Tuesday, 23 May 2023

Home building industry

Jess WILSON (Kew) (12:20): My question is to the Assistant Treasurer. On 2 May the Assistant Treasurer said that the government would look at those affected by the collapse of Hallbury Homes on a case-by-case basis. Why has the minister made life harder for these Victorians by failing to deliver on this promise?

Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Government Services, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC, Minister for Consumer Affairs) (12:20): I thank the member for Kew for her question. We have had instances where companies which should have done the right thing have not done the right thing, and we do not have any visibility around that per se in relation to the conduct of individual businesses because our expectation is that businesses do the right thing. The overwhelming majority of those businesses do do the right thing.

In relation to Porter Davis, that was a much larger case where a larger number of people were impacted, and it has been our focus to date to try to stand up a compensation scheme and to examine what has happened and understand what may have occurred in relation to those companies as well in terms of their conduct and behaviour. For example, we do not know at this stage whether there has been criminal behaviour, and that is why further work needs to be done. In relation to the specifics that the member for Kew raised, we are in the process of seeking that information for individuals. Obviously we need to identify who those individuals are. We need to then cross-reference and check whether they have made those payments and to validate and verify those payments have been made. It is a smaller number involved compared to Porter Davis, but that work is ongoing.

Jess WILSON (Kew) (12:22): Sushant and Anamica have lost their $75,000 deposit as a result of Hallbury Homes not taking out domestic building insurance. Will the Assistant Treasurer commit to compensating Sushant and Anamica and other Hallbury Homes victims who have lost their deposit, or is the government denying compensation because Victoria is broke?

Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Government Services, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC, Minister for Consumer Affairs) (12:22): Dear, oh dear, oh dear. I will leave the last bit of that question because all will be revealed in a few moments time. But just in relation to that first –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition! Members at the table!

Danny PEARSON: In terms of domestic building insurance, that is for a 5 per cent coverage, so the $75,000 seems to be a very large amount if the 5 per cent represents $75,000. Again, the member for Kew may well have already provided me with some information, and it seems like she has. I am happy to individually follow up that case, but as I said, I am not in a position to make any announcements about those specifics today. We have undertaken that we will do further work on this case, and we will.