Tuesday, 10 September 2024

Ministers statements: housing

Sonya KILKENNY (Carrum – Minister for Planning, Minister for the Suburbs) (14:30): Just last year, as part of this government’s housing statement, we announced some of the boldest reforms to planning in a generation, because on this side of the house we understand that every Victorian deserves a home – the right type of home in the right type of place, close to transport, close to jobs, close to services and close to family and friends. And we are doing exactly what we said we would do, making good decisions faster and making sure that more and more Victorians can find a safe, secure and affordable home.

This government understands that the way to make homes more affordable is not to block them; that is not leadership. You cannot say you want more homes but then block more homes being built; that is definitely not leadership. The way to make homes more affordable, especially for young Victorians, is to build more of them, working with local government, working with industry and working with our communities to build more well-located, well-built homes, because every house we build is a place for someone to call home and every house others block denies someone a home. That is not leadership; that is just unfair.

Our government is focused on getting more homes built right across the state, and indeed Victoria continues to lead the nation in approvals and construction of new homes. In fact last week CoreLogic called Victoria ‘the poster child for getting more supply into the marketplace’. But we know there is a lot more work to do. There will be some spending the next few weeks in a courtroom – not us. We will be getting on with the job of doing what needs to be done.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, this is the third minister who has abused the standing orders in their ministers statement and attacked the opposition. This is an outrageous abuse of the standing orders.

The SPEAKER: I ask the minister to come back to her statement without attacking the opposition.

Sonya KILKENNY: We will not be in a courtroom next week; we will be getting on with the job of doing what needs to be done.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, I understand it is difficult to change the script when you are reading, but you did ask the minister to stop attacking the opposition. I know the script says so, but I would ask you to ask her to stop.

The SPEAKER: I did not hear her attack the opposition.

Sonya KILKENNY: As I said, we will not be in a courtroom next week, we will be saying yes to getting more homes built for more Victorians.