Wednesday, 2 August 2023

Motions

Big Housing Build

Colin BROOKS (Bundoora – Minister for Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (10:38): I move:

That this house notes:

(a) since the start of the Big Housing Build in November 2020, 7600 homes are completed or underway, with Victoria on track to deliver over 12,000 much-needed social and affordable homes; and

(b) the new $1 billion Regional Housing Fund will deliver more than 1300 additional homes.

I want to thank the house for providing the opportunity to bring this motion to the floor of the Parliament for an important discussion on housing issues and in particular the government’s Big Housing Build. Before I move into the program that is the Big Housing Build and the impact that it is having on providing homes for people who really need them, it is important to recognise the significant pressures that are on housing here in Victoria and right across the country. Every member of this place would know all too well that the pressures in term of increased interest rates, increased cost of living, cost of construction and blockages in the construction supply chains have meant that, and for a whole range of other reasons, there is pressure on people in all parts of the housing continuum.

We see that moving through the housing continuum through people paying mortgages, people in rentals and people looking for rentals or to purchase homes, and that therefore puts pressure onto people who are struggling and therefore on our housing waiting lists, both our general waitlist, which is called the Victorian Housing Register, and also the priority list, which prioritises against set criteria the neediest people in terms of social housing. It is important to recognise that we have a really large number of applications on both our Victorian Housing Register, our waitlist, and our priority list because of these factors that I have just mentioned. The figures that were published in March show that there were 67,985 applications on the Victorian Housing Register and 31,158 on the priority list. That is a lot of people in a lot of need, and I will come back to the measures that are being put in place and that should be put in place to address that extraordinary housing need.

In that priority cohort of people who really need housing there are groups within our community that it is worth highlighting face a range of significant issues. Youth housing and homelessness is a particular problem, because of course young people need stable housing to set themselves up for the rest of their lives, for their learning and for their early years in employment. Housing at that young age is so important – we know that is a challenge. People who have experienced family violence is another cohort. We want to make sure that people who are survivors of family violence have access to homes and in particular, in talking to the family violence sector, that there are appropriate exits into accommodation from the emergency accommodation and crisis accommodation that are provided by that sector. Aboriginal Victorians are over-represented in both our housing need statistics and homelessness statistics. We know that we have to work with Aboriginal Victorians through an approach of self-determination and really invest in homes for Aboriginal Victorians to deliver that, and I will talk a bit about that in a moment as well. There are people who have mental health issues and disabilities that also face particular issues in terms of housing need. All these issues, as I will mention in a moment, have been picked up through the Big Housing Build, but of course a lot more needs to be done.

The impact of the housing emergency across the country right now means that there are more people than ever who are being forced into homelessness right across the country. Here in Victoria we invest $300 million annually into homelessness services. That is providing support to about 130 organisations that provide direct support to people experiencing homelessness. The most recent budget, I was very pleased to see, included $134 million, which was part of the $67.6 million to continue the Housing First response for people experiencing homelessness. Now, the Housing First approach is probably the largest approach undertaken by any state, and it was undertaken by Victoria flowing out of COVID. In 2020, people will remember, the From Homelessness to a Home program was initiated. There is also the Homes for Families program, which is I suppose a family version of that From Homelessness to a Home program, and that program has now seen $167 million invested to support around 1900 adults and 700 children into homes. That is effectively taking people who are rough sleeping and putting them into homes and wrapping supports around them – a Housing First approach. That is a great program and a credit to people who work in the sector who have been advocating for this for some time and to previous ministers and officials in the department who have helped to ensure that that program has been successful – a bumpy road, not perfect, but certainly overall a great success.

When we consider the challenges that I have just outlined, it does sound a bit simplistic, but the base proposition here is that we need more homes. We need more homes for people who need them, whether they be in any of those categories I have just talked about on our waiting list. Supply is the key here, and we are fortunate that a few years ago the government recognised that supply would be the issue and kicked off the Big Housing Build – $5.3 billion to deliver over 12,000 new social and affordable homes right across the state. Its scale should be remembered – $5.3 billion across the state is the biggest investment in social and affordable housing in the state’s history, and when I go to ministerial council, it is made very clear that it is the biggest investment of any state or territory across the country in social and affordable housing. $1.25 billion of that is being invested in regional Victoria to ensure that there is a fair distribution of the increase in social housing throughout regional Victoria as well. One of the great side effects of this program of course is job creation – about 10,000 jobs a year created through the construction and related activities that this program generates, creating jobs not just in Melbourne but right across regional Victoria. Because that investment is occurring across regional Victoria, we have also got those jobs occurring right across regional Victoria.

Just to give people a sense of the projects and the difference that they make to people’s lives, I will run through some of the ones I have had the chance to visit recently. As I said in question time yesterday, yesterday I was out at Bills Street, Hawthorn: 103 social housing dwellings, 103 affordable dwellings – so a mixture of tenure, which is good thing – nearly a doubling of the amount of social housing that was previously on that site. This is of course improving vastly on what was there – run-down, old social housing – and building brand new, modern, energy-efficient apartments that are just fantastic. So that is a great development, that particular location. As the manager of the community housing organisation that will run those tenancies, Housing Choices, said to me yesterday, with the completion date late this year, they have already commenced tenancy work. So people will be in those homes before Christmas. It is fantastic to think that there will be 103 people off the social housing waitlist into those homes before Christmas.

The Markham estate, Deputy Speaker, is in your own electorate. I know you know that well. We visited that site together. 178 social and affordable homes – a great development well designed. It has had a difficult pathway because there was opposition from those opposite, both the Liberal–Nationals and the Greens, to this project. I am very proud to say this government has pushed on with that project and it is now tenanting people. People are moving in as we speak, and that is a great outcome as well.

I was recently with the member for Pascoe Vale at Harvest Square in Brunswick West, where we are delivering in partnership with Women’s Housing Limited 119 social housing dwellings. Again it is a mixture of those social housing dwellings and market rentals and private apartments as well. It is a great development in that part of Melbourne, and 5 per cent of those dwellings will be Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) compliant. It is important to recognise at this point that these homes are all being built to 7-star nationwide house energy rating scheme (NatHERS) ratings, so they are highly energy efficient. The ones I am mentioning are all electric, so this is a great benefit for the tenants as they are able to reduce their power bills in these developments.

At Tarakan Street in West Heidelberg there are 130 dwellings. I was there with the member for Ivanhoe some time ago. Again, there are some DDA-compliant units there and it is a great change. I did not work too far away from that site some years ago, and I remember the old housing stock there. This has been an absolute step change in that housing for those people. Obviously with all these developments, the people who were living there have the first option to come back now that the construction has been completed. I was talking to one of the construction workers who controls the traffic out the front. He said he is regularly stopped by locals who used to live in the old housing asking when the job is going to be completed so they can come back. They are looking forward to coming back in. He said it is quite a common question, and you can understand that. You can understand, having lived in the old accommodation, being interested in coming back to that great development at Tarakan at West Heidelberg.

I was at the Townhall development in Preston with the member for Preston. That is a great development. It is 39 social housing dwellings just behind the town hall itself in Preston. It is again a great partnership with a community housing provider but also with the local council, who has put up land on a long-term lease so that we can build on that important site. It is a great project.

I was recently – some time ago – at Balaclava with the Minister for Housing at the federal level. The member for Caulfield was not there. He opposed that development through its process. But I am really pleased that we had the delivery of 46 new social housing dwellings at that really important site just beside the train station there. Again that was a cooperative approach where the City of Port Phillip provided long-term lease of the land and enabled that development to occur in partnership with HousingFirst.

Out at Halcyon in Brighton we have got a partnership with a community housing provider. There are 152 social housing dwellings being built there in that particular development. This particular development is focusing on people who need social housing who are over 55 – so a great development there – and we had the chance again to meet many of the residents of that particular building who are already moving back in.

I was out at Vermont not too long ago with the member for Glen Waverley having a look at a development out there that we are doing in partnership with Women’s Housing Limited – 34 social housing dwellings. I know he is very supportive of that development occurring and more social housing in his electorate as well. This is just a sample of the developments that are occurring through the Big Housing Build.

As I say, in terms of delivering 12,000 new social and affordable housing dwellings, this is happening right across the state in projects big and small. When we go around the regions, the different parts of Melbourne and the different parts of Victoria, that investment is being spread out. If I can just go to the City of Greater Geelong, where the total investment in that area through the Big Housing Build is $192 million, 250 homes have been completed and 270 are on the way. These are all homes that are taking people off the social housing waitlist. The City of Greater Bendigo has a total investment of $110 million – 40 homes have been completed and 272 are underway. In the City of Melton area, with an investment of $26 million, 29 homes have been completed and 33 are underway. In the City of Monash, with $113 million, 72 have been completed and 168 new homes are underway. Up in Ballarat, with an investment of $119 million, 119 homes have been completed and 221 are underway. In the Moorabool area, with $22 million, 30 homes are completed and 31 are underway. In Mildura, with an investment of $39 million, 19 homes have been completed and 86 new homes are underway. In the Rural City of Swan Hill area, with $34 million, 18 homes have been completed and 77 new homes are underway. In the Shire of Cardinia, with an investment of $25 million, 14 homes have been completed with 47 currently underway. In the City of Whitehorse, with an investment of $72 million, 38 new homes have been completed and 122 new homes are underway. In the City of Casey, with a $58 million investment, 46 homes have been completed and 93 homes are currently underway. In the City of Latrobe, with an investment of $66 million, 53 new homes have been completed and 108 are underway. This is about big projects; it is also about small projects, where we are doing one or two or three units in particular areas.

Since the floods I have spent some time in the Shepparton area. I have been asked to take a particular focus on Shepparton, as other ministers have picked up other areas, and I know that BeyondHousing and Rumbalara do lot of heavy lifting in terms of providing housing in those areas and ensuring people have the services they need. Funding through the Big Housing Build goes to BeyondHousing to deliver these housing projects. Good examples at the grassroots level are Regent Street, Shepparton, where we have funded five dwellings; Graham Street, Shepparton, 20 dwellings; McDonald Street, Shepparton, four dwellings; Rattray Avenue, Wangaratta, three dwellings; Raglan Street, Wallan, six dwellings; Melbourne Street, Kilmore, two; Mentor Street, Seymour, two dwellings; Hume Street, Wodonga, four; Macisaac Road, Mooroopna, 12; Appin Street, Wangaratta, two; Archer Street, Shepparton, four; High Street, Cobram, three; Lyndren Street, Wodonga, three; and Rotary Drive, Bright, four. I am just trying to illustrate the point that there are big apartment buildings being built in metropolitan Melbourne as part of this program and there are small-scale developments right across the suburbs and right across the state as part of the Big Housing Build. It is literally changing people’s lives as we take people off the social housing waitlist. As I said at the start, there is lot more to do – we know the waiting list is too big – but the Big Housing Build is adding supply to take pressure off that waitlist.

As I mentioned at the start of the motion, we know that youth housing is important, so I was very pleased earlier this year to announce $50 million for a youth housing package which will deliver in partnership with a range of providers – predominantly youth supported accommodation – 130 homes across Victoria. As we look to the future, with other funding streams coming in, which I will come to in a moment, we hope to be able to do more.

