Housing affordability
Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (14:32): My question is for the Minister for Housing. Minister, one of the three properties currently advertised on the Homes Victoria website under the affordable housing program is going for $10 more per week than the median rental price for similar properties in the same area. What is this government’s definition of ‘affordable’ when it comes to housing?
Colin BROOKS (Bundoora – Minister for Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:32): I can advise the member that our definitions are clearly set out in the act. What this side of the house is absolutely determined to do through the Big Housing Build is deliver more social and affordable housing. In terms of the amount of affordable housing we are going to build, it is 2400 dwellings for Victorians. Some of those affordable homes are provided in the very projects that those members of the Greens have been opposing in Flemington and Ascot Vale and many other places. So on this side of the house, we will get on and deliver more social housing, more affordable housing and more public housing – public housing like the Markham estate, which was opposed by the Greens, and social housing like the project at Port Melbourne at the Barak Beacon estate, which was also opposed by the Greens.
Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (14:33): I will help the minister out. The act actually fails to define ‘affordable’. It only refers to income ranges, and Homes Victoria’s 10 per cent discount in metro areas is only marginally better –
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Richmond will repeat the question. I cannot hear.
Gabrielle DE VIETRI: The act fails to define ‘affordable’. It only refers to income ranges, and Homes Victoria’s 10 per cent discount in metro areas is a slap in the face when rents have risen by 14.6 per cent in the last year. Homes Victoria guarantees that an affordable home will be no more than market rate, but the definition of housing stress is paying more than 30 per cent of your income on rent. With rents under Homes Victoria capped at 30 per cent of the median income, to afford Labor’s so-called affordable homes you have to earn more than the median income. Does the minister realise that capping rents at 30 per cent of a median income under the affordable scheme essentially locks most eligible people into housing stress?
Colin BROOKS (Bundoora – Minister for Housing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:35): No.