Wednesday, 17 August 2022
Bills
Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022
Bills
Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022
Second reading
Debate resumed.
Mr TAK (Clarinda) (14:54): As I said before the lunch break, the bill goes to achieving the following: establishing an enabling framework for the Victorian affordable housing programs as well as preserving the integrity of affordable housing programs in Victoria, ensuring community impact statements provided by the director of housing are considered by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and addressing gaps in the definition of ‘common area’ in relation to public housing in the Residential Tenancies Act 1997. These are all important changes moving us towards a fairer and more inclusive Victoria.
The Big Housing Build is well underway. Our government’s investment means that Homes Victoria has passed the halfway mark, with 6300 homes already completed or underway, and 1400 households have either settled in or are about to move into their brand new homes. Again, thousands of lives have been changed and transformed, and this is just the beginning. Across the electorate in the City of Kingston we have 162 new dwellings across 50 projects. In the City of Greater Dandenong we have 50 new dwellings across 29 projects; 32 of these new dwellings are already completed. The neighbouring City of Monash has already completed another 150 dwellings across 120 projects, with almost half already completed. It is truly amazing. There are many associated benefits. As we have heard, the Big Housing Build will create an average of 10 000 new jobs each year creating new employment opportunities through the Victorian community.
Across the projects I have just mentioned there are also more than 1400 jobs. That is really significant. What is more, apprentices, cadets and trainees undertake 10 per cent of the work on the major projects. There are also gender equity plans which will support the increase of women’s participation in the construction industry, helping address inequalities that have been exacerbated throughout the pandemic.
In conclusion, we have heard that homelessness can affect anyone—our friends, our family, people old enough to be our parents or grandparents and those young enough to be our grandchildren. I am really very glad to see this bill here today, one that continues to move us on the long journey in the Big Housing Build towards a fairer and more inclusive Victoria. I commend the minister for bringing the bill before the house. The bill will help deliver security and stability to the thousands of Victorians that need it most. I commend the bill to the house.
Mr EREN (Lara) (14:57): I am also delighted to be speaking on this very important bill. As members may know, this is my last term in Parliament. I cannot be any prouder than I am, in the 20 years that I have been in Parliament, of some of the legislation that comes through this place, but this is one of them that I really, really love. This is in our DNA. Labor always look after those people that need us the most. It is not in the DNA of the opposition in relation to housing, and I will get back to that a bit later on. I am the product of social and public housing. I lived in the high-rise commission flats in North Melbourne, Alfred Street—147, the 12th floor of Alfred Street. We lived there for many years. I have got some great memories from there. Most of my youth was spent actually growing up in that area. You make lifelong friends, and obviously it is something that I will always remember. I cannot be prouder of the investments that we are making as a government in it now.
I am also proud of our Prime Minister, who made it very public that he is also somebody who grew up in public housing. There is no shame in that, none at all. In fact we are all proud of it. It is transitional. I know, for example, when I was the Minister for Veterans we invested in veterans housing as well in Richmond, in the former Minister for Housing’s electorate. I recall vividly going to open, along with the minister, that very important service, if I can say that. A few months later—in fact about a year and a half later—we were out at a veterans event at Craigieburn. A gentleman approached me, and he said, ‘Look, I just want to thank you for providing that housing for veterans. At that time I really needed it. I stayed there for a brief period of time. I’m back on my feet. I’ve got a job. Now I’m purchasing my own property’. That is what it is all about. It is about making sure that it is not a handout, it is a hand up. From time to time people do it tough, and if governments are not there to support them and if particular governments actually want to demonise them, shame on them.
Obviously from my perspective as the local member for Lara, the northern suburbs of Geelong—3214, Corio and Norlane—have one of the highest populations of public social housing. I want to call it ‘affordable housing’. They are salt of the earth people; I would not swap them for anyone else. They are great people doing it tough. Generational unemployment, generational alcohol and drug abuse—there are issues there, there is no question about it, but everybody deserves a roof over their head.
Of course when I consider the investments that we are making, I want to thank the previous Minister for Housing and the current minister, who will continue on the legacy in relation to delivering this $5.3 billion worth of Big Housing Build, and—I think the member for Yan Yean actually mentioned it—I am sure that the current federal government will add value to our build; I am pretty confident of that. The previous federal government did not want a bar of it. Obviously the Prime Minister was busy with these other portfolios that he had in secret, but he certainly did not have the secret housing portfolio. Through COVID we saw some devastating impacts on the community, and again I say proudly that roughly $150 million of this investment will go into my electorate and broadly into the Geelong region.
