Wednesday, 1 November 2023

 Katie HALL (Footscray) (16:45): It goes without saying that housing, the fundamental human right of housing, and its scarcity here and around Australia and indeed the world is the basis of our cost-of-living crisis. Whilst I am going to focus on that in my contribution for the grievance debate today, I do so with hope, because great reforming Labor governments get on and do the work of what is needed – the hard policy work – to make change and to support people.

Successive interest rate rises have put pressure on our communities, so our role as a hardworking progressive Labor government is to do whatever we can to support people who are experiencing rental or mortgage stress. On this side we are the builders and the believers in public and social housing – homes with dignity. Being a part of the Labor movement and the Labor Party means that we believe in safety nets, and we never shy away from the big challenging reforms to make Victoria fairer, no matter what your postcode is. Those opposite, the opposition – and we have heard a little bit today, perhaps too much, about golf – we know what they stand for. They do not care about safety nets, because they are in the party of fend for yourself. Unfortunately, I think the Greens political party has a more insidious approach, because they will tell people that they support them. But when it comes to taking action, especially when faced with the opportunities to deliver action, perhaps on council, and I think in particular of the issue of social housing, we have example after example of when the Greens political party have blocked social housing at a council level. They are constantly running down social housing, but I bet they would not front up and tell the social housing providers or perhaps the specialist family violence providers or the Aboriginal housing co-ops that their work is not changing lives or is not valued.

People are entitled to safety nets and support. You never know when you will need one. Only Labor believes in social housing. We build it and we fund it because it is fundamental to who we are and our lived experience on this side of the chamber. We know that it is harder than ever to find an affordable home and that more Victorians are renting than ever before. In my community we have lots of renters. I have lived in plenty of share houses and rentals around Footscray. I could probably spend a good portion of my remaining time regaling you all with some of my share house stories.

Josh Bull interjected.

Katie HALL: Well, member for Sunbury, like the quote from The Simpsons, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was tough sometimes being in a rental property before all of the Andrews and Allan Labor government’s reforms to rental protections. We have the strongest rental protections in the country because we know that everyone deserves a chance to have a safe, secure and affordable home whether you own it or not. The Allan Labor government knows that the best thing we can do to make rental properties more affordable for more Victorians is to build more of them.

As I mentioned, we have the strongest rental protections in the country, but when it comes to protecting renters rights there is always more work to be done to make sure that renters get a fair deal. The share houses I lived in had conditions that would not be legal today, including one with a temperamental diesel heater in the lounge room. I have also dealt with my fair share of dodgy real estate agents. That is an issue that, in terms of our reforms to consumer protections in this state, is so important for people in rental properties. That is why we have worked hard to expand and protect renters rights, with more than 130 reforms already in place.

Through our landmark housing statement this government not only will build 800,000 new homes but will close the loopholes that are driving up the cost of living for renters. This includes making renting fairer by restricting rent increases between successive fixed-term rental agreements to crack down on an emerging trend that I know many of us have seen in our electorates where some landlords evict tenants at the end of their first fixed-term lease to enable a rent increase. This will mean that landlords cannot churn through renters purely to increase the rent. We are extending the notice of rent increase and notice to vacate periods to 90 days, giving renters more certainty of their leases and their finances. We are going to ban all types of rental bidding. I have turned up to rental properties before where rental bidding has been an open thing that people have engaged in with real estate agents, and it is not okay. We are going to be protecting renters’ personal information and holding agents and property managers accountable by introducing mandatory training and licensing for industry professionals and introducing tougher penalties for real estate agents and sellers who break the law. We are supporting renters in need by delivering a rental stress support package, establishing rental dispute resolution Victoria, which will take pressure off VCAT, and introducing a portable rental bond scheme to lower the cost of moving between rentals.

These initiatives are in addition to our $5.3 billion Big Housing Build. This is the largest investment in public and social housing in Australian history. This remarkable reform was initiated by the former member for Richmond, who dedicated his working life to social and public housing. I would like to acknowledge the contribution he made to that landmark policy, one of the reasons I am so proud to be a Labor member and a member of the Allan Labor government. When we have more homes – and we are building 800,000 new homes across the state over the next 10 years – they will be more affordable. Only Labor governments can deliver the protections tenants need and build the homes Victorians need to grow our supply of housing, and only Labor governments will do it.