We know that Aboriginal housing is such a critical issue, and due to the work of previous ministers and people in the department, we have developed the Aboriginal housing and homelessness framework Mana-na Woorn-tyeen Maar-takoort: Every Aboriginal Person Has a Home – that is the title of the document and the objective of the work we are doing in partnership with the Aboriginal community. I want to call out the good work of Aboriginal Housing Victoria in playing a stewardship role in the rolling out of that particular work. Our commitment as part of the Big Housing Build is that 10 per cent of that build goes to Aboriginal Victorians, an important allocation to ensure Aboriginal Victorians have access to housing. I was really pleased recently to be able to announce that we would be expanding the Aboriginal-specific private rental assistance program, which is an outreach service providing funding for Aboriginal people in private rentals. We are expanding the regions where that operates from five to nine locations. So we will keep working with the Aboriginal community to keep providing better services. A key piece of work that we are doing with the Aboriginal community at the moment – with Aboriginal Housing Victoria – is funding the design work for a single entry point into the homelessness system for Aboriginal people. That is a really important piece of work as well.

I also want to come to the need for mental health housing, and again I was pleased recently, this time when I was up in Ballarat at La Trobe Street in Redan, to announce $85 million for the mental health supported funding round. This is an allocation which will deliver around 214 homes for people living with mental illness, and it was great to be at that site that day because I was able to meet a gentleman who lives in one of these homes in Melbourne. He was there for the opening in Ballarat. It was great to have the member for Wendouree with me that day. I think the member for Ripon too was there at Redan that day – with a keen interest in housing and in particular this mental health housing project. They run a great program, the Haven Foundation. In partnership with the housing funding they have received from us they utilise NDIS funding for participants who are residents of those homes, to provide the services, the wraparound support, for those people in the homes that we have helped to build.

There are a range of other providers working with us, but I wanted to give them a shout-out and note the important role that housing plays in the recovery of people who have mental health illnesses and also for people with disabilities. We all know the problems that have occurred over the journey of the NDIS, in particular the lack of take-up from the market of specialist disability accommodation housing and supported independent living housing, so I am very proud that Victoria is the largest SDA provider in the country and that we did not jump out of SDA provision. Many other states jumped straight out of SDA provision, but well before my time this government made a decision to stay in the provision of SDA. I think it is important that we do not leave our most vulnerable without appropriate housing. It is great that we will do more in terms of disability housing as well.

I hope I have given a bit of the flavour of the breadth of the Big Housing Build, because sometimes people see the headline, but they do not understand the scale of this program. It is fair to say that members of Parliament will get complaints about housing – I think I have heard from everybody in the chamber at the moment – and there are definitely challenges there, but it is also important that members have an understanding of the amount of housing that is being built to meet this challenge. It is at an incredible scale, and I am very, very proud of that. As I indicated in the house yesterday, there are 7600 homes completed or underway, and we see the dwelling stock numbers that are reported every year, so total social housing dwellings, now increasing by thousands. Of course with the Big Housing Build having been announced in 2020 – the planning, funding and construction – we are going to see a lot of these homes coming online over the next 12 months and making a real difference to people who need those homes.

It is not just government saying this. When you talk to organisations that work in housing and homelessness out in the community, they are all big supporters of the Big Housing Build. Salvation Army Housing (Victoria) says:

The disparity between the median housing cost and the more affordable rental options underscores the need for concerted efforts to address this housing challenge. To address this challenge the Salvation Army Housing supports the Big Housing Build, which is invested in social housing. This collaborative approach aims to make a positive impact on the housing situation and provide support to those in need.

Unison, a big social housing and community housing provider, says:

Thanks to the Big Housing Build funding, social housing provider Unison Housing last month completed its 42-unit Heidelberg West development to help address Melbourne’s growing housing crisis for women. Mostly the two-bedroom apartments will prioritise women, providing a safe and secure home for people with a history of homelessness and complex needs, including those who have experienced family violence.

That Unison property was part funded by the Victorian state government as part of the Big Housing Build social housing growth fund rapid grants round, which has delivered 2352 new dwellings with a value of $1 billion. This is the largest ever commitment to community housing in Australian history. Unison maintains 100 per cent ownership of the land and building. It is responsible for managing and maintaining the building and will work collaboratively with local services to ensure that families are linked with support agencies where needed.

Community Housing Limited says:

As a delivery partner with the Victorian government Community Housing Limited takes immense pride in being part of the Big Housing Build initiative. By working together we have been able to pool our expertise, share best practices and create a united front in the fight against homelessness and housing insecurity. This sense of collaboration and collective purpose has strengthened the overall capacity of the community housing sector, leading to improved housing outcomes for Victorians across the board. Since 2020 more than 1700 households have either moved or are getting ready to move into brand new homes provided under the Big Housing Build initiative. Community Housing Limited remains dedicated to driving lasting change and working together with the government and other partners to fully realise a future where every Victorian has access to a place they can call home.

Housing Choices Australia says:

Housing Choices Australia is working productively with the state government’s Big Housing Build to deliver social housing projects across Melbourne that will house hundreds of Victorians. Also in partnership with the Big Build, we will deliver future projects in regional Victoria and tenancy management of government-owned social and affordable housing. We commend the Victorian state government for their significant investment in social housing. We also commend the government for streamlining planning processes and improving design quality requirements across the Big Build program, improving the livability and speed of delivery.

The community housing sector – people who work in housing – know the importance of the Big Housing Build. It is broad, it is across the whole state, it is delivering more homes as we speak, it will deliver thousands more homes for people who need them. Of course that has an impact in terms of people’s lives.

It was pleasing to see recently the data that is working its way through the system. The June quarter data that will be published very shortly will show that there has been a drop in the housing waitlist, both the general waitlist and the priority waitlist. I want to be clear and say I do not claim this is a change in the general trend, because I think we will see pressures at the national level still meaning there are people coming onto the waitlist. I am not suggesting this will be the turning point, nor am I claiming this is any sort of victory. It is just important to point out, though, that the combination of the hard work of people in our department, the people who work in the housing sector and the people who are building these new homes, backed in by our investment, is starting to show flickers of hope in terms of the waitlist. We should see the priority waitlist reduce from 31,158 to 30,725. That is better than where we were before. Sorry, that is excluding transfers.

Thousands of new homes – this is a good opportunity for me to come to the investment we have made in the Big Housing Build – as I have mentioned, $5.3 billion. Recently we saw the Premier announce $1 billion for a Regional Housing Fund. That is more money flowing into social housing, more money flowing into housing for Victorians in regional Victoria.

Members interjecting.

Colin BROOKS: It sounds like those opposite do not support that housing going into regional Victoria.

Richard Riordan: Absolutely. Regional Victorians want housing.

Colin BROOKS: ‘Absolutely’.

Richard Riordan: Yes, but we want more than a house for a billion dollars.

Colin BROOKS: The Shadow Minister for Housing, the honourable member for Polwarth, has just said he does not support the billion-dollar regional housing investment. I cannot believe –

Members interjecting.

Colin BROOKS: ‘Absolutely’, he said. I cannot believe it.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Hamer): Order! I want to continue to hear the minister, in silence. The member for Polwarth!

Colin BROOKS: I cannot believe that I indicated that those opposite did not support the Regional Housing Fund and the shadow minister – let the record show – said ‘Absolutely’. ‘Absolutely’ do not support a billion dollars being invested in housing in regional Victoria – unbelievable. We will let people know you do not support that. We will let people know. On top of the $1 billion that I have just mentioned, which the opposition do not support, there is an allocation from the federal government for the first time in a long time – we had a federal Liberal–Nationals government that was not interested in housing – of nearly half a billion dollars for housing in Victoria. There is $2 billion funded across the country and nearly half a billion dollars for investment in Victoria – the accelerator fund – and we will invest that in social housing across the state as well.

Of course we know that those opposite do not support the regional fund by the sounds of it. We know in Canberra they do not support funding for social housing as well, because we have got the Senate with a housing package sitting in it right now in the middle of a housing crisis across the country, and we have got the Liberals and the Nationals and the Greens teaming up to block that housing support coming through to people in Victoria who need it. I will just say this: in the middle of a housing crisis, if you are in the Senate, if you are a Liberal or a National or a Green and you are not supporting more funding for housing, for social housing, then you should hang your head in shame and resign, because everybody in this chamber from every political party knows the need for social housing. They know the need for social housing in their electorates. I know that they know, because I get letters and phone calls from everybody in the chamber – a social housing emergency, a national housing emergency. In Canberra –

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Hamer): Order! The shouting across the chamber is too –

Members interjecting.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Hamer): The member for Polwarth! The member for Nepean!

Colin BROOKS: It seems that the Nationals and the Liberals and the Greens in Canberra, who are blocking this funding, are being joined by those opposite here in Victoria who want to block the $1 billion Regional Housing Fund. One billion dollars for regional housing – I cannot believe that you are saying that you do not support that funding. That is incredible. We will let people in regional Victoria know that you do not support that funding.

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Wendouree, you are not in your allocated place. Member for Polwarth, I would ask you to cease interjecting. I would like to hear the minister in silence. Other members will have their turn to speak on the motion.

Colin BROOKS: Thanks for the protection, Speaker. One of the things that I did not expect coming into this discussion on housing today, given the general agreement I sense around the issues affecting housing, is that the Liberals and Nationals would be indicating their opposition to the $1 billion Regional Housing Fund. I am gobsmacked because that is housing that will go to putting people who most need housing into secure homes.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired. I remind members to direct their comments through the Chair and that the use of the term ‘you’ is not acceptable.

Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (11:08): I rise to take on the government’s motion this morning about their achievements in the housing portfolio. A government that has been in for nine years now can blame no-one else; no-one else can be blamed for just the appalling situation that vulnerable Victorians find themselves in at the moment, unable to access a home. Whether you are in inner Melbourne, outer Melbourne, regional Victoria or even our smallest country towns, housing and a home are no longer accessible for so many people, and not only are they not accessible but those that have been processed and are on waiting lists are now waiting unacceptable lengths of time to receive respite and somewhere to call home.

A home of course is the foundation for all households and families. A home gives dignity, a home gives a sense of purpose, a home gives security. A home is a healthy place for people to raise families. It is a healthy place for people’s mental health and wellbeing. They can go there at the end of each day and have somewhere safe to sleep, somewhere safe to be, somewhere that they can look after their families and their friends and somewhere where they can have a sense of place in the community.

There are just far too many Victorians, after nine years of this Labor government, who find themselves couch surfing, sleeping in their cars or sleeping in tents. As shadow minister I know only too well how unprepared this government has been to get in and get value for money and start getting a return for Victorians, who are quite happy for the government to allocate big resources. This government has allocated a large amount of money. Mind you, they had not allocated any money prior to that so many will argue it is just some catch-up funding. But it is a significant amount of money. It is on the national agenda, and it is a cause that there is great bipartisan support for across the state: that we spend more on housing and get better outcomes. But that is not what we are seeing here in the state of Victoria.

The minister in his motion today talks about 12,000 new homes. The simple fact is that there have not been anywhere near that amount of homes commenced and underway. There is not going to be that many new homes. On the list which the minister read out earlier, as of today there are 37,079 families on a waiting list that do not have homes. That is a 300 per cent increase since this government came to power. When they came to power in 2014 it was 9900. It is now 37,079. Then there are another 30,000-odd families who live inappropriately. These are families that might only have one bedroom when they need three. It might be a person with a disability or a chronic disease that is on the third floor and has to go up steps and cannot access their apartment or, more importantly, cannot leave with ease and safety. There are a lot of people who are in inappropriate housing. All up, it is a figure of some 67,985 families who are not living in anything near what the average Victorian would expect someone would have – safe, accessible, affordable housing access. This figure has increased by just under 4000 in the last year.

