Wednesday, 14 August 2024

 Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (14:26): My question is to the Premier. Housing affordability is a key issue for my constituents in Ringwood. Victorians need affordable homes. This government has outlined very, very ambitious housing supply targets for Victoria, with some 800,000 homes to be built in just the next decade. This government promised 62 affordable homes for low-income families on McDowall Street in Mitcham in 2021. Given that insufficient funding has been allocated to the project and work is yet to commence three years later, how will the government ensure that the targets outlined in the housing statement are actually met if projects like McDowall Street are yet to turn a sod after years of delays?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:27): I thank the member for Ringwood for his question. His question went to both the investment that we are making in social and affordable housing and also the actions we are taking in individual communities and, further beyond that, what we are doing to use every lever across government to be able to build more homes. In terms of the particular project the member for Ringwood referred to in Mitcham, I will seek some further advice from the Minister for Housing, because as we know, as we have gone on investing $6.3 billion through our housing building program, building homes for Victorians who rely on governments to have the dignity of a roof over their head, there has been in different locations the need to find from time to time other sites and other ways to deliver the number of homes that the Auditor-General has recently endorsed that the government will be delivering through its Big Housing Build.

I can say to the member for Ringwood in terms of projects in the broader eastern suburbs of Melbourne that there are a range of projects that we are getting on with, whether it is through the Big Housing Build, but also there are projects that he may be familiar with in Mount Waverley, which I had the opportunity to visit with the member for Ashwood, and also a project in Wantirna. These are examples of how across the state we are going to continue to invest in more homes for more Victorians.

 Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (14:29): My supplementary question for the Premier is: how many homes will be delivered with the assistance of federal government money rather than just with state government money?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:29): The answer to that question is being determined as we are having discussions and negotiations presently with the federal government on how we can secure additional funding for our housing effort here in Victoria. What is important on this front is that we finally have a government in Canberra that understands the need to partner with the states to build more homes. We have already examples of where we are building more homes in partnership with the federal government, and I am absolutely determined to secure additional federal funding, because what is important in this context is that federal Labor is putting in additional funding in partnership with the states so together we can build more homes for more Victorians.