Wednesday, 30 August 2023

Housing crisis

Richard RIORDAN (Polwarth) (17:01): I grieve today for the people in Victoria, whether they are on our country roads or desperately, desperately seeking shelter in a home or in a place that they can call home. I was just listening to the contribution there from the member for Ripon, who read her speaking notes given to her by the Premier’s office, clearly, talking about the housing results in Victoria. She is quite right: they are worth grieving about. This government has –

Belinda Wilson: On a point of order, Deputy Speaker, the member was referring to the member for Ripon reading her notes that were given to her from the Premier’s office, which I believe is untrue.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: What is the point of order, member for Narre Warren North?

Belinda WILSON: Untrue comment by the member.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is not a point of order.

Richard RIORDAN: I think the record will bear out the truth or otherwise of the member’s comments –

Brad Battin: Or the embarrassing point of order – one of the two.

Richard RIORDAN: Or the embarrassing point of order. The issue that we have in Victoria at the moment is this government has been overseeing since 2014 the decline in availability of housing in this state, and whether it is land supply, whether it is rental accommodation or whether it is public housing, social housing or affordable housing – whatever type – Victoria is in a critical mess. That mess is shown day after day, and sadly the ignorance of the government to the problem at hand is demonstrated nearly every sitting week. We hear the minister talk about 12,000 new homes and his $5.4 billion Big Housing Build, but what are the results of that investment for Victorians? It is a very, very poor outcome.

In fact for two years now this government has failed to produce its stocktake of what properties it owns, how many it has added and the net benefit of this government spending and largesse. Sadly members of the government do not understand the difference between opening a new housing development and replacing one they have just demolished. What Victoria needs is a net increase in available houses and places for people to live, not a net-neutral amount or an actual decline. We saw a decline from about 2016 to 2020 in actual housing stock, and then the government tried replacing houses, but not at a rate sufficient to meet the demand. Sadly, again this morning I checked the homeless waiting list here in the state of Victoria, and there are 67,985 families as of today waiting for somewhere to call home, waiting for a place that is suitable for their requirements and is safe for their family to live in. That is a shocking figure, because we know that back in 2014 that figure was only around 9900. It has been a massive, massive increase in people missing out. We grieve for those people in Victoria who are waiting for somewhere to live and have been waiting a long time.

We grieve for the people at the coalface – the government employees, the volunteer agencies, the outreach groups, the church groups and the community advocacy groups – all those people who on a daily basis are taking phone calls and sitting with desperate, desperate people who are waiting for notification that they are going to have somewhere other than a couch or a car or a caravan to call home. These people are doing the dirty work of the government. They are left every day having to face the most heartbreaking stories of families that have not got anywhere to live or call home. They are left to deal with that, and they know that there is very little coming onstream that can support them.

We know, for example, as the homeless list here in Victoria continues to grow, some of our regional areas are the worst affected. For example, Geelong – areas of the members for South Barwon, Geelong, Bellarine, Lara, and it encroaches across into my area of Polwarth along the Surf Coast – has just seen an enormous increase in people on the homeless list. It has the largest growth of any of the regions in the state of people on the waiting list. I grieve for them, because there are no solutions. The state government’s planning frameworks and overlays and their relationships with local councils have at times almost completely broken down.

There has been a lot of talk in the media recently that the government is going to streamline planning. Well, I have not yet spoken to anyone that thinks, once a planning application comes before the minister and comes down here to Spring Street to be assessed directly by the minister, that that in any way speeds up that process. In fact in my own electorate I know of multiple housing developments that could, if they could get the go-ahead and be started, actually add many hundreds of homes to a tight rental and housing market that would really give much reprieve to the people waiting. Yet it is sitting down here for months and months – into years – and is still not progressed by this government. So this government is letting down the people that can make a difference, and it is also letting down those that are suffering from the lack of housing.

We have also seen this year the direct attack on anyone who wants to provide extra housing, through increases in land tax and stamp duties and other costs and charges that are really just taxes on renters. These costs go directly to the weekly costs and charges that landlords have to charge tenants – they are just unfair taxes – and increases in rent. In some of my coastal communities whole households are being charged nearly $50 to $60 a week in extra land tax costs, and that is directly as a result of policies of this government.