The government talks about its Big Housing Build, and we will read out what that progress looks like from the government. In 2015, when they came to power, there were some 86,266 homes. That peaked in around 2017, so just before the last election, when there were some 86,813 homes. Since that time, since the big build has been called, this government has gone on an unprecedented public housing sell-off and demolition fest and they have wiped clear the landscape of public housing in Victoria. On the one hand the minister wants to stand here before the Parliament today and talk about his 12,000-home agenda, which mind you is nowhere near that, but he is actually demolishing and selling off more homes than he is putting onto the market.

On 3AW only yesterday there were real estate agents ringing in and talking about how their books are full of public houses that are on the market today. In an unprecedented housing crisis this government is choosing to sell homes. In April–May this year I attended one of those auctions – three perfectly fine homes in a nice suburban street in Balwyn that were next door to a kindergarten. They were ready to be lived in, they had had recent renovations to kitchens and yet this government was choosing to sell them off. At the same time as I am dealing through my office, as I am sure the minister’s office is, with literally thousands of desperate people wanting somewhere to sleep, this government is selling off homes in order to fund new joint venture deals that they are doing – secret deals because they are not public, they are not on the record, they will not fess up about them – and these deals are being done at the expense of the most vulnerable in Victoria.

We can guess where some of those funds might be going, because they are definitely not going into a net gain in public housing. They are possibly going into paying for tunnels, they are possibly going into paying for debt, they are possibly going into, as we know in the last month, $1 billion or $2 billion worth of compensation payments on failed commitments around the Commonwealth Games. They could have even gone into help fund the billion dollars we wasted on east–west link. The waste and mismanagement of the government is really chronic, and unfortunately in this area of housing it is the most vulnerable that are hurting the most.

In his contribution this morning, the minister made reference to all the projects that he has been visiting and opening. Quite frankly, if you have just spent $4 billion and you do not have something to show for it, it is beyond comprehension. What the minister fails to tell the community and what he fails to tell this Parliament is that since 2017, at the high point of public housing ownership by the state of 86,813, in his most recent published data, as the largest landlord in the state and the person who has the best capacity to help the most vulnerable and the needy and the homeless in the state, he has not reconciled his property ownership for two years. Now I ask: is there a landlord, a real estate agent, a property developer or a commercial owner of property or real estate that would have gone two years without reconciling how much property they had or what assets they had? This government is reckless – absolutely reckless – in its management of what is now one of the state’s largest assets. Some $80-odd billion worth of taxpayer assets sit in the housing portfolio, and this government has not reconciled the asset ownership of this vital community service for more than two years.

In fact when asked under questioning at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) only six weeks ago, the response from the department was that it was an oversight. We are in allegedly the biggest housing build – the biggest single investment in the biggest asset the state has – and it was an oversight that no-one has reconciled what they actually own or what they actually control. I have been waiting quite some time to get from the department a reconciliation of what has been sold, what has been demolished and what has been hived off to other investments – to the private sector and others. What is the net value for the state of this big build?

The minister made much of the fact that this side of the house does not support investment in rural Victoria. Well, never has there been such a twisted mistruth spoken in this chamber – never before. Of course we absolutely welcome spending. In fact I look at my own electorate in the Surf Coast shire, one of the most underdone local government areas in the whole state for public housing, which has again been overlooked, with numerous projects from housing providers and the local community waiting for support. We still await that support, so absolutely we want that funding.

What distresses this side of the house and what distresses people in regional Victoria is that in all the bluff and bluster of this government they have come out and said, ‘Oh, as compensation for the Commonwealth Games we’re going to invest an extra $1 billion in social housing.’ That is great; we love the $1 billion. But guess what – it is 1300 houses. It is $770,000 per house, plus land. That will work out at $1 million per dwelling in regional Victoria. Now, what level of incompetence would the minister be in charge of to think that you are going to go and spend $1 million per house in regional Victoria? I can tell the minister now he could go and give that $1 million to 1300 families in regional Victoria and they would get two houses for every one house this government could procure. It is an absolute disgrace. But then again, if we look at the performance of this government, when was the West Gate Tunnel going to be built? In 2022. Well, they have long burnt those signs. We do not even know when it is going to go.

What was the Commonwealth Games going to cost? Six weeks ago, $2.5 billion, and now it is suddenly $7 billion. Victorians do not actually have to imagine why this government thinks it is going to cost $1 million to build one- and two-bedroom units in regional Victoria. Regional Victorians are shaking their heads at the waste and mismanagement that could be involved. Certainly as a proud regional Victorian I am looking at it and going, ‘For heaven’s sake, stop the spread of waste and mismanagement from the metro.’ It is bad enough when we turn our tellies on at night and see the complete cost overruns and blowouts in the city, but to bring that disease of mismanagement to regional Victoria is a woeful effort from this government. They have been way too late in sharing the largesse of government spending in regional Victoria. Now they are coming out to regional Victoria and they are going to literally waste it.

The average median house price – you can buy whole houses and land for half the price of what this government is going to embark on with for its social housing build in regional Victoria. We see the fact that we are literally adding thousands of families a year to the homeless list, and yet this government is choosing to so blatantly waste scarce and precious taxpayer resources on just a complete overspend and poor outcomes. One of the examples is the much-touted development in the Ascot Vale region, where there were originally 80 public housing units. The government said, ‘We’re going to increase the public housing stock by 10 per cent.’ Well, that is a good thing. Most people would agree that if you can do a redevelopment and get 10 per cent more public housing, that is a good thing. What the government left out of that equation of course was that the 80 units were all two- and three-bedroom. There were some 160-odd bedrooms available to the most needy and desperate in that community. They replaced it with 88 – so there are eight new units, but they are all single-bedroom. So we have gone from a community having access to 165 bedrooms down to only 88 bedrooms. They have literally halved the amount of places where people can find safe refuge. Safe, reliable, affordable accommodation has been lost for that community. The worst part is that as taxpayers, as the Parliament, we have no fundamental understanding of the deal, because the private sector got some 250 two- and three- bedroom apartments out of that same deal. What I want is: show us the money. Where did the money go? What was the deal? It is not commercial in confidence, which this government hides behind. These are valuable state-owned assets that have been frittered away for very little net gain for the community. That is what this government refuses to look at: the net gain. When the 37,079 families who are sleeping on couches, in tents and in cheap motels wondering when they are going to have somewhere safe to go and call home see such a blatant waste of money, it can only just add to the stress and worry that they have to endure.

We also learned recently from the current budget and through the PAEC hearings that for another incredibly vulnerable cohort, families escaping domestic violence, this government has budgeted that they should be expected to wait some 10 months before they can expect a safe place to live. If you said to the average person on the street, ‘If you’re escaping domestic violence, if you and your children are at risk, you want to get away and you need somewhere safe to call home and get the kids back to school, to stay somewhere in your local community, to feel that you can start to bring your life back together again – if you’re in that position’, most average Victorians would probably say, ‘I think 10 months is still too long.’ This government has seen a year-on-year increase. It is now in excess of 20 months. So essentially anyone at the most dire and critical point of their life, escaping domestic violence, with children needing to just get somewhere to call home, is waiting nearly two years. Where are they in those two years? Where are they staying in those two years? The choices just do not exist. So many people in that vulnerable situation find themselves having to go back to their abusive partner, which is just a recipe for ongoing disaster and torment for that family, and unfortunately this government is forcing that to happen. The second option that people have, the only other option, is caravans, cheap motels or staying with relatives and friends who do not necessarily have the space or the ability to house one, two, three, four extra people in their homes. This is a chronic situation in a state and a country that should be priding itself on world’s best practice in this area, yet we are performing so badly on it.

The government’s claim that it is getting so much done, it is a nation-leading big build and it is a commitment for the future has misled and continues to mislead Victorians on what the actual outcome is. There is no other way to measure success in this space. It is not the amount of photos that the minister has with his hard hat and fluoro jacket on. It is not that. That does not matter. The people sleeping in caravans and on couches and in the backs of cars and out the front of police stations and under the lights near the town square – all these places where I have met with and spoken to people since my time as shadow minister – are not caring how many photo opportunities the minister has had and how many times he wants to turn up to conferences and talk about his $5.6 billion build. They want to know when they are getting a home.

What do we know from the facts? We know from the facts that this government is simply not delivering extra homes. They are demolishing, they are selling off, they are doing bad deals and getting poor outcomes. The hypocrisy and the lack of self-awareness by this government on what a poor deal they are getting could not have been highlighted more than it was in recent weeks when they made that announcement in rural and regional Victoria of 1300 homes for $1 billion. The best part of $1 million per home in country Victoria is just so out of touch. One can only assume that the ministry is now so full of inner-urban elites that have forgotten about outer suburbs and regional Victoria that they have forgotten that it does not cost $1 million per one-bedroom unit in regional Victoria. It does not, and in fact there is no shortage of groups and people that I would rather see the government give the money to who would actually get a real increase in homes.

The other disaster that awaits the homeless and the vulnerable in Victoria is the management of the housing stock that we have. In questioning at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee – the member for Mordialloc I think still represents on PAEC; he knows how the scripted answers go at PAEC and he will be aware of this – we asked how long it takes to turn a property around when the tenant leaves: what is the ideal time? The department does not really have KPIs in that space.

Unfortunately, without any effort at all, as shadow minister I do not actually have to go to the department to find the empty houses, because people are showing me and taking me to them all the time. I can quote two, for example. One is in a fantastic location but is in an absolutely appallingly managed public housing row of eight homes, which if they were managed by anyone other than the Victorian government would be multimillion dollar apartments, in Clifton Hill. It is well located, very close walking distance to public transport and schools – an ideal, fantastic location for people or families wanting to set themselves up and have good, long-term, affordable housing in an otherwise incredibly expensive part of town. At that property the spouts have not been done, the lawns have not been mowed and the fences are rusted and falling down. The properties have not been painted. In fact two of the units out of eight – a quarter – have been sitting there empty for well over 12 months. Now, how in a housing crisis can we not prioritise three-bedroom units that are well located in the heart of the city, close to all the services that the most vulnerable people would need? We have got them sitting there empty.

In fact it is even worse than that. One of the constituents I was working with, who was escaping domestic violence and enduring the two-year wait for somewhere to live, was living in a caravan, because that is the only accommodation the department could provide for her and her children down on the Mornington Peninsula – indeed in my good friend the member for Nepean’s electorate. Working with her we located this three-bedroom property. It was not ideal because it was taking her out of the community, but it was a home. It was a place that she could call home and her children could call home. She got a notice in January this year from the department which said that the home was now available for her and she could move there. The mum and the two kids, who do not have a lot of money, had to fill the car up. It is a good hour’s drive to get from down Dromana way up to Clifton Hill, and what did she find when she got there? We know that this government has made much of its changes to tenancy laws and about the respect that landlords must have for tenants, but this poor woman, who had been living in quite a comfortable caravan as far as caravans go, gets to the apartment this government wanted her and her two teenage children to live in and there were no curtains on the windows, no hot water, no working stove. It had not been painted or maintained inside for God knows how long, and when going there you literally dry-retched at the stench and the smell in the unit. The front courtyard was covered in broken glass and detritus – just rubbish and junk everywhere.

