Wednesday, 31 July 2024

 Bill TILLEY (Benambra) (10:37): The way things are going at present, it is going to be Christmas before I get a shot at the take-note motion on the 2024–25 Victorian budget, so the plain fact is I wish to take an opportunity to say a couple of things now.

This state has a housing crisis. That crisis is a result of this government’s policies and either its ignorance of the consequences or, worse still, its acceptance of them. Where in the budget was the vision for our kids who have been priced out of their dream home? The average price of a home in Wodonga has gone from $330,000 to $550,000. In the past five years a unit has increased 66 per cent. Where is the vision for the 850 people on waiting lists for a one-bedroom property in Wodonga? In June some faceless bureaucrat went public on a target of 14,400 houses for Wodonga in the next 25 ‍years. That is 576 homes a year, almost double what was built last year. That is impossible; we all know that, and the government knows that.

What we need here is vision. What we have is land taxes, additional imposts on landlords that add $50 a week to rent, taxes that deter turning farmland into housing estates and blinkered ideology for electrification that adds $12,000 to the sale price of a block of land before you get to the appliances, and all this drives investors interstate and reduces homes for sale or rent. This budget failed housing. It should have championed aspiration, not contributed to desperation.