legislation to allow Homes Victoria to actually look at superannuation funds and see whether they are prepared to invest and to contribute. Particularly the industry funds are always looking for investments that are going to give good returns for people’s retirement but also ethical investments and investments that will change people’s lives, because it is mostly working people that are in the industry superannuation funds, and of course working people are in need of affordable housing such as what we are striving to create as well as social housing.

In terms of talking about some different models of provision of housing, I would like to perhaps give a bit of a shout-out to an initiative—and I think the member for Melton also raised it in his speech just before me—and that is the project that the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Health and Community Services Union are lobbying for and looking for in combination with Hope Street and also building company 3PE Build. They are looking at a new model, which would be the building of units for young people. Within the housing complex there would be services for those young people not just around wellbeing but also around training, connection to jobs, job agencies and mentors so that young people are given the best chance to get work and be able to look after themselves going into the future. These are the sorts of projects that you would hope under this legislation would be able to be looked at. It is a really incredible future that we are looking at in terms in of housing for Victoria.

Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (12:14): It is with great pleasure that I join the debate on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. I think it is great that you are actually in the chair during the debate, Acting Speaker Couzens. I know that as the member for Geelong this is an area that you are incredibly passionate about, and it is a passion that I really share too. It is great to follow the wonderful member for Thomastown, who is one of my neighbours and who I have had the privilege of working with since she was elected as my neighbour in 2010, 12 years ago. I think that it is only Labor that really gets down into the detail about provision of social and affordable housing.

I want at the outset of my remarks to pay tribute to the previous Minister for Housing, the member for Richmond. I know that the member for Richmond all his working life has really given a damn about affordable housing, about the dignity of having a roof over your head—starting out as a housing worker as he did in public housing. I first met the member for Richmond when I worked in the office of housing. It might have been called the Ministry of Housing and Construction or the Ministry of Housing then. It had many name changes. As a young public servant I encountered the member for Richmond as an adviser to the then minister for housing, Barry Pullen. The member for Richmond was also then the Lord Mayor of Melbourne. I just experienced his passion. He and others were some of the key influences on me when I joined the party in 1988 as a young public servant, and I thought, ‘I can really try and make a difference in this policy area’.

I began work on the housing policy committee. I was the president of the housing policy committee. I worked in the youth housing program, in common equity rental co-ops. There was in those days a local government and community housing program where local government partnered with the state and federal governments. We had a federal government that actually put money into housing in those days. I know that the member for Richmond then went on to work for the then Deputy Prime Minister, Brian Howe, on the national housing agenda. I am so glad that we now have a Labor government in Canberra again, because if they were to invest as much as we are investing through our Big Housing Build program in Victoria, we would have no waiting list here.

I said at the outset that only Labor gets into the detail around this. I heard the member for Hawthorn before talking about the ‘tree Tories’, the Greens. What we see them do in local government is always this wringing of hands. You know, ‘There should be more done about housing’. Any time we talk about social housing or affordable housing they are against it. They say that they want people in public housing in one area—the old demonised ghettos of public housing—and every time we say that we want diversity when we are redeveloping, they are against it. They are against it on the floor of this chamber, and they are against it in the upper house. They say it is undermining socialist values or something, as if they would know anything about that. Then what you see those tree Tories do on local councils is they are constantly opposed to the expansion of social and affordable housing, particularly in the inner city. Wherever they are on councils, they are opposed to it.

Then on the other side is the coalition, whether it is the Liberal or the National Party. We have heard their speakers today. Whenever you talk about public housing all they want to do is talk about poor behaviour and to demonise people in public housing. It is absolutely just lowest common denominator politics. They use it as an excuse to do nothing or, worse, to decrease the amount of public and social housing that is available to the community. They have been involved in sell-offs that derive no benefit in decreasing public housing waiting lists. Then you have the demonising of people in public housing—that they really should only be housed in lower socio-economic areas so that they never actually get the influence of people that are in work or, for young people, have mentors in a community that can assist them into work. You hear the most base, base criticism. I mean, the conversation—I think it was last year—and the drivel that came from a former housing minister, Wendy Lovell in the other place, was just disgraceful in her contribution in the upper house. She was an appalling housing minister. She was not supportive of the people that she was there to serve. Then she showed that she has learned nothing from that portfolio. To somehow say that there should be no social housing in Brighton because the kids that would live there would not be able to afford decent sneakers—well, that is about the level of their contribution on policy in public housing.