She went there and the depressing, sinking in her heart – to think she had been waiting two years for somewhere to call home, had been told this government was going to provide her with a three-bedroom unit, and that was what awaited her. That was in January. Working with her and the department, they finally put a lick of paint in one of the rooms, said she had to go there and essentially evicted her from her caravan on Good Friday – the day before Good Friday. I went with her on her first day there – still no stove, still no blinds, still no hot water. Granted, there are not a lot of tradesmen around on Good Friday. I accept that; however, it should never have been that situation. She was then told on the Thursday before Good Friday that the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing would get her some hot water within the next two weeks. Now, how can we be spending billions of dollars on new builds when that is the way we are treating not only our tenants but the properties that we manage?

I can go on. I will give one more example. It was almost the same design public housing in a lovely street in Caulfield. There were two empty – once again another two – there must be something about leaving a quarter of the available accommodation empty. The government of course will not tell us how many houses they have empty, but from my anecdotal surveys of these things we seem to be running at about a 25 per cent vacancy rate, which is beyond comprehension in a housing crisis. Nonetheless we arrive at this property in Caulfield. It was the same: three-bedroom, two-storey, close to public transport in a lovely Caulfield street with a fantastic array of adjoining neighbours in the public housing, with some older people and younger people. It was a nice mix of tenants.

This apartment block had been fixed up. They had actually invested in this. They had painted it, recarpeted it, retiled, fixed the spouts and all – it actually looked pretty schmicko. I have got to say, as a member of the Parliament and as someone in state government, I could say I would be pretty happy to offer this property up as public housing. It was quite well done. The only problem was the two units had been sitting empty for two years – well, 18 months actually, not two years, I will not exaggerate – 18 months. The person I took there had been living in his car for over two years. As a single man he was at the bottom of the waiting list, and through mental health and the fact that he had been bashed three times while living in his car, he was just beyond desperate. I went with him to that house on his first day there, and it was a breath of fresh air to think he has got a place to call home. Then we looked over the fence to the other adjoining property, and I spoke to the other neighbours and said, ‘How long have these been empty?’ ‘Oh, 18 months, they’ve been sitting empty.’ ‘What’s happening in the house next door?’ ‘Nothing.’

After illegal tenants had snuck in for a period of about five weeks and set up an illegal meth lab, and once they got rid of them, the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing then decided to use this perfectly newly renovated apartment as a storage facility. Can you believe it? A storage facility. But then that does not shock me anymore, to think that in a housing crisis a perfectly nicely renovated, three-bedroom apartment in Caulfield would be used as storage unit. I then had the misfortune of hearing about the experiences of the people in one of the South Melbourne towers who were living down there. The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing has decided to fence off over three-quarters of their available parking to also use as storage units.

So, Minister, one of the suggestions I have on your $5.6 billion Big Housing Build is to stop using existing assets that should be accessible to the needy and the vulnerable and those seeking good affordable, accessible accommodation and actually start letting them use those assets. If you need extra storage space, if you need somewhere to store some bricks, if you need somewhere to store some extra mattresses or if you need somewhere to store some old carpet and blinds, stop making the homeless and the vulnerable in Victoria pick up that bill. Go and talk to some of the people in some of your electorates who own storage facilities and rent a shed, because renting a shed would be a far better use of taxpayers money than wasting homes and car parking spaces for the most needy and the vulnerable on the homeless waiting list.

The other thing I wish to draw attention to, once again getting back to the homelessness rate – not only the regional rate but the state’s homelessness rate – is some of the appalling statistics that Victoria now finds itself with despite the rhetoric of the big build. I quote from the Australian Property Journal, which did an assessment of Victoria’s social housing commitment and build and actually put some facts down, as opposed to the government’s spin. I will just highlight a couple of their points made on 17 July, so just in the last month. They said:

Back in 2014 –

so back when the Liberals were in government –

social housing supply in Victoria, which includes both public and community housing, was at 3.5% of all households and has been on the decline ever since.

We are down now to well under 2 per cent in Victoria today. Deborah Di Natale, who is the CEO of the Council to Homeless Persons, says:

We simply can’t have a situation where more people and families are being pushed into homelessness while the rate of public and community housing –

continues to remain so low as a percentage of our housing. Finally, while Victoria has the lowest share of social housing – below 2 per cent – other areas, such as the Northern Territory, for example, are offering rates of up to 14.6 per cent. Victoria does not lead the nation; it does not lead the debate in this space. This government’s rhetoric – its essential ability to pump up its own tyres – is becoming tiresome in the state of Victoria.

Just in the last six months across the region that I represent, some of the mismatch of expectations that Victorians have had to put up with – we have seen the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games, we have seen the cancellation of the Geelong fast train and we read in the papers today that we have now cancelled the electrification of extra public transport out to the west. It is one thing after another. The government says one thing in the lead-up to the election and not only runs away from those commitments but sprints. In fact the member for Nepean would not be able to hit them with a tennis ball. As the fastest server, he could not catch the minister with the way he retreats from the promises that were made only six months ago. Victorians will remember the fact that this government said that it can promise all these things and still deliver healthy budgets and do everything.

Sam Groth: ‘Can do it all.’

Richard RIORDAN: In the words of the Premier, ‘We can do it all.’ Not only can they not do it, they cannot do it well. What they are choosing to do they cannot do well.

Finally, to wrap it up, the big build has been the big con. It has been the big con. Victorians and those most vulnerable are being told week after week that the government is making investments to help them, and the investment that Victorians are getting is poor value with poor outcomes. It is not helping the people that need it, and so many of our most vulnerable communities are left waiting and getting very poor value for the government spend. Nothing highlights that more than the most recent announcement of a billion dollars for 1300 homes – a million dollars a pop is just outrageous. Victorians expect better. This Parliament should expect better. While this level of incompetence manages it, we will never see the required reduction in the priority and homelessness waiting lists here in Victoria.

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (11:38): It is great to rise and speak on a really important motion around the Big Housing Build and follow that word salad. That was a work of art – to talk a lot about what seemed like nothing in lots of words – but I am not sure there was a rational contention. How can you come forward today with any serious credibility as the Shadow Minister for Housing and call the Big Housing Build a big con but then talk about all the different communities where you want to see more building of housing when we are delivering 12,000 more houses under the Big Housing Build. I have served on the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) with the member for Polwarth, and I thought it was a chance for him to come in here and do the honourable thing and apologise – apologise to the house for the substantial cuts that were made by the former Liberal government in housing services. It was $470 million. I thought, ‘He’s a straight shooter. He calls it out. He likes to be known as talking the talk.’ I thought he would come in here – this is his moment – and lean across to Brooksy, the Minister for Housing, and say, ‘Look, I know that we did the wrong thing. Let’s work together. This motion’s a chance for us to show some bipartisanship.’ Instead he has gone on a rant about expensive housing and building housing.

When we hear the Liberals talk about waste in housing, we know what that means. That is cuts to services, and that is savings that they make on the backs of people. He talks about these dwellings and talks down the Big Housing Build. These houses are supporting people now. They are putting roofs over their heads now and supporting people and their families. Thousands and thousands of people are being supported and cared for. In mid-2022, last year, there was an announcement around more housing for people with mental ill health, and we know how critical the intersection is of housing and mental health and wellbeing.

There are tangible examples, in the thousands, that are going. Yes, there is more to do. That is why it is called the Big Housing Build. We are not doing hundreds of millions. We are spending billions on better housing. It is really curious to be lectured by those who say things like, ‘We shouldn’t have certain people in rich suburbs in housing.’ Remember that Wendy Lovell, a member for Northern Victoria, got really tangled up in ‘those people’ and who should actually be in communities. They would not be able to afford an iPhone or sneakers. Those people are people that Labor MPs represent each and every day and build aspiration and build hope for. There are people in this place who have lived experience of public housing. We had powerful stories from the former member for Lara John Eren and a former member for Northern Victoria Mark Gepp who had grown up in public housing. We went through the example of no less than our Prime Minister himself. He does not say, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t be in any sort of suburbs as those people’, and what that means.

You hear similar language from the shadow education minister when he talks about choice of schools. Rather than every school being absolutely elite and having excellence and equity across our state, you should choose to go to certain schools and lead communities. That is the narrative that we have heard from the coalition. They have no credibility with housing when they slash $470 million when they get the chance, when they do not talk about opportunities and supporting and protecting people and putting roofs over people’s heads and changing the generational outcomes of the disadvantaged and giving kids that hope and aspiration of the safety and security of a home, which should be a right of every Victorian. They do not talk about it in that language. They talk about it as waste, they talk about it as a con, when the shadow minister fronts up to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee and sees stat after stat. Clearly Minister Brooks is living rent free in the member for Polwarth’s head because he is tracking his socials and all the photo ops. He has got so many because there are so many builds going on.

It is curious that the part-timers in this Parliament have not rocked up for this debate. We thought with the motion coming forward this was going to be a day of housing. We have got four members of the Greens political party who are so busy doing pieces to camera and trying to get their political members into the chamber today to hear a debate that they do not rock up before lunch to speak on this housing motion. To their credit, the opposition’s lead speaker, the member for Polwarth – I think we are still trying to unpack the complexities of his points of view – had a crack. Even though he said that they were representing regional areas when we on this side have more regional members in the Labor government representing communities in regional Victoria, he gave it a crack. The Greens political party have a 30-minute or 20-minute speech to go and we do not see them. We do not see them rock up here, yet the grandstanding that they will rock up at 4 pm is absolutely extraordinary.

I want to take them to task on this, because right now their political grandstanding has absolutely the same journey and approach as their opposition to the carbon pollution reduction scheme when they blocked meaningful climate action under the Rudd government. It is the same thing. It is a narrative that comes up in their focus groups and polling. It is a sinister approach to how you politic in this state, because it is not about benefit; it is about what comes up in their polling that says they have to oppose Labor. They have to be a differential. They cannot find the middle ground with the government on anything because it affects their primary vote. It affects their support. There is a despicable approach from the Greens political party around housing and community support in this state. It is sinister, and it is polled and it is researched. They cannot find the middle ground. They cannot join us in a $10 billion housing fund, because it affects their seats and it affects their upper house representation.

The challenge for them today is to call out what we all know: they opposed this and pushed back housing reform in the Senate until October. We could be on the ground now in states and territories with that money supporting people. This is not theoretical or ideological politics here. These are people screaming out for support today, who are desperate in the cost-of-living environment that we see and with the exponential pressure that has been put on people. But no, in their ivory towers the Greens political party put out there that they are happy to wait. Well, they are happy to wait until October. Their constituency and their supporter base are not sitting on the street waiting for housing now. They are people that Labor MPs represent and front up to each and every day.

They are people that sit in our offices waiting for services like the power saving bonus, going ‘Mate, this is changing my week’ or ‘This is changing my day, because I didn’t know where my next feed was coming from’. They are the kinds of people that Labor MPs represent and support in their communities – not grandstanding and saying ‘Oh, well, $10 billion on a housing fund can wait till October’ when people are in such desperate states, when they think hour to hour about what will happen. I mean, if you bothered to care, you would go down to where the member for Footscray took a few MPs the other day, down to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, with people literally fronting up for a feed. When you hear the lived experience of people who are facing such turmoil and you hear about these constituencies and the pressure that they are under you wonder why any political party that says anything about progressive politics would not support these reforms.

But it goes deeper. We have examples across the board of Greens political party supporters and representatives who oppose housing in communities. It is an extraordinary thing where they weaponise heritage over homes – where they weaponise neighbourhood character over new builds. We see that time and time again, where they are fronting up one day, saying ‘You don’t do enough for housing; you don’t do enough in rent’, and then they are on the side of the likes of David Davis, opposing housing builds across our state and dressing up neighbourhood character and weaponising that against new builds. That is what we see each and every day.