I saw some very ugly politics a few years ago when there were petitions being made in relation to public and social housing going into certain areas where they do not want ‘those sorts of people’. I found it disgraceful that people that needed government assistance could be demonised in that way—that they are different from anyone else, that they will not fit into our society. ‘We’re an affluent society, you know, leafy suburbs; we don’t want those people living next door to us’—I mean, that is just outrageous. I really got upset about this. When the former minister in the other place, Wendy Lovell, made some comments about public and social housing, it hurt me—it genuinely hurt me—because I felt for those young people that are living in those circumstances right now. If they were to pick up the paper at their school or if they were to watch the news or listen to the radio, which was broadcast widely, and read about the insensitive comments that Wendy Lovell made—it is outrageous, because they were hurtful. This is by Tarla Lambert, the publisher of Women’s Agenda—
The SPEAKER: Member for Lara, can you refer to members by their correct titles, please?
Mr EREN: Sorry, the member in the other place. She knows who she is.
There is an article in Women’s Agenda, and it states:
It’s hard to contemplate what was going through Victorian Liberal MP Wendy Lovell’s brain when she uttered the words she did in Parliament yesterday.
During a debate on a Greens Public Housing bill, Lovell claimed there was “no point” in establishing social housing in affluent areas “where the children cannot mix with others”. She also suggested children from low-income families would face barriers in socialisation given their inability to afford “the latest … sneakers and iPhones”.
I mean, how could she have been the former Minister for Housing? Clearly there is a divide. It is in our DNA to look after people when they need it the most, and obviously it is not in their DNA. It is the dog whistle stuff that really annoys me.
I am proud to be part of a government that actually helps people in need. We will certainly benefit from this $5.3 billion worth of investment in Geelong and hopefully see a transition from people needing public, social and affordable housing to people moving into private accommodation and hopefully one day buying their own homes.
This bill will do a few things. One of them is enshrining key governance reforms for Homes Victoria. It will enable Homes Victoria to implement the most appropriate models and transaction structures to deliver on the $5.3 billion Big Housing Build; establish an enabling framework for Victorian affordable housing programs; preserve the integrity of the affordable housing programs in Victoria; ensure community impact statements provided by the director of housing are considered by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal; and address a gap in the definition of ‘common area’ in relation to public housing in the Residential Tenancies Act 1997. The bill also makes amendments to the Social Services Regulation Act 2021 to delay commencement of the social services regulatory scheme to 1 July 2024.
As I have indicated before, I am proud to be a member of the government, on this side of the house, as we understand that social housing and affordable housing provide many Victorians with the safety, security and dignity of a home. That is what it is all about. It is about dignity—living in dignity regardless of your socio-economic background. Everybody is entitled to dignity. Regardless of where you find yourself or what family you were born into, everybody at some point does it hard. It is incumbent upon governments to be good governments—governments that care, that are compassionate and that understand some of the issues relating to people that have difficulties in having, if I can call it that, a normal life.
So from that perspective it is like many other bills this government has brought before the house. I am proud that we have been sitting here in the time that I have been here—20 years. Unfortunately we had four bad years of the Baillieu-Napthine governments from 2010 to 2014. Then we recovered government again, and we continued on with good legislation coming before the house that protects all Victorians regardless of their background, regardless of their socio-economic circumstance. We do not discriminate; we help all Victorians. I cannot be prouder. I commend this bill to the house, and I wish it a speedy passage.
Ms COUZENS (Geelong) (15:07): I am pleased to rise to contribute to the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. There have been some fantastic contributions from this side of the house, very passionate ones, and of course the member for Lara has just spoken. I grew up in public housing, firstly in Norlane and then in Corio, which is in the member for Lara’s electorate, though he was not around at the time—I do not think you were even born then.
It was a great privilege to grow up in public housing in the northern suburbs. It really did give my parents the start that they needed. I grew up in quite a large family, a low-income family. My parents were not high-income earners and, having six kids to feed and clothe and send off to school—public schools that we went to, great public schools—that is what gave them a start. For people like me, that start in life—having secure, affordable housing—makes all the difference. We know it is very challenging now for people. I was one of those very privileged people who grew up in public housing and still very much appreciate it today, because I probably would not be standing here if that did not happen. I know how hard the member for Lara works, often in competition with me, to get more public and social housing in our electorates. It is really important. We have some amazing services in our community, services like Neami, who were funded by this government to provide a wraparound service for homeless people. They have been doing an amazing job in the Geelong region. Haven is another really important housing provider that has got a number of housing projects across our region. We have been very lucky to have that. To their credit the City of Greater Geelong have made the decision to look at providing some public and social housing in three key areas in the Geelong region, using some of their land and working with some of the social housing providers. I really do commend them for that. A final decision is yet to be made, so I will be keen to see where they go with that.