Mr Tilley: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, there are a couple of things here, but certainly we are getting a fair way off this bill. So I just call for the member for Yan Yean to get back to the bill, if you would not mind, Acting Speaker.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Couzens): There is no point of order, but I ask the member to contribute on the bill. The comments are relevant to the bill.

Ms GREEN: Thank you, Acting Speaker. Well, this is an absolutely reformist bill and will enable the new entity of Homes Victoria to implement the most appropriate models and transaction structures to deliver on the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build. As a regional Victorian, raised and educated there, what I love about our big build is our big build enshrines 25 per cent of the spend in regional Victoria, but I believe that with the lower land costs in regional Victoria there is every possibility that we will get a third or more of those units being built in regional Victoria.

We have seen in regional Victoria that there is a huge affordability problem and there is a supply problem, and we are finding it is not even just people that would have traditionally been seen as homeless, but you are finding that jobs cannot be filled—teachers, nurses, police officers, baristas, the hospitality industry. There are just not houses in many, many towns. I know in St Arnaud, for example, there are two businesses there that are running at about 60 per cent capacity because they cannot get the workers there, and one of the businesses is actually blocking out the motel and paying for the workers to live there.

I want to give credit. I spoke yesterday about the wonderful Tony Driscoll, the late mayor of the Shire of Northern Grampians. He was passionate about ensuring that there was a better housing mix in the town that he loved. Tony was a real estate agent, but he was not just about the big end of town, he was about people having dignity and a roof over their heads. The second last time I met with him, with Martha Haylett, the Labor candidate for Ripon, I said, ‘Tony, where is the land?’. He talked about the big houses there that a lot of single older women were living in and having difficulty heating and maintaining and how those homes would be ideal for families and how we need to build a different form of housing either for single people starting out or for those older people to be able to age in place in their township but in a more appropriate place. I said to Tony, ‘Okay, where’s some public land where we could do that?’. He immediately said, ‘The old St Arnaud High site’. Martha and I went and visited it with him. There is a sports stadium there that used to be part of the old college, and I just think it is an ideal site. I really hope that Homes Victoria will look at this site as a future place for affordable housing that can really help that town of St Arnaud. But there are numerous towns across regional Victoria and parts of our suburbs that will really benefit from this initiative. I commend the new minister and staff, and I commend this bill to the house.

Mr EDBROOKE (Frankston) (12:24): I am very excited to speak on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022, which of course will bolster this government’s commitment to an expanded, an effective and a sustainable social and affordable housing system. Something I am extremely passionate about and I know all members on this side of the house are extremely passionate about is the premise that everyone deserves a roof over their head, whether it be social housing or affordable housing. They deserve to have the safety, the security and the dignity of a home, and it is this bill and the structures that this bill rolls out that will enable that.

We have heard many people on this side of the house talk about the $5.3 billion—yes, ‘billion’, you heard that right—commitment to the Big Housing Build, which is the biggest single investment in social housing out of all the states and territories and in Victoria’s history.

The Big Housing Build will deliver more than 12 000 homes, including 2400 affordable homes for the Victorians who need them most. As part of that Big Housing Build, we will secure 2000 homes for Victorians who have a mental illness and 1000 homes to provide a safe space and security for survivors of family violence, and 10 per cent of new dwellings will support Aboriginal Victorians to have culturally safe self-determined housing options as well. Our government’s investment means that Homes Victoria has passed the halfway mark, with 6300 homes already completed or underway and 1400 households either settled or about to move into their brand new homes, which is just amazing.

The formalities of this bill are really about establishing Homes Victoria as a contemporary housing agency with a very robust governance structure. It also provides powers to bring in a more commercial way of operating Homes Vic but keeps at the forefront the objectives of the Housing Act 1983 as well, which is essentially to ensure that every person in Victoria has adequate and appropriate housing at a price within his or her means. This will allow Homes Victoria to deliver housing with a consortium—from social housing for the most vulnerable members of our community to affordable housing for the low- to moderate-income earners, including of course essential workers as well. The bill also formalises the transition of director of housing to Homes Victoria and establishes an independent skills-based Homes Victoria advisory board to provide strategic advice to the CEO of Homes Victoria and the minister. As I have said, there is a fairly robust governance structure.