Now, thankfully there is a bit of a cultural revolution going on. You have got the chief nimby David Davis and then you have got the yimby Evan Mulholland. That is an interesting seismic shift in the upper house – and sometimes we mourn not seeing what goes on up there. There is a bit of a race for the front bench that you see as well – the amount of opinion pieces that no-one is reading that these people are pumping out at the moment, goodness me. Maybe electorate officers are a bit underdone in those upper house offices because of the amount of opinion pieces going out, but I am glad that Evan is taking on David, because it is a really important thing and it should be multipartisan – not bipartisan – because for too long those on the conservative side have been using and weaponising heritage and neighbourhood character. So he is spot on. I think it is a more mature discussion, and it is great to see some new voices talking about this.

But let us turn our focus then to a multipartisan approach. The Greens, if they want to be a serious third force – and potentially, the way the Libs are going with their primary, they could be the opposition in an election to come, when you see their vote and their surge, when they are eating into the Liberals in the east, when they are absolutely slaying them and the teal vote is surging and when you see that they could be a credible opposition down the track – cannot front up opposing housing. You cannot front up letting the perfect be the enemy of the good because your focus groups and your polling says that if you give an inch to Labor, it will affect your primary and it will affect your vote.

Tim McCurdy: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, we have given him plenty of run at this. This is a housing motion, and we have not heard anything about housing for some time. He could come back to talking about the motion.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Hamer): The member has been talking about the housing motion. The member to continue and refer to the housing motion.

Tim RICHARDSON: I have served with the member for Ovens Valley on committees. It does not surprise me that he was not listening. But it is so very critical for the housing bill to go through the Senate. Ten billion dollars is so critical for our communities, and they have to stop opposing some of the state initiatives that are increasing development and planning. That is the challenge. That is what the government is fronting up to. We are having the hard chats now. The Deputy Premier and the Minister for Planning are doing extraordinary work. We look forward to that. Let us get on board and support people who critically need housing. It is their lives at stake.

Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (11:48): The Minister for Housing very proudly spruiked Labor’s Big Housing Build and noted the government was on track to deliver more social and affordable housing with his motion saying that:

(a) since the start of the Big Housing Build in November 2020, 7600 homes are completed or underway, with Victoria on track to deliver … 12,000 much-needed social and affordable homes; and

(b) the new $1 billion Regional Housing Fund will deliver more than 1300 additional homes.

What is the breakdown of the 7600 homes that are currently being built or underway? How many of them have been completed? How many of them are in planning mode, sitting on local council tables to be voted on? We need to know these figures. It is great to throw them out, but we need to know what they are. What is the net gain of the 12,000 new houses that are going to be built? We need to know what that net gain is going to be.

In my seat of Morwell down in the Latrobe Valley we have public housing being sold off. We talk to our real estate agents, and they can tell us that these houses are going to auction or being bought privately and being taken away from people that need housing. So that is what we need to know: what is the actual number? Not the 12,000, not the 7,600 – what is the actual tangible number that we can hang our hats on so that I can go back to my constituents and say: there are X amount of houses available here in the Latrobe Valley for you to move into?

The other issue, which the member for Polwarth actually articulated before, is we are selling off three-bedroom houses and replacing them with one-bedroom houses. So how are we fitting families in? How are they expected, when they are in times of need and times of crisis, to not have a two- or three-bedroom house to put their children, to actually all move into a one-bedroom house, or are we expecting them to rely on friends, rely on other ways and means – living in caravans, hiring motel rooms? It is really not working. I think we need to get that point across to the minister. Before, he said that we are against $1 billion being spent in regional Victoria on the big build. Well, I am here to tell him we are for it because we desperately need it. What they are putting on the table in facts and figures is great, but what is landing on the ground, especially in the seat of Morwell and I am sure right around regional Victoria, is falling far, far short of what we need.

It is my job to represent the people of the seat of Morwell and the greater Latrobe Valley, and one of the biggest issues down in my electorate at the moment is that public housing crisis. So we need to make sure that that is happening. The Deputy Premier also told us yesterday several times as she was standing there that the Minister for Housing was very, very busy. Was it a badge of honour so we think that he is busy? We know it is a big portfolio; he needs to be busy. He is probably doing all the work, but I need to highlight to him that we need more. The people and constituents of regional Victoria are crying out, screaming out, to the government to let them know what is happening and that the money they are throwing needs to be spent in a different way. We need to have these houses on the ground that we can actually put people into.

Clearly the minister is too busy to cast an eye past Pakenham and come down and look at what is happening, what is the crisis in my electorate of Morwell, because if he did, there is no way he could stand up in this place with any conviction or integrity and claim to be addressing the crisis that the government has created. Housing is by far the most frequently raised issue with my office – the most frequently raised issue – and every day we deal with people who are at their wits’ end, at their most vulnerable, pleading for help because they have nowhere to live and have been failed by the department and failed by the Andrews government. There is no way of understanding how pervasive and wicked the problem is unless you are on the ground. I implore the minister and also the Premier to visit my electorate to see the confronting reality of the housing crisis facing the Latrobe Valley, the people I represent. I would also like to encourage the minister to make a simple call to their own department, the department that my constituents and my office are calling for crisis help, to get firsthand awareness of how this department is not working, how it is failing these people, how it is failing me and how it is failing the government.

Data from the Council to Homeless Persons shows homelessness in the valley has increased 85 per cent in the five years to 2021. Given the data is two years old now and given the cost of living is spiralling out of control and the people coming through my door, we can safely assume the figure has increased substantially. People are slipping through the cracks, and this data does not even account for the huge number of people and families who are sleeping in their cars or couch surfing or relying on other family members to put them up. 2783 people in the Latrobe Valley local government area accessed specialised homelessness services last financial year, more than any other region in Victoria – 2783 of them.

Even more frustrating is the fact that constituents have visited my office to report vacant properties across the valley, some of which have been built by Homes Victoria for the purpose of social housing and crisis housing, which we are screaming out for, yet they incomprehensibly sit idle with no-one in them – no people are allowed to stay in them. People are sleeping in tents that line the creek in Traralgon. It is just ridiculous that these people, with these homes available, cannot get into them. High-density housing, which has been pushed forward in a couple of areas in the Latrobe Valley, does not work. We need to have a look at how the housing – the social housing, the affordable housing that we want – is going to work. We do not think that high-density housing is going to work.

I have written to the Andrews government several times to report these vacant properties and requested urgent action, but I have not received a response. In speaking with the minister, he said he will follow up for me, and I thank him for that. I do note that when the minister got up and spoke he said that in the City of Latrobe $66 million has been spent on housing, 53 new homes have been built and 108 homes are underway. I want to know where they are. I want addresses so I can drive past and see them, because I do not see them and constituents do not see them and are coming to me. If I cannot find them, I need to let the minister know so he can continue and see what is happening. That is the thing: I think they listen to what they want to listen to. They do not listen to the people who are on the ground, and that is an absolute thing that they need to get through.

For three years we have been promised more social housing, but all we have received is platitudes and excuses while the supply of homes is dwindling and homelessness is skyrocketing. To see a mother come in with her young children through your door or you catch up with them and they have nowhere to go – they have no friends, they have no family and the only respite they have is to sleep in their car in a car park under a light so they feel safe. If it is behind my office, if it is behind a police station, they are out there. Do not fool yourselves that they are not. They are doing it hard, and it is the duty of everybody in this chamber, especially the minister, to make sure that these people are looked after and are safe. We can talk about all the stats that we want to talk about, but we need to make sure that it is working. I think it is incumbent on both sides of politics, on both sides of the house, to make sure that in response to our public housing crisis, the crisis in everyone’s electorate – I am not singling out mine – across the state, we are doing the right thing. It is our job. We who stand here inside this chamber, it is our job to make sure that our constituents are safe and that we are looking after them.

I implore the minister to come on down. I will show him personally what is going on. Tell me where these houses are on the build so I can go and check for him that it is actually happening, so he can follow up with the departments that he needs to follow up with to make sure that we are building purpose-built public housing for our people who are in crisis and we can move forward and make sure they are safe.

Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (11:58): It gives me great pleasure this morning to rise and speak on this motion from the Minister for Housing. Those on this side of the house, those in the Labor government, absolutely know that the key to having a safe and secure life is to have a place to call home. That is why I am so incredibly proud to be part of a Labor government that is making the largest investment in social and affordable housing not just that this state has ever seen, but the largest investment that any jurisdiction in Australia has ever made: over $5 billion as part of the Victorian government’s Big Housing Build program to deliver more than 12,000 social and affordable homes right across metro and regional Victoria.

We have not wasted a minute in doing that. In fact we have already passed the halfway mark whilst also creating 10,000 jobs per year. More than 7600 homes have been completed thus far or are underway, with more than 2800 homes completed and welcoming renters. Every new social and affordable home built through government investment is a home that is taking pressure off what is an incredibly tight housing market. Similar to what the member for Morwell said, it gives me even more pride to be part of a government undertaking this program because housing affordability and housing and planning more generally are by far the largest volume of constituency inquiries that I get through my office on a daily basis – in fact almost every day of the week, including Friday, because unlike some in this chamber, I open my office on a Friday. I think it is probably the least that I can do.

Our affordable housing rental scheme will also deliver 2400 affordable homes across metro and regional Victoria. The first development in Kensington has already welcomed renters, and renters are also moving into Markham Avenue, Ashburton, and Dunlop Avenue in Ascot Vale. Additionally, as the minister said in his opening remarks, the $1 billion regional fund will deliver more than 1300 social and affordable homes to Victoria’s regions, because housing supply is not just an issue that affects metropolitan Melbourne and is not just an issue that affects the outer suburbs, it is also an issue that affects regional Victoria, which makes that $1 billion regional fund incredibly important.

Now, I think later this afternoon, or it might be tomorrow even, we are going to see the Greens political party perhaps enter the chamber for the first time this week and speak on a matter of public importance, being social and affordable housing. It would be remiss of me to not point out the walking hypocrisy that is the Greens political party. We are standing here right now debating social and affordable housing on a motion on housing affordability, and they have not even bothered to come into the chamber to either contribute or to at least listen to the contributions of the government and the opposition on this incredibly important matter. They claim to be the champions of social and affordable housing. They claim to be holier-than-thou on the subject, but it is incredibly important, given what we are speaking about, to go through the history of the Greens on this very subject, because it is not just hyperbole. There are examples littered all the way through metropolitan Melbourne of Greens councillors voting against housing development. I will go through just a few.

In 2017 Greens councillors in the City of Darebin led the vote against the development of new social housing dwellings at the vacant Huttonham estate site in Preston.

Paul Edbrooke: Who was the mayor then?

Dylan WIGHT: Who was the mayor then? Greens councillors, once again in the City of Darebin, opposed and delayed the Preston renewable project by 12 months in 2020. In 2020 Greens councillors in Merri-bek also voted against the redevelopment of the former Gronn Place. That same year in the other place the Greens teamed up with the Liberal Party to vote against much-needed social housing as part of the Markham estate revitalisation project. In 2020 the Greens-dominated Yarra City Council voted against the Collingwood social and affordable housing development that would have seen hundreds of additional homes added to local housing stocks, helping local renters and homebuyers. I do not typically make it my business to know who the mayors of different metropolitan councils are, but if I am correct, I am fairly sure that the member for Richmond may have been the mayor of Yarra City Council at that particular time.

A member: Did she work on Fridays?

Dylan WIGHT: She does not work on Fridays.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I ask the member not to respond to interjections.