As the member for Lara mentioned, we have seen in the past petitions opposing public and social housing in the Geelong area—pretty disgusting campaigns. We have just seen that again with the City of Greater Geelong’s proposal to use some of their land. For me it is really concerning that we still have people out there that oppose public housing. When we have comments like those from the other side about the negativity around social and public housing, it just feeds into that. It gives people licence to come out and say terrible things about public housing tenants. I do not think I am a horrible person, and I do not think the member for Lara is a horrible person. We grew up in public housing. You might get very limited situations across various public housing estates or social housing projects, but you get them everywhere; it is not just in social housing and public housing. I hope that the City of Greater Geelong continue on that journey and ignore basically the negative comments that have been put out there not only in the media but through petitions and things in my electorate and in the member for Lara’s electorate. We have seen that in the last couple of months. I would, as I said, hope that the City of Greater Geelong stick to going down that path, providing the much-needed housing that we need in our community and supporting the government’s strategy as well.
I think it is also worth noting the importance of a Labor federal government in supporting housing and the commitments that they have made. I know they are in discussions with our government here in Victoria so we can try and get whatever we can through federal funding. As I said, this is really important. Many years ago we used to have what was called the commonwealth-state housing agreement. Under that agreement funding was matched dollar for dollar, which provided public housing and social housing, like where I grew up, and many people I know got the benefit of that. That is long gone. We have seen conservative governments in the federal Parliament, and in this place of course we had four years of absolutely nothing. It is Labor governments that deliver affordable, safe and secure housing for people in Victoria, and we know that very clearly.
Social and affordable housing provides many Victorians with the safety, security and dignity that they need, and what I have just talked about and what the member for Lara has talked about—and other members in this place in fact—is proof of that. This bill will bolster the government’s commitment to an expanded, effective and sustainable social and affordable housing system. We need to rebuild the system. We need to make sure that there is that housing in our community for those that need it.
I know very well that we have serious problems in Geelong. We have people who are living on the street. We have people who are living in inappropriate, substandard housing. The rental market is very slim in Geelong and people are grabbing whatever they can get, but they are also paying high rents for that. When you are on a limited income, whether it is a pension or a benefit or low-income employment, putting food on the table and paying utility bills are becoming more and more difficult. I know that this government has tried to address some of the cost-of-living issues. We have the power saving bonus and a whole range of things, including free TAFE and all those great things that we have rolled out, but we need to be doing more and more, as much as possible, because it really does impact people’s lives.
It is a fundamental need to have a roof over your head. It is so important that it is affordable and that it is secure and that you are not being asked to move every 12 months because the landlord wants to use the house for other purposes. I have a lot of people coming to see me or contacting me about their housing situation, some of them in really desperate situations. And as I said, we have some amazing services in my electorate of Geelong that actually work really hard to make sure that we are providing safe, secure and affordable housing for people in need.
As I said, I know we do need to do a lot more, and as part of the big build the Geelong region is allocated a minimum guarantee of $180 million, so that is going to provide a lot of housing. Of course the Surf Coast, which adjoins the Geelong area, is guaranteed $20 million, and most other regions have been guaranteed a minimum. That will make a huge difference. So far in the Geelong region there have been around 400 houses delivered, and that is 400 families that will be housed in safe and secure housing and be able to at least put food on their table, pay their utility bills and do all those things, but importantly they will be able to engage in things like free TAFE, be able to work and be able to support their children and their family across the board with all that they need. So I know there is an urgent need, which is why Homes Victoria are employing multiple approaches to boosting the housing supply.
This is a fantastic bill. The more that we do around housing provision, the better. As I said, in my electorate I know there are challenges, but there are 400 new properties now being tenanted by people needing that accommodation and there are a lot more to come. I know there are challenges in making sure that people are allocated the housing that they need, and I know certainly that, with the member for Lara, the member for Bellarine and the member for South Barwon, we are all working towards providing the best possible opportunities for everyone right across the Geelong region. This is a really important bill, and I commend the bill to the house.
Mr HAMER (Box Hill) (15:17): I also rise to make a contribution on the Residential Tenancies, Housing and Social Services Regulation Amendment (Administration and Other Matters) Bill 2022. I want to just firstly acknowledge both the current Minister for Housing and particularly the former minister for all of the work that they have done in the housing space. I know that it has been a passion for the former minister, the member for Richmond, for many, many years, not only in the time he has been in this place but certainly from the time that he was on local council and in his prior work, including social work, with the many people who live in social housing in his electorate.