If there is one thing you will hear about in the community of Frankston—indeed I am sure every member has this in common, and Frankston is no different there—it is mental health and housing. When I am on the phones or knocking on doors on the weekends or out at a street stall listening to people or holding a listening post, I always hear about housing. It is a huge local issue, an issue that Frankston council and a number of other partners in our community really decided they were going to become part of, get some skin in the game, a few years ago. They developed Frankston Zero, an initiative to combat homelessness, which is chaired by the Peninsula Community Legal Centre CEO, Jackie Galloway, who is a great human being. As part of that Frankston Zero initiative we got a lot of local agencies on board—Neami National, TaskForce, Launch Housing, the list goes on—to establish what we need to bring from the coalface to the government policy rooms to make sure we are decreasing homelessness and providing an offering that is inclusive, provides equality and actually gives people what they need, so we do not have people being readmitted, so we do not see recidivism or see people just being homeless on the beach or on the seats of Frankston. I am sure some other suburbs have got their own programs as well, but this is one that came out of Frankston, and the advocacy behind it is amazing.

It is a passion of mine to make sure that everyone in my community, including Frankston of course but also Victoria-wide, has a roof over their head. There are some very complex problems around that. There are some very complex reasons why some people are homeless. We require a wraparound model. We require a model that has a no-wrong-door approach, I guess, to do that, and that requires a lot of other services besides just the infrastructure of housing itself. But I am very confident that with people working together and agencies working together we can actually do that. I note that that is what is being done in Frankston at the moment and, again, quite a few other suburbs.

We have seen and heard some campaigning against housing. I think Brighton was mentioned just before. I do not mean to tread on that well-tilled soil again, but I was pretty disgusted with what I heard in the other place recently—about how we should not allow people who need affordable housing to live in Brighton because their kids might not be able to afford bloody shoes. I would love to have a talk to that person—a coffee, a beer. I think there is some education needed there. I think that is what it comes down to. I am not sure it is anything other than that. I just think people maybe need to be educated about what is actually going on in their own communities. That is a pretty easy thing to do, but people have got to lend themselves to that as well.

When I talk about a passion for housing, I will go above and beyond. I will go anywhere in Victoria to find out about a new housing initiative. That is what I did I think with the member for Thomastown and also the member for Melton when we took a trip out to Melton with members of the mighty AMWU and the mighty Health and Community Services Union to see a project run in conjunction with Hope Street, where they are providing housing that to me ticks all the boxes. It is managed. People feel safe.

There are a lot of other, I guess, ancillary kinds of services that are around that, from social enterprises to work-readiness programs to employment programs as well. But out of that came a discussion about another project that both these fantastic unions were pushing, and that is Homeless to Homemaker, which is essentially a project that was brought from consultation with the shop floor and members of Headspace, Bunjilwarra Koori Youth Alcohol and Drug Healing Service, Youth Support and Advocacy Service, Alfred Health, Peninsula Health, Western Health and Melbourne Health. Members from all those stakeholders contributed to a plan where we would be able to explore opportunities to include more social enterprise housing models. That includes a company called 3PE, who are an engineering company run by a bloke I have spoken about in here before, Charlie Hamod. Charlie has had a great career, but he wants to leave a legacy. He sees people who are homeless and he wants to tell us how he can help out, and this modular-style initiative that we are calling Homeless to Homemaker certainly does that. I know there is land in Frankston. We would love to see that one get up. For helping people experiencing homelessness and mental health issues, over-55 women who are unfortunately over-represented in homeless statistics or people that are at risk of recidivism or readmission or who just need a job, this is a great plan and a great way to do it.

I also had the chance last week to visit TaskForce in Frankston, who are an agency whose motto is ‘Where hope finds help’. You walk through this door, and you have got a bunch of very, very experienced workers in the Frankston area. Basically it is a no-wrong-door policy. They will be able to find you the service you need in a wraparound service kind of way with a bunch of very, very passionate people. I know they are about to open their new office in Frankston, so they invited me to come and take a look at it and have a bit of a tour. I was amazed. We were walking through. There are any amount of people in Frankston that are finding that hope, finding that door and finding the help they need. If you look at the stats, it is actually quite amazing. These things range from housing to mental health issues to alcohol and other drug issues. But the fundamentals of this bill are the foundation of a structure for some of those agencies. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I was very, very impressed with TaskForce. They run some very, very good initiatives, including their initiative regarding young women who are coming out of the justice system. It is fantastic, and the results speak for themselves.