Dylan WIGHT: So for the Greens political party to come in here and lecture us on housing is just one of the more hypocritical things that I have seen in my short time in politics – perhaps that I have ever seen in my life. There are some local examples of what the Greens really think about increasing housing supply, but as others have done, I think it is entirely appropriate as part of this debate to speak briefly on what is happening in Canberra and in the Senate. At the moment in the federal Parliament there is a bill in front of the Senate for $10 billion – $10 billion – to increase the supply of social and affordable housing across Australia. I spoke about Victoria’s Big Housing Build – $5.3 billion – being the largest investment of any state government around Australia ever. Ten billion dollars is the largest proposed investment into social and affordable housing ever.

Instead of supporting that, instead of increasing supply, the Greens have teamed up with their mates, the coalition – they have teamed up with their mate Peter Dutton – to block the bill. So instead of having $10 billion over the next 10 years to increase housing supply in this country, we have nothing. Let us be frank: the reason is because the Greens are not there to achieve anything, they are just there to argue, they are just there to obstruct, they are just there to block. They do not care. They do not want to achieve anything. They do not want to increase housing supply. They just want to increase their voter base and that is it. If the Greens really cared about social and affordable housing in this country, they would get out of the way and they would pass the bill in the Senate.

Just with the small amount of time that I have remaining, I thought I would touch briefly on the planning future for Victoria. Planning law, planning legislation, plays an enormous part in being able to increase housing supply and where we increase housing supply and the infrastructure that goes around it, and there is no community that understands that more than my community of Tarneit. There is no more important issue in the state right now than housing. That is why we are working hard on a housing package, and we will obviously have more to say in due course. More generally, planning has a powerful role in delivering a more livable Victoria, including more affordable housing and more affordable choices for all Victorians. I see that the member for Brunswick has graced us with his presence – but what I will say is that the Greens need to get out of the way and allow more affordable housing.

Tim READ (Brunswick) (12:08): Thank you for the earlier introduction. This is wonderful. I really commend the government for bringing this motion. It is great to have this. Obviously we know there is a lot of excitement about our motion for the matter of public importance debate this afternoon, but to be granted a support act is really good. It is just a shame the posters did not go up in Brunswick so my electorate could hear more about the government’s plans for public housing. Look, let us face it, the government is celebrating their Big Housing Build, and why not? Because building public housing is government business. This is something that governments should be doing. It is perfectly appropriate for the government to announce a modest build of 12,000 homes and call it a big build. Why not?

It would all be great if it was public housing. The problem is it is ‘social and affordable’, and ‘social’ is an umbrella term – it could be public or community housing. There is a role for public housing which is publicly owned and publicly managed, and as far as we know that is not what this is. As far as we know either this is all going to be run by community housing organisations or it will be called ‘affordable housing’, which is privately rented to people at a capped rent of 30 per cent of the median income, which is actually a lot of money when you consider who will be eligible for this. It will turn out that you are spending about 46 per cent of your income on housing if you are paying that rent. This affordable housing, so-called, will be very expensive for the people who are eligible to live in it.

Getting back to public housing, public housing is really important. It is critical. It is not in its own little silo of housing. Public housing is important for health. The best predictor of readmission to a mental health institution, a psychiatric ward, is lack of secure housing. Public housing is critical to keeping people well, people with severe mental illness in particular. We heard just a week or two ago from mental health workers saying they shudder when they see ‘Big Housing Build’ signs going up and see public housing being demolished and know that the residents of that public housing will be sent far and wide across Melbourne or Victoria, away from the people they know, while over a period of time that land is then covered in a mix of community and privately owned housing.

Public housing is also critical in crime prevention. The single biggest predictor of readmission to prison is lack of secure housing. That is why it is government business to be building public housing. It is why the Greens welcome this motion today, and it is why we are waiting for government MPs to use the phrase ‘public housing’, because so far all we are hearing is government comms. ‘Social housing’ we are hearing – this woolly umbrella term that could be public, but is largely, if not entirely, community housing. Hearing people gloss over the need for public housing with this imprecise term ‘social housing’ is a sign of not just this government, but previous governments backing away from government responsibility for providing public housing.

The percentage of households in public housing in Victoria has declined from 2.8 per cent in 2014 to 2.3 per cent in 2022, while the public housing waiting list has only grown. In December there were 57,600 families or so on the public housing waiting list, so the medium-size build of 12,000 homes is just over one-fifth of the waiting list – it will only accommodate just over 20 per cent of the waiting list. Building 12,000 homes is a good thing, but it is just over 20 per cent of enough. As far as we can tell, none of it will be public housing. We need public housing so we can put roofs over the heads of those people who are difficult to house, people who may be kicked out of community housing, people who if we house them, we will not have to accommodate in prisons or in psych wards. A genuinely big build in genuinely public housing would be a good thing. I also welcome the term ‘big build’ in public housing. I first heard it in the Green New Deal that came out of the pandemic in mid 2020, and it was great to hear it repeated by the then Minister for Housing Richard Wynne in the November, because it was delayed that year, state budget, the initial announcement of the $5 billion big – although perhaps better called medium-sized – build for social and affordable housing. I am delighted to see, though, that the term has been picked up.

I am concerned that a lot of this is actually rebuilding demolished public housing when in fact a lot of this public housing that is being demolished at places like Port Melbourne is structurally sound. The Port Melbourne estate is, I think, 80 or 90 units, but they were built in the 1970s. They look really good. I was in one of those units a few weeks ago visiting Margaret Kelly, who is being evicted by the government so that her sound, secure home can be demolished. We know that a lot of this housing could be much more cost-effectively refurbished. The architecture firm Office has even produced costings for refurbishing this housing, which would mean that the $5 billion would go a lot further if that housing was refurbished rather than demolished and rebuilt by private developers, with every other bit of space above and around it going to private housing.

I think we should talk now a bit about the funding for this. The member for Mordialloc conveniently mentioned the federal gamble of $10 billion on the stock market, the yield of which was meant to fund public housing around the country. A couple of points need to be made, and I thank the member for Mordialloc for raising the Housing Australia Future Fund. This $10 billion is not being spent on housing, it is just the yield from the $10 billion, and when it was first announced it was only going to be whatever the yield was in that year. But by opposing the fund the Greens were able to extract from the federal government an increase to a guaranteed $500 million a year, so by opposing it the Greens were able to increase the amount of money to be spent on public housing. Then by continuing their opposition they were able to extract more from the federal government because Prime Minster Albanese was able to find $2 billion just like that, so opposing the HAFF has generated more funding for public housing around the country than if we had voted for it. If the Greens had listened to all those people pleading with us to vote for the HAFF, we would still be getting less than $500 million a year nationally, a hundred and something million for Victoria – a pittance. By opposing it we have got $2 billion straightaway that the Prime Minister found down the back of the couch and $500 million per year guaranteed minimum, so the question is how much longer we should keep opposing it, because we might get more.

The Greens are holding out for some support for renters. It would not have escaped the notice of the members of this place that renters in Victoria right now are living in fear of receiving a notice from the estate agent, from the landlord, saying that their rent is going to increase. While this is being portrayed as purely a supply problem, it is not something that can be fixed with any single thing. No matter how much money Max Chandler-Mather can squeeze out of the Prime Minister, it takes time to turn money into housing, whether it is public or community or whatever. When you get money, it takes years, but there is –

Members interjecting.

Tim READ: I will wait, Deputy Speaker.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member should be able to continue in silence.

Tim READ: That is fine, Deputy Speaker. I am getting useful suggestions for my speech. I will continue by saying that no matter how much money Max Chandler-Mather can extort out of Prime Minister Albanese, it does not turn into housing in a week or a month. But there is something that can be done to provide housing immediately. Prosper has calculated that there are around 70,000 empty homes in Melbourne. Now, these figures are about four years old, so it could be more or less. On census night there were about a million homes empty across Australia – probably an overestimate because some people were just away for the day. But we know that there are tens of thousands of empty homes in Melbourne, and if something could be done to bring a few thousand of those onto the long-term rental market immediately, those are houses that do not have to be designed and built. Those are houses that do not require planning and permits. Those homes could be brought onto the rental market rapidly, and one way to do that is by properly regulating short-stay accommodation.

The Victorian Greens are very pleased to have had an assurance from the state government that they will be considering short-stay regulation to this end. But we need more than consideration, and we need more than token measures. We need serious measures like a strict limit on the number of days per year that a property can be put on the short-stay market – like a decent-sized tax, not just a slap over the wrist. We need proper regulation of the short-stay accommodation market to push tens of thousands of currently empty homes onto the rental market in a way that could be done within weeks. Bringing this into the debate will mean that we can do something to bring rents down. It is a way of increasing supply that is much faster than just building homes. Remember, the medium-size build is producing 12,000 homes plus some additional money going into the regions. But there are around 70,000 empty homes in the city and 57,000 families on the public housing waiting list, so this medium-size build is not of a scale that is necessary to address the problem.

No matter how much money we can squeeze out of the federal government, we need to do more. And the other thing that we need to do is limit these currently out-of-control rent rises. With rents going up faster than they have in my memory, with more people renting than ever, with a third of Australians now renting, we need to listen to these people, just as the Labor political party in the ACT has started listening to the Greens and just as the Labour Party in New Zealand has started listening to the Greens. And it goes both ways. I might just remind the more numerous Labor members that some sort of coalition or agreement does actually impose some discipline on the smaller party, so it works both ways. By collaborating, these parties are able to make real achievements for renters, and so if we think less about the politics and more about the needs of the renters, then we will get better policy.

Pressure on short-stay accommodation, increasing the tax on vacant housing and limiting rents will do a lot more to help renters. Properly funding this medium-size public housing build – sorry, social housing build, to use the government’s term – and including some actual public housing will increase the supply where we need it most. We need more public housing, and to get that money it would be great to increase the contribution from the HAFF above half a billion dollars a year nationally to something like half a billion a year for every state. On that note, I will conclude by thanking the government for getting in early and extending the matter of public importance, and I look forward to hearing this afternoon’s contributions as well.

Martha HAYLETT (Ripon) (12:26): I rise today to speak on the motion moved by the Minister for Housing, and what a great motion it is – 7600 homes completed or underway since just November 2020, with Victoria on track to deliver over 12,000 much-needed social and affordable homes. And we have also, just in the last few weeks, announced a $1 billion Regional Housing Fund, which will deliver more than 1300 additional homes.

Now, this is an issue extremely dear to my heart. Housing is the reason I am here today. My passion for housing runs deep; it runs through my veins. As soon as you get a passion for housing, you cannot shake it. I know how far we have come as a movement in just the last five years because I have been there the whole journey. As the head of policy at the peak body for public housing tenants back in 2018 I remember meeting with members of Parliament, including the member for Brunswick when he was the Greens candidate for Brunswick. I met with ministers, union officials, public housing tenants and over 20 not-for-profit organisations, building the case for more public housing to address our housing crisis. I sat in the homes of public housing tenants who told me the roof over their head was the only reason that they were alive – tenants like Cherie, who said moving into public housing was the key to her recovery after years of torture and abuse at the hands of her ex-husband, and tenants like Chris, who worked part time as a truckie and could not believe it when he got the call that he was moving into public housing after sleeping rough in a tent for seven years. He said he could barely even understand how to be in four walls after being in the forest in the Dandenongs for seven years. There are tenants like Natalia, who had been in nine different foster homes and lived on the streets before getting into public housing and who told me, ‘Having a home gives you a chance to start living again. Now I am like a butterfly.’ It is these stories that kept me fighting for change.