If I can just reflect for a moment on my first campaign experience, my first election campaign experience was in actual fact in 2006. I had just joined the party, and I was living in the member for Richmond’s electorate. There was a doorknock in the commission flats in Collingwood, and I was asked to come along. I really got to speak to a lot of the residents there. Particularly for a boy from the eastern suburbs who had had, compared to the people living in the commission flats, a very privileged upbringing, it was quite an experience, I suppose, to be going through those flats but then actually having conversations with those people and just seeing that really deep down their values were not that different from what my values were and that they were just trying to have a roof over their head and provide for their children and provide for their families as best they could.
I want to also pay tribute to the last two speakers, the member for Lara and the member for Geelong, who obviously speak with passion on a lot of bills but particularly ones around housing. I know how important it is to both of them, and they are both speaking from immense personal experience of what a difference social housing has made to their lives. It is one of the absolute necessities of life that we have a safe place to call home and have a roof over our head.
I was just having a look at a report that was actually submitted in the parliamentary inquiry that was done a couple of years ago which looked at the level of homelessness in Victoria, and it assessed the number of homeless at around 25 000 people, with the largest group likely to be people in overcrowded houses. But also there were a range of other accommodation types where people could be classified as homeless, and that could be temporary accommodation or supported accommodation, with only a relatively small proportion who are rough sleepers; it is usually estimated at about 5 to 10 per cent. Sometimes the rough sleepers are seen as the most visible example of homelessness, but clearly the issue of homelessness is much, much larger than that.
It always strikes me that homelessness can stem from a range of different causes. They are not always predictable, and they can also strike in areas where you would not expect it. Like I was saying, growing up in the burbs in what I would describe as a pretty middle-class upbringing, I probably was not exposed a lot to that, particularly amongst my friendship circles, but there was one case—I may have referred to it even in my inaugural speech—of the mother of a good friend of mine from university. They lived not far from us, in the neighbouring suburb. She was a nurse, a midwife in fact, but after she retired she got into some gambling difficulties. They led to a bit of a spiral which ended up forcing her to lose her home, and she was for a time living in her own car. That is all she had—her car and her belongings. So it can strike in various situations. Obviously the situation with domestic violence survivors is fairly well documented, and there is a need to provide safe haven and allow people to have somewhere else to go to. I think it has been well documented that for many victims one of the factors that is preventing them from potentially leaving their home is that they have no safe place to go.
I just want to also reflect on the topical time in which this bill has come up, in reference to the members statement that I made yesterday talking about the visit that I paid to Box Hill High. As I referenced, there were some year 10 students presenting on contemporary issues, and two of the groups actually presented on this particular issue, housing affordability and homelessness. I think it is really good to see that it is not just an issue that is troubling the minds of the policymakers and legislators in this chamber but also an issue that resonates amongst the young people of our society and the next generation of leaders. They are very conscious of the need to have a roof over people’s heads.
Just turning to the bill in a bit more detail, the overall objective of the bill is to deliver the Victorian government’s commitment to an expanded, effective and sustainable social and affordable housing system, and it is doing this by enshrining key governance reforms for Homes Victoria, enabling Homes Victoria to implement the most appropriate models and transactional structures to deliver on the Big Housing Build, establishing an enabling framework for the Victorian affordable housing programs, preserving the integrity of affordable housing programs, ensuring the community impact statements provided by the director of housing are considered by VCAT and addressing a gap in the definition of ‘common area’ in relation to public housing in the Residential Tenancies Act 1997.
I just want to touch briefly on two of those items particularly in relation to the Big Housing Build. As I said at the outset, I think it is an enormous tribute to the work of, particularly, the member for Richmond and former minister in being able to get this program in. It will make an enormous difference in terms of addressing some of the shortages that have been faced in the social housing sector and in particular the preservation of some of those facilities and securing those facilities for those Victorians who need it most. There are 2000 homes for Victorians who have a mental illness and 1000 homes to provide safety and security for survivors of family violence. Ten per cent of new dwellings will support Indigenous Victorians to have a culturally safe and self-determined housing option. As the member for Geelong also touched on, there is also a significant component that will ensure that there is a Big Housing Build in the regions, because that is obviously where there is a real shortage and a real rental squeeze on housing.
The last thing I want to just touch on very briefly is the enabling of community impact statements provided by the Director of Housing. They can be considered by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. This has come up a number of times in my own electorate. There is quite, I guess, a salt-and-pepper mix of community, social and general housing within the Box Hill community, and I know that many in the community will appreciate being able to have that opportunity and be heard by VCAT. I commend the bill to the house.
That the debate be now adjourned.
Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.
Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.