$5.3 billion is Victoria’s largest ever commitment to housing. There are a lot of people that have pooh-poohed that: ‘How are you going to do it?’ and this, that and the other. But right now and right here people in this house and people out in our community are actually seeing these houses being built and people moving into these houses. It just shows that where there is a will, there is a way, and often it is the will that is not there. This government certainly does not lack that will. We have been listening to communities like Frankston, like Thomastown, like most of Victoria, saying there is a homelessness problem. There is only one way to solve it, and it is to bite the bullet and create more social and affordable housing. This is a great bill. It provides the structure to actually do that, and I strongly commend this bill to the house.

Ms SULEYMAN (St Albans) (12:34): I too rise to speak on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022, and I echo the sentiments from this side of the house on the importance of the strong support and action of the Andrews Labor government to the social services sector since it was elected in 2014. The minute we were elected our government moved to create this important work for Victorians, and that is to make sure that we provide safe and secure public housing for everyone in the community and the services that they need also to make sure that, as I said, every Victorian has a safe, secure and stable home. We know the importance of having a safe, secure home. This is the aspiration of every Victorian and Australian, the hope of owning your home or having a safe, reliable place where you can raise your family and, most importantly, be in a safe and secure environment each and every day.

This particular bill will assist with the implementation of our fantastic Big Housing Build by ensuring that we are delivering in a manner that maximises the efficiency of every project by reducing long and unnecessary delays. It will create the legislative framework for the Victorian affordable housing program to manage affordable housing separately from other social housing and create those important mechanisms for dealing with antisocial behaviour and any other issues, making sure that we are protecting our communities. This will make sure that these homes are delivered as quickly as possible, and we have seen that already in my electorate of St Albans, where we have seen some fantastic developments which are really giving more options to single mothers and the elderly and providing those support services as well. As I have already mentioned, we have not wasted a minute since being elected. We are absolutely committed to making sure of the investments in our communities, in particular when it comes to providing social and public housing, and we understand when it comes to social, community and affordable housing that this is a real pillar in our community that is important and fundamental to the lives of Victorians.

I for one know the importance of public housing. I actually live in the middle of a public housing estate in St Albans. I am a lifelong resident of St Albans. I have been there for over 40 years and lived side by side with residents in public housing, and I have become quite close friends with those residents. Seeing some of their journeys and their challenges, seeing firsthand what it means to be in public housing and hearing some of the stories of their journeys before they actually entered into public housing, I am always inspired by those families. They also include pensioners who live on their own. It becomes a place of opportunity, and I will just single out one family in particular who live near me in public housing. Their family has worked very hard, saved every penny for the last 20 years, and I can tell you that one of their daughters, on her 18th birthday, received a Mercedes-Benz from her family. So I just want to put forward the public housing families. On the other side some would say—and there were comments made, unfortunately, by a previous housing minister on the other side in relation to—‘Well, these people can’t live in Brighton. They can’t afford sneakers and they probably can’t afford the latest iPhone’, or words to that effect. Well, I say to you that some of the people in public housing work very hard, they are aspirational, they save every penny. As I said, one of them that I know very well, one of my neighbours, on their 18th birthday received a Mercedes-Benz. The whole family had saved to make sure that this could happen, and it just shows you that it is not just about a safe home. These are places where opportunity is created. Kids go to the local school and they really excel, move and contribute in our local community as pharmacists, doctors and public service officers. So to stereotype—as some of the comments that have been made have—is really disappointing, and it just shows the lack of understanding and the lack of compassion on the other side when it comes to public housing and when it comes to families who need that assistance at the beginning. But I can tell you, having friends and family that lived at the Flemington flats for many years, they take that as an opportunity, move forward and really contribute back into the community.

I am really proud to have numerous developments across the St Albans electorate, and I had the great opportunity of recently visiting some of those developments in St Albans with the former Minister for Housing, the member for Richmond. It was amazing. Not only did we see partnerships being created with Women’s Housing Ltd for a development of homes for women and families—up to 100 women and kids in another development—all these projects now come with modern energy-efficient homes that are appropriate and blend in with the character of the neighbourhood. But most importantly it gives women and their families, as I said, a safe place, and it is also about, with our projects in particular, making sure that there are innovative housing options.