I met with the Greens, with the Liberals – not many of them would meet, surprise, surprise – and independents. I remember presenting to the Labor faithful at a conference about the dire need for more social and affordable housing the day my nephew Eamon was born, so a little bit over four years ago now. I remember the pride I felt when the former Minister for Housing Richard Wynne committed to building 1000 new public housing units before the 2018 election and when I helped establish a movement of over 1000 Victorian Labor Party members who are fighting internally for more housing action as we speak, and they have done massive amounts of work to date. It made me think of the advice that my mother gave me that you should never throw stones from the outside – you should be in it to change it. That is exactly what we are doing on this side of the house. That is why I am so proud to be a part of a government that listens, that cares and that is delivering tens of thousands of new social and affordable housing properties across the state.

Our $5.3 billion Big Housing Build is changing lives, and it has already delivered so many homes. Now, we need to reflect on the number. The member for Brunswick says, ‘Oh, it’s a small amount. It’s just over 12,000 – that’s insignificant.’ This is not just bricks and mortar. It is 7600 families that now have a permanent, safe, affordable place to call home. It will not just be for them, it will be for the generations that benefit from that roof over their head. It cannot be understated and cannot be considered just an insignificant amount by those opposite. There is $1 billion – I was so, so proud to see this a few weeks ago – to deliver an extra 1300 new social and affordable homes in rural and regional areas.

This is a game changer for our rural and regional communities across the Ripon electorate and will benefit so many more across the state. It will mean that we can build the much-needed key worker housing our industries have been calling out for. It will mean that we can address the chronic housing supply issues and rental stress so many are experiencing. I cannot go anywhere in Ripon – and many members in this chamber are in the same position – without the issue of housing coming up. In Carisbrook the principal of the primary school told me that there are several students who have been sleeping in tents around Maryborough for several years now. Around Lake Burrumbeet just outside of Ballarat and Green Hill Lake outside Ararat, dozens of people are sleeping rough. In Wedderburn kids are living in shipping containers. In St Arnaud the late, great former mayor Tony Driscoll told me that there are no affordable homes to house prospective workers and shearers during peak season. In Beaufort the Country Women’s Association are calling for affordable housing to be built for older women at risk of homelessness, and in Maryborough developers are ready to build more social and affordable housing in partnership with community housing associations.

Having this extra $1 billion will be able to address so many of these issues, and it will go such a long way – a billion dollars is a huge amount in regional and rural areas. It is often said that 10 homes in Ararat are like 100 in Werribee. It is a really significant amount to have that $1 billion up our sleeve. It will also create jobs and economic opportunities for our region. It will help victim-survivors of family violence. It will help people living with disability, those with mental illness and locals who can no longer afford rising rents. Homelessness organisations, unions, peak bodies and even the master builders are praising us for our action on housing. They all know that we are not just providing a home to families but are also putting downward pressure on overall rental prices in the private market and improving housing affordability.

We have partnered with the Albanese federal Labor government to get this work done, and all the while the Greens political party are blocking and stalling and opposing and wrecking progress. In Canberra they are abstaining from the vote on the federal government’s Housing Australia Future Fund and effectively stopping vulnerable people from getting a roof over their heads. They are making housing affordability worse, and they are grandstanding and talking a big game but never delivering a single thing. While they protest and lecture us, we are getting on with actually delivering tangible outcomes for Victorians in need. We are building more refuges, we are building more transitional housing, we are creating more affordable rental schemes, we are boosting funds for homelessness support, we are strengthening tenants’ rights and we are building permanent secure housing where it is needed most. I would much rather be on this side of the chamber actually getting on with it rather than throwing stones from the outside like those opposite. They had the opportunity, and they never did anything with it to deliver on housing for those in need.

I want to thank the Minister for Housing for all his hard work in delivering more affordable homes, and I also want to thank the incredible staff at Homes Victoria and in the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, who are deeply committed to ending homelessness and building more affordable homes across our state. I had the pleasure of working with many of these people before entering this place, and I know how tirelessly they are working every single day to get this job done. Now, our work is not done. We will be the first to admit that, and that is why our government is working hard on a housing package to be announced in coming months. In Ripon there is a long way to go in addressing our housing shortage and levels of housing stress. We have delivered 150 brand new homes in Ballarat, including nine in Mitchell Park. We are building nine more, as we speak, in Ararat, and we are building 30 more in Mitchell Park next year. I know the member for Wendouree is just as excited as I am about the amount of housing that we are building in Ballarat. This has already changed lives, with more great things to come.

I will continue to advocate for more social and affordable housing for my community, and I know that our government will work hard to address this pressing issue, unlike those opposite, who will just continue to whinge and complain. There is no more important issue anywhere in the state than housing, and that is why we are not wasting a minute in changing and saving lives so that more people can have the dignity, the respect and the comfort that comes with a secure place to call home.

David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (12:35): I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

We have had 2 hours now of talking about this important topic of housing. We have a matter of importance a little bit later on in terms of housing. There are a number of notices of motion that we have on the notice paper at the moment which I would suggest are very important, particularly now that we have just had a vote in the upper house on the Commonwealth Games. A number of notices on the notice paper at the moment deal with the Commonwealth Games. We have been talking about housing and the fact that we do not have money to build housing. We have seen the government waste money and go from a $2.6 billion Commonwealth Games to a $7 billion Commonwealth Games in literally weeks.

In the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee we heard the minister say the games were going to cost $2.6 billion, then it was $4.4 billion. The money keeps on adding up. We do not know what this Commonwealth Games was going to cost. We did not know at the beginning what the $2.6 billion was for. We do not know what the additional $4.4 billion was for. The Deputy Premier in question time yesterday said it was $6 billion and then we had $7 billion. We are going up by the billions by the minute and there is no detail. The waste and mismanagement by this government is absolutely appalling, and Victorians are paying the price.

If you look at a number of these notices, particularly notice of motion 31, they deal particularly with the details of cost and how a government would sign a contract. We are talking about housing. You would never sign a contract to build a house without knowing what the house was going to cost. Imagine just saying to your builder, ‘Thank you very much. Here’s the contract’, and then halfway through the build you understood the cost was nowhere near the money that you had in your bank and you had to walk away. Well, Victorians unfortunately have been left with nothing, not even the frame, when it comes to the Commonwealth Games. The Andrews government have walked away and left Victorians with nothing but broken promises. That is what they have done, and that is really important. A parliamentary inquiry has been voted on in the upper house, resoundingly. Victorians were humiliated by this Andrews government. Victoria was humiliated on the world stage. The Andrews Labor government were humiliated today in the upper house because everybody got behind what is very, very important – that is, to get to the bottom of this decision. Why was it made? How was it made? When was it made? Who made it, and how much is it going to cost? Because we are all going to be paying the price.

We are in a cost-of-living crisis. We cannot build housing because the government has more debt than New South Wales, Queensland and Tasmania combined. That is why we cannot build houses. That is why we cannot pay our energy bills. That is why we cannot build hospitals, we cannot build schools, because this government has sent Victoria broke. They have sent the state broke, and that is why we have a situation where the Commonwealth Games, which was promised before the election to win votes, has been cancelled after the election, a cancellation for which we are all going to pay the price. We are all going to be on a bill for billions of dollars to cancel the contract.

Now, we remember that, don’t we? It is deja vu, and what a horrible horror movie this is. The east–west link, a billion dollars to get out of a contract when Daniel Andrews came into power, and on his way out, because the Premier has not been here for the last two days – where is he? – we see the potential for another cancellation of a contract. The opportunity to be able to talk about this motion today is really important because we have a number of members in the lower house that are affected by the cancellation and they will have the opportunity to talk about this, about how much it is going to cost their constituents in their electorates and how disappointed they are, because before the election and only six weeks ago the Premier, the Deputy Premier and everyone was talking up how great the Commonwealth Games are. How wonderful it is –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The members for Narracan and Wendouree can remain seated.

David SOUTHWICK: Now what we have is a big doughnut, a big zero for Victorians, except for a bill. That is all we have, a bill, which every Victorian will be paying –

Juliana Addison interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member, without assistance from the member for Wendouree.

Juliana Addison interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Wendouree can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for Wendouree withdrew from chamber.

David SOUTHWICK: The government can scream and moan as much as they like, but Victorians have been damaged. Our international reputation has been damaged by this, irreparably. Victorians are left wondering by this government that has humiliated us on the world stage. The government really should be held to account, and as we have been saying, the Deputy Premier should resign from this horrible mess that she has put Victorians in.

Ben CARROLL (Niddrie – Minister for Industry and Innovation, Minister for Manufacturing Sovereignty, Minister for Employment, Minister for Public Transport) (12:40): I rise to oppose the motion put by the opposition. It is very clear to anyone that we have a housing crisis in the state at the moment. I just recently, with the member for Frankston and the Minister for Housing, was at a facility in Yarraville which is a community partnership between the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, the Health and Community Services Union and Hope Street Youth and Family Services, and which spoke –

Sam Groth: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, it is a tight procedural debate and not the chance for the minister to go waffling on about his exploits around housing.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It is correct that the debate is on the reasons for the adjournment put forward by the member for Caulfield. The member for Caulfield was given some latitude to explain his reasons, and I am listening to the minister, who has recently started and will continue.

Ben CARROLL: Thank you. I think the member for Caulfield had a very long leniency and talked a fair bit on the Commonwealth Games. So let us be very clear that this motion is about housing, in particular what will occur in regional Victoria, as the member for Ripon so eloquently outlined in her contribution. There can be no more important issue than delivering a home, a roof over people’s heads. Where I was going to is that this issue is beyond just housing. It is about family support and giving young people in need – those that I and the member for Frankston saw last week – a roof over their head so they have the dignity to get to where they need to in life as well.

This motion in particular deals with housing in regional Victoria. As the minister responsible for introducing the regional fare cap and bringing equity to regional fares on the V/Line network, that goes hand in hand with what we will be doing with our Regional Housing Fund, which the member for Bundoora and the Minister for Housing will oversee. We are very proud on this side of the house, whether it is at the Commonwealth level or at the state level, of making sure that that central issue of housing is front and centre going forward. As the Minister for Industry and Innovation I sat down with superannuation funds, just last week, that also want to roll up their sleeves and see what they can do to partner with the government. That is what we are after, a real partnership approach to deliver on the work that we are doing, to get on with it and to make sure that more Victorians have roofs over their heads, because there can be nothing more important.

Sam GROTH (Nepean) (12:43): I rise to support the motion from the member for Caulfield. I think it is important to note that there are many members in this house who actually are from the regions, as the member for Wendouree, who is no longer with us in the chamber, pointed out, but they have not been given the opportunity to tell Victorians, to tell their communities, in this place why the government has made the decision to go and cancel these Commonwealth Games without notice, or why they have not been able to have the chance to explain to their communities why the cost has blown out by $4.4 billion.

Members interjecting.

Sam GROTH: It is very interesting to hear the interjections, because I think that when you go through some of the contributions that have been made in this place, some of the record may need to be corrected or adjusted or clarified. When you look at 16 May, the Deputy Premier said they ‘committed to delivering the Commonwealth Games with that $2.6 billion of investment’. That is now out the window. That probably needs clarification. I am sure the minister across the table, the Minister for Industry and Innovation, actually would love to debate this because it props up his ability in terms of that leadership race. You know, it lifts him up the ladder a few rungs.

Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member got up and made a point of order on the minister at the table, when in fact he is being entirely irrelevant.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The point of order, Minister?

