Thursday, 16 November 2023

Public housing

Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (14:31): My question is to the Premier. Timothy from Lakes Entrance has been on the public housing waitlist for an extended period. Because of his lack of secure housing his 15-year-old daughter is forced to live in Melbourne and he cannot be the carer for her mother, who has suffered extensive brain injury and is presently in a nursing home. In two weeks Timothy will be evicted from his temporary accommodation, and housing can only offer him a tent and a sleeping bag. Why is the Premier failing vulnerable Victorians like Timothy?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:32): I thank the member for Gippsland East for his question, and I would invite the member for Gippsland East to provide more detail than I appreciate he has given in the house in terms of personal details of Timothy from Lakes Entrance. If he is willing to provide that information outside of the chamber, I will ask the housing minister, who is also an upper house member for Lakes Entrance, to investigate this matter and work with local housing providers in the local area to see what other options may be available to Timothy, his daughter and his broader family, given the member referred to the caring responsibilities that this man provides for his mother, I believe you referred to.

A member interjected.

Jacinta ALLAN: Mother and daughter. It does speak to some of the challenges we do face, particularly in the more rural communities across Victoria, the smaller communities, in terms of ensuring that families who have particular circumstances, more vulnerable circumstances – being able to provide them with either emergency housing support or longer term housing support in our smaller rural communities. That is why through the additional $1 billion in a dedicated Regional Housing Fund we are working at targeting smaller rural communities across regional Victoria to build across regional and rural Victoria at least 1300 additional social and affordable homes in communities across the state.

Again, I deeply understand. I also, like the member for Gippsland East, represent smaller communities and understand how being able to find suitable housing in the private market can be a challenge. It can be, as I have indicated, even more challenging if you have a particular set of circumstances that bring some additional complexity. We are prepared to work with the member for Gippsland East on this particular example, as we continue to, I hope, work with members across the Parliament as we look at doing everything we can to build more homes in Victoria – in regional Victoria, in rural communities like Lakes Entrance, in regional centres like Bendigo and Ballarat and in the suburbs of Melbourne – because this is a big challenge for us across the state and indeed across the country.

We know we need to build more homes in the private market, which is why we have the housing statement and particularly the good work that the housing minister and our Minister for Planning are undertaking to drive the development of more housing. But we know too as a government that for people who rely on the government as a housing provider we need to do more. We are doing more in regional Victoria, and I hope we can have the opportunity to work with the member for Gippsland East on his particular matter.

Tim BULL (Gippsland East) (14:35): Premier, I note your response for me to pass on the details of this issue and you will take it up. You might be rather alarmed to know that I wrote to the housing minister on Timothy’s behalf in March this year. Eight months later and despite sending a further reminder to the current housing minister, and I am happy to table both of these letters, Timothy has not received a response in eight months, without his circumstances changing. Why is this government so callous that it will not even provide him with a response in eight months, a simple response?

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:35): Again I repeat my comments earlier, and clearly the member is willing to provide those details. I will follow up those matters with the Minister for Housing, who is also, as I indicated, the local member for this area. These can be particularly personally complex matters. Let us not presuppose some of the challenges that sit around the reasons why there has not been an appropriate roof over this family’s heads. We are working very hard right across the state to provide more roofs over the heads of more Victorians, because that is a big and important task that is ahead of us.

Richard Riordan: It’d be great if you’d done it before.

Jacinta ALLAN: It is disappointing that members like the member for Polwarth in that interjection that he has made are more about the politics than the outcome. We have got to be about the outcome. We have got to be about the outcome to get more homes built for more Victorians.