Another development that I had the pleasure of visiting was in Albion, and this incredible development brought cutting-edge technology, one of the first 7-star ratings in Australia, using passive house design to make social housing far more energy efficient and, most importantly, cutting power bills up to 80 per cent. So not only are we providing safe, reliable homes but we are also making sure that they are innovative, are meeting the demand and are cost effective for the residents that will be living there.

I do say this as someone who lives in the middle of public housing: this government—and it is only Labor that has delivered—is making sure that we see 10 000 houses created from the Big Housing Build alone, and most importantly this housing is a chain reaction. It creates local jobs. It creates the local economy also to be part of those projects, and that is extremely important for the electorate of St Albans. I have just got to say the other side and some of their mates outside in local government have just been horrendous when it comes to this issue. Some of the misleading statements that they make in relation to public housing and social housing, in particular out in the west, are absolutely outrageous and show again the level of understanding, the lack of understanding and the fact that they are just not here to really think about and have compassion for families, pensioners, single parents—those who need it most in their time of need. But I am extremely proud of our government. We are making sure that we deliver appropriate housing, whether it is public or whether it is social. This is the need, and we are delivering on that need to our communities across the west. I also want to thank the member for Melton and my western region colleagues.

Mr CHEESEMAN (South Barwon) (12:44): It is with some pleasure this afternoon that I rise to speak on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022, and I must say I do so with some profound pleasure, really. My part of the world is Geelong’s growth corridor, and we have got, as you would be well aware, Acting Speaker Couzens, many, many thousands of people who are making their way to the Armstrong Creek growth corridor and setting themselves and their families up for a future living in Geelong but as a part of that growing community. In my time as a local representative, as the state member for South Barwon, I have had many opportunities to talk with those communities and to hear firsthand their stories about how they ended up living in Armstrong Creek, their backgrounds, where they came from and the challenges in their lives. A very large proportion of those residents are local Geelong people who have moved from the northern suburbs of Geelong, having grown up in social housing, and have done a little bit better than their parents did and have had the opportunity to buy a house. But they never forget where they came from, and they never forget the important role that social housing played in their life in helping them have that security as a young person growing up and the dignity of a place to go at the end of their day that was affordable and that was, in a relative context, a safe place to be.

Recognising their stories, every time the Andrews Labor government has put in place further reforms to provide people, particularly those that are renting, with further rights and to put in place more clarity about the relationship and expectations that the state government has with renters and landlords or when we are putting a post out about Victoria’s big build, particularly in terms of social housing, my office—and I have no doubt your office, Acting Speaker—gets inundated with phone calls wanting clarity about what those rights are. From my end one of the very important points that we need to acknowledge is that it is becoming increasingly difficult for many people to have that aspiration, that goal, of property ownership. What we are increasingly seeing is a greater proportion of people living in properties that are owned by others, and that could be indeed the state, it could be a social housing provider or it could be a private landlord. We need to make sure, recognising those economic realities, that we do provide where we can a set of new rights to particularly renters, and I just want to highlight some of those.

The first, from my perspective as a dog owner, is that we are now providing the opportunity for renters to have pets in their household, in the house that they are renting. That comes with an obligation, and that obligation is that any damage that their pet might do to that property needs to be repaired once they move out. I think that is a fair obligation. I have owned dogs that have from time to time scratched doors and those things, and I think it is quite reasonable that, in exchange for me having a pet in a rented property that I am living in, I make good that door when I move out. I think that is a fair and reasonable thing.

I think it is also fair and reasonable that we make sure that houses are fit for purpose. We do not want to see slum lords, and we do not want to see properties being made available on the rental market that are not fit for purpose. In that context we need to make sure that those houses are safe, and that is why we have put in place I think biennial checks to make sure that houses, in an electrical context, are fit and safe for people to live in. We also need to make sure, as pointed out by the member for Frankston, that there are regular gas checks to make sure that gas heating in the house is working effectively, that it is appropriately exhausted and that we do not see CO₂ build-up in properties, because unfortunately we have seen quite a number of tragedies over the years where people have gone to sleep, they have had the heater on and they have literally never woken up, because there have been carbon monoxide leaks in that house, effectively causing the death of members of a household if indeed not the whole household. So we have put in place those things.