Mary-Anne Thomas: It is a narrow procedural debate. He is being entirely irrelevant to the narrow procedural debate. I ask you to bring him back.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind all members once again to stick to the reasons for the adjournment motion put forward by the member for Caulfield. You may have been straying a little bit at the end there. Come back, please.

Sam GROTH: I was just making the point that members in this house I am sure, while the housing motion is important, would love the opportunity to be able to speak on a Commonwealth Games motion. There are plenty of them on the notice paper. But I will go back. Maybe the Deputy Premier would like to clarify:

Bendigo will be on the international stage, alongside Ballarat and Geelong and the Latrobe Valley and Shepparton, as we host the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

I am not sure how that is going to happen. She said in a press release on 17 March:

We’re delivering the first-ever regional Games, creating thousands of opportunities for local workers and businesses and cementing Victoria’s status as the major events capital of Australia.

If you want to talk about cementing, the only thing the government has done is put concrete boots on this state’s reputation and thrown it in the Yarra. That is all they have done with cement. If you go to the member for South Barwon, who was taking a thousand dollars a week, he might like to clarify:

Victorians love their sport, and that is why this government is getting on with delivering the first ever regional Commonwealth Games.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I advise the member to come back to the topic.

Sam GROTH: The member for Melton:

There are certainly some future Olympic stars down at Bacchus Marsh … with many of the athletes setting their sights on the 2026 Commonwealth Games, a great aspiration to work towards.

What are they working towards now? Does he want to clarify his statements? The Minister for Industry and Innovation, across the table:

… the Commonwealth Games, which is going to be a massive boon for regional Victoria.

And we still have not heard if the minister is going to deliver on those electric buses that he was going to deliver to the regions for the Commonwealth Games. The member for Geelong, who I note is in the chamber:

Geelong loves its sport, there is no doubt of that, and excitement is building around the 2026 Commonwealth Games …

Is there still excitement in Geelong around the Commonwealth Games?

Darren Cheeseman interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for South Barwon is warned.

Paul Edbrooke: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, we are all quite competent enough to read Hansard by ourselves. We do not need the member to do that.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The point of order is?

Paul Edbrooke: The point of order is on relevance. It is a very tight procedural debate, and the member should be drawn back to that.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: On the reasons for the adjournment, please.

Sam GROTH: On the reasons for the adjournment, I am sure the members would love to come out and, as I noted, have the chance to speak about their previous contributions and clarify some of those. The member for Eureka:

The Commonwealth Games will be the first of their kind …

It will not be the first of its kind. Actually it will be the first of its kind – the first of its kind to be cancelled. That is the first of its kind – not in its delivery, in its cancellation. Of course the member for Wendouree, who is no longer here:

… hosting the Commonwealth Games in regional Victoria will be an excellent opportunity to showcase our state …

There is absolutely no opportunity, and you are a disgrace.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired. Further early lunches can be organised.

Tim RICHARDSON (Mordialloc) (12:48): It is great when the member for Nepean comes in. He found Nepean when Box Hill was not a viable option. He went down to the holiday home and found a better seat, and he became a regional MP. After serving it up near Kooyong, he found his way down to the holiday roost.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Brighton on a point of order, which I think I can anticipate.

James Newbury: Deputy Speaker, this is not an opportunity to sledge, and I would ask you to bring the member back to the question.

Ben Carroll: On the point of order, the member for Mordialloc is literally just on his feet. We just heard the member for Nepean –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have not called the minister. I am going to presume that was on relevance.

James Newbury: Yes.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Go figure. I would encourage the member for Mordialloc, who has relatively just begun, to come to the reasons for adjournment or not.

Tim RICHARDSON: It was a drop volley at the net, Deputy Speaker; I had to return serve.

There is no bigger crisis in our state at the moment than housing and the cost of living. It is what everyone is focused on; it is what is leading debate across not just Victoria but our nation. We have had a number of members and the Greens have had one person rock up today to this debate on the housing motion, but we need to be talking about this each and every day, because each and every day Victorians are suffering in the cost-of-living crisis that we see. That is why this motion is so important. Bring forward your values, bring forward your views and make that contribution. I understand that you have to front up and put a few names on the list for the matter of public importance. There are probably about three or four coalition members of Parliament that have been put forward, but there are more members that can contribute on that motion. We see a lack of contribution from the Liberals in particular in this Parliament, and we see their lack of contribution in a range of different areas, meaning that they have more time to do whatever they do but are not contributing to the important business.

I would argue there is nothing more important than this housing motion. Just because you do not have enough speakers, just because you may not care or you suggest that people should not live in Brighton for housing, they should live somewhere else – they are their values and their ideology. It is not then to bring in a motion on the Commonwealth Games, which literally is just a farce. There will be an inquiry, there will be hearings – that is part of the respect for the upper house in the Parliament. That motion will get underway; there will be submissions and opportunities to have that. That is not to bring it now and adjourn the debate to grandstand before lunch. Let us ask those coalition members of Parliament to come forward and contribute, importantly, on the motion. That is the key thing, and that is what we want to be seeing as well. There we go. We are going to wrap up now – Nina is wrapping me up. We will get to lunch soon. I will hand it over probably to Emma Kealy. There we go.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: I remind members to use correct titles.

Emma KEALY (Lowan) (12:51): I rise in support of the motion by the member for Caulfield to adjourn debate today. We understand that housing is an issue; however, we have already debated this motion for some time. There are a considerable number of motions which are equally important on the notice paper today. We have got a matter of public importance today – everybody has an opportunity to have their say. It may be something they speak on, or it may something they interject on, which is often part of the MPI process.

What I think is very, very important is that we talk about what regional Victorians are talking about and what people and businesses and everyone across the state really are talking about: why did the government cancel the regional games? Why did they inflate the figure to $7 billion when it is a complete and utter made-up number? It is clear that this is another broken promise to Victorians, another broken promise to regional Victorians and just another example of Labor saying one thing before an election and then another thing after an election. We have seen more and more broken promises from this government, whether it is about the Commonwealth Games – and wasn’t it sold as a fantastic opportunity to put the spotlight on regional Victoria? It was not just about the sporting event, it was about showcasing all the fabulous things about regional Victoria. We were going to put ourselves on the world stage. On the world stage regional Victoria was going to be.

It would support our economy. It would support people in local communities to understand that regional kids were important too. They could see their favourite athletes, they might be on that stage one day, or they might actually be able to open up a business that they see thriving in that community. They were promised so much. But what did the Minister for Commonwealth Games Delivery deliver? Nothing. They actually delivered a string of broken promises right across the state of Victoria, and it is Victorian people who are suffering from that and wondering, ‘When did this actually become a decision? Was this a decision before the election? Was it never, ever going to come to fruition? Was this just something that was a good idea before the election that would win a couple of votes but something they had no intention of ever delivering?’ I think the member for South Barwon would absolutely understand this completely, with his little parliamentary secretary role, his little sweet deal – 50K a year just to sweeten the deal and get a couple of votes. It probably bought him his seat – for a swimming pool that was just going to be demolished and shipped out anyway.

If this is not the ultimate example of something that should be debated in this place, I do not know what is. But I can understand why Labor do not want it debated. They do not want to debate why an investment in regional Victoria is something that ‘We’ll build, and then we’ll take it away from you again, because we do not believe in investing in regional Victoria.’ That is exactly what Labor thinks. Labor do not believe in investing properly in regional Victoria.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for South Barwon!

Emma KEALY: We have seen that for the last 10 years. We have seen this for such a long period of time. I note the many interjections today, because if the government members are so keen to interject now –

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members on my right will be removed without warning.

Emma KEALY: they should also be keen to bring on this motion and actually debate it.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: And on my left.

Emma KEALY: Stand in your place, and stand up for regional Victoria. All of you should be standing up – and actually standing up for it.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for South Barwon can leave the chamber for half an hour.

Member for South Barwon withdrew from chamber.

A member interjected.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! If I knew which one of you that was. The member for Lowan to continue in relative silence, please.

Emma KEALY: I am not very good at silence, but I will speak up for my regional communities, which is what the National Party do each and every day. We will always be a strong voice for regional Victoria, which is why we want to bring on these motions. We want to see exactly why you lied to Victorians before the last election, why you will not invest in our infrastructure, why you will not deliver on the promises –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member is fully aware that that word is unparliamentary.

Emma KEALY: We know that Labor say one thing before the election to every Victorian – but particularly regional Victorians. We want to debate this motion, and we want to make sure we get on the record how many broken promises Labor has delivered to Victorians, because that is all they have delivered.

Nina TAYLOR (Albert Park) (12:56): It is amazing, the fervour that is coming from over there so they do not have to talk about housing. They really do not want to talk about it – ‘Really, really, really, please, please, please, we don’t want to talk about it’ – because they have got nothing to say. They have opposed all our big builds the whole way along. Bills Street, Markham estate, you name it – they have a great fervour for opposing things but do not want to deliver. Then they say we do not deliver. Let me correct the record: 2800 homes completed, 7600 built or underway. Look at all the level crossings we have removed. And how about the Metro Tunnel? That is a year ahead of schedule. If only they had the passion to actually deliver – but no, it is oppose, oppose, oppose, every step of the way. Well, that is not where we come from on this side of the chamber, because we support social and affordable housing. That is why we have invested $5.3 billion in the Big Housing Build. That is why we are delivering.

Sam Groth: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, as you have already ruled, it is a tight procedural debate, not an opportunity to debate the motion that we are moving to adjourn.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: It would be nice if it was. The member to focus on the reasons for adjournment or not raised by the member for Caulfield.

Nina TAYLOR: To close out, I say that we would like to continue speaking on the very important topic of housing, and it would be nice to see that shared by the other side of the chamber as well.

Assembly divided on motion:

Ayes (22): Brad Battin, Jade Benham, Tim Bull, Martin Cameron, Annabelle Cleeland, Chris Crewther, Wayne Farnham, Sam Groth, David Hodgett, Emma Kealy, Tim McCurdy, Cindy McLeish, James Newbury, Danny O’Brien, Michael O’Brien, Kim O’Keeffe, John Pesutto, Richard Riordan, Brad Rowswell, David Southwick, Bridget Vallence, Jess Wilson

Noes (52): Juliana Addison, Jacinta Allan, Colin Brooks, Josh Bull, Anthony Carbines, Ben Carroll, Darren Cheeseman, Anthony Cianflone, Sarah Connolly, Chris Couzens, Jordan Crugnale, Lily D’Ambrosio, Daniela De Martino, Steve Dimopoulos, Paul Edbrooke, Will Fowles, Matt Fregon, Ella George, Luba Grigorovitch, Bronwyn Halfpenny, Katie Hall, Paul Hamer, Martha Haylett, Mathew Hilakari, Melissa Horne, Natalie Hutchins, Lauren Kathage, Sonya Kilkenny, Nathan Lambert, Gary Maas, Alison Marchant, Kathleen Matthews-Ward, Steve McGhie, John Mullahy, Tim Pallas, Danny Pearson, Pauline Richards, Tim Richardson, Michaela Settle, Ros Spence, Nick Staikos, Natalie Suleyman, Meng Heang Tak, Nina Taylor, Kat Theophanous, Mary-Anne Thomas, Emma Vulin, Iwan Walters, Vicki Ward, Dylan Wight, Gabrielle Williams, Belinda Wilson

Motion defeated.

The SPEAKER: The house will return to debate on the motion after question time.

Sitting suspended 1:04 pm until 2:02 pm.

Business interrupted under sessional orders.