As part of making renting processes fair, through the housing statement the Allan Labor government will introduce a range of reforms that are directly targeted and continue to expand and protect renters rights. I have mentioned the fixed-term rental agreements, removing the incentive for agents to evict tenants to facilitate further rent increases, banning rent bidding, protecting renters’ personal information and standardising the application process, which has been a source of frustration for many of my constituents. We are extending the notice of rent increase and notice-to-vacate periods to 90 days. Under our reforms rent can only be increased once every 12 months, and rental providers are not allowed to increase rent during a fixed-term agreement unless the lease has an additional term that has been agreed to allowing for an increase. We are restricting increases between successive first fixed-term leases, and that will encourage landlords and renters to negotiate fair increases and provide renters with more certainty over their living arrangements. The government will introduce amendments to give effect to these landmark reforms, the toughest in the country, to protect renters.

The establishment of rental dispute resolution Victoria will enable parties to resolve tenancy disputes in a faster, fairer and cheaper way, with VCAT available only where required. This will encourage early intervention and resolution of residential tenancy disputes prior to escalation to VCAT and before problems become entrenched. RDRV will provide dispute resolution strategies, information and conciliation services. This will be separate and complementary to VCAT. The design of the RDRV will be done in close consultation with VCAT and rental groups to ensure that smooth referral pathways and collaboration take place, and of course Consumer Affairs Victoria will continue to investigate rental providers who engage in deliberate or systemic breaches of the legislation. I strongly encourage any Victorian who has been subject to an unfair or egregious rent increase to get in touch with Consumer Affairs Victoria for advice and to better understand their rights or to contact their local MP, because I know that we have been helping renters in our electorate office to engage with Consumer Affairs Victoria.

The minimum rental standards have meant that there is a good safety net for renters in Victoria, but like I said, it can always be better. This government has always stood up for Victorian renters, which is why we introduced 130 reforms to make renting fairer. These reforms have allowed more renters to make modifications to their rentals, removed no-reason notices to vacate and prevented Victorians from having to choose between their pet and their rental property. Our reforms have also introduced minimum standards to provide safer, more energy-efficient housing for renters, and we know that boosting the energy efficiency of rentals is one of the best tools we have to drive power bills down. On this side of the house, this Labor government will keep working hard to support renters, ensuring renting is fair, is secure and is comfortable. They can rely on a progressive Labor government that will always back them in. While we know that some of these reforms are in place already, the new reforms announced in the housing statement will make them the strongest in the country.

Consumer Affairs Victoria takes breaches seriously. Again, rental properties that do not meet the standard is what Consumer Affairs Victoria is there for. CAV investigates rental providers who engage in deliberate or systemic breaches of the minimum standards, and further action is taken where appropriate. Estate agents advertising non-compliant residential properties may also be subject to regulatory action.

I know for many renters that buying their first home is something that they aspire to, and this government also has a proud record of using the tax levers we have available to us to support first home buyers. No government has done more to help first home buyers trying to get into the property market than this government has. It was this government that increased the first home buyers stamp duty exemption. Under our landmark Homes for Victorians package, first home buyers purchasing a house that costs $600,000 or less do not have to pay any stamp duty, while concessions apply for purchasing costs of up to $750,000. Our support for first home buyers in the last financial year included more than $660 million paid in first home buyer stamp duty exemptions and concessions and more than $120 million paid in first home owners grants, and since we introduced the Victorian Homebuyer Fund less than two years ago, we have committed more than $1 billion to help homebuyers through our shared equity scheme, now being copied by the Commonwealth.

I could go on with further examples of how this government uses the tax system to support the efficient use of our housing stock and make housing more affordable, but what I would like to conclude on is a recent announcement which relates to an issue in my electorate of Footscray around land banking. Footscray has a heap of prominent sites in its CBD that for many years have been vacant. This year I have run a campaign around getting the developers to take action to build to the permits that they have been granted by council and to clean up their sites, because what that will do for Footscray is deliver more housing, more rental properties and more affordable housing under our housing statement, and that will transform Footscray. So I was really pleased that we introduced a tax on land bankers in the last week of Parliament, because this is something that my community has been calling out for. The developers have had it too good for too long and have let Footscray go into a state of disrepair.