We have also recognised that for a very significant period over the last 30 or 40 years the proportion of properties in Victoria that are provided as social housing has not kept up with population growth. I very much want to acknowledge the very long advocacy of the member for Richmond to make sure that, going forward, really substantial public policy reform is put in place. I know this: he advocated to make sure that we massively increased the availability of social housing. Of course a very substantial part of our big build program saw a massive increase in the supply of social housing. I think that supply of capital to address that is in the order of $5.3 billion, and that is a massive catch-up. I certainly hope that we can enter into a substantial partnership with the Albanese government around having further federal investments like we used to have in the past in housing agreements between the commonwealth and state governments. I must say that it was very disappointing to see the election of an Abbott government way back and the massive cuts that it made to working in partnership with states around the country in delivering affordable social housing, having a good supply of new stock coming onto the market and making sure that there was a really good investment in renovating tired and old social housing. So I am looking forward to further work that can be done in that context.

As I say, many new people are making their way to the Armstrong Creek growth corridor. It is great to see. It is great for jobs, and it is great to see all of these reforms that we are bringing to the table. I look forward to continuing to advocate for further public policy reform in this space. Housing is such a critical issue. It does not matter who you talk to, whether it be— (Time expired)

Mr TAK (Clarinda) (12:54): Acting Speaker Couzens, before I start, can I take this opportunity to congratulate you for your recent elevation to extra responsibility in this place.

I am very delighted to rise today to speak on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. It is even better to follow the hardworking member for South Barwon and his contribution. I would just like to quote his contribution and say that those who have had shelter over their head, whether in public housing or a rental, ‘never forget where they came from’—like many of my constituents, including my parents-in-law and my wife, who had recently arrived from a refugee camp in Thailand back in the 1980s and stayed in a public housing tenancy for a short time. From time to time she would ask me to go for a drive and look at the property where she grew up. It is a good feeling. They are all good memories, so they never forget where they come from.

This is another very important bill, and it is very relevant to my constituents. I am proud that our district is home to a great deal of social housing, because having a home is essential to a person’s health and wellbeing, and social housing is an essential part of every housing system in the world. Social housing ensures that people on low incomes or with barriers to getting private rentals or owning their own property still have a place to call home. It is a lifeline for women and children escaping family violence, people experiencing homelessness and mental health challenges and people with disability. Anyone can have difficulty finding a place to call home at some point in their life.

A strong social housing system is essential to a fair and inclusive Victoria. That is what this government stands for: fairness, equality, inclusiveness and delivering strong social outcomes for all Victorians. So I am extremely proud of our district’s social housing and support network. In fact in the suburb of Clarinda the percentage of social housing dwellings is more than five. In the surrounding suburbs of South Oakleigh and Clayton South I believe it is a little lower, between 2 and 3 per cent. So this is a great start, but we need to do more. In the City of Greater Dandenong we have a huge demand, with nearly 2500 Greater Dandenong residents at risk of homelessness. There are well over 5000, closer to 6000, people living in overcrowded conditions. The rates of rental-related poverty and the number and percentage of homeless persons in Greater Dandenong are one of the highest in Victoria.

We need to do more, and we will—more homes, more security, more stability and more opportunity. This is what is at the heart of this bill. The bill seeks to deliver on the Victorian government’s commitment to expand the effective and sustainable social and affordable housing system. It starts by enshrining key governance reform for Homes Victoria as well as enabling Homes Victoria to implement the most appropriate model and transaction structure to deliver the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build. It is $5.3 billion, the biggest single investment in social housing out of all states and territories and in Victoria’s history. The 12 000 new homes include 2400 affordable homes for Victorians who need them the most, 2000 homes for Victorians who have a mental illness and 1000 homes to provide safety and security for survivors of family violence, and 10 per cent of new dwellings will support Aboriginal Victorians to have culturally safe and self-determined housing options.

This is life changing for thousands of Victorian families—thousands of people housed and secure, an opportunity for many to rebuild their lives and to be somewhere which is safe to call home. For others it is a vital safety net offering the dignity, stability and opportunity they need to fully participate in their community, a historic and life-changing agenda that I am very proud to support here today. The Andrews Labor government has been brave and has looked at society’s greatest challenges right here and right now with mental health, family violence and social housing, just to name a few, and taken historic action and made historic investments to support vulnerable Victorians. We are seeing in Clarinda—

Sitting suspended 1.00 pm until 2.01 pm.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.