Wednesday, 16 October 2024

 Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (14:24): My question is for the Premier. Labor says that the public housing towers cannot be upgraded – that demolishing them is the only option – but a new report from architecture firm OFFICE proves that upgrading the Flemington public housing estates and building more public housing not only is feasible but would keep residents in their communities and save us $350 million. Premier, in 12 months Labor has been unable to provide a shred of evidence to back up its plan, but OFFICE has advice from experts – from architects, engineers and building surveyors – that proves that these buildings can be upgraded, with wider doorways, balconies, heating and cooling, accessible units, double glazing, better ventilation and an increase in the number of public homes, without privatising them. Here is the evidence that there are alternatives. Where is Labor’s evidence that justifies their plan?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:25): I thank the member for Richmond for her question. It is great to see her in the chamber this afternoon, back at work, ready to go. I am delighted to answer a question from the member for Richmond about how we are undertaking the biggest urban renewal of public housing in this state, and we are doing this because public housing tenants deserve respect, they deserve modern homes and they deserve to have accurate information provided to them. Quite disappointingly, we have seen an ongoing pattern of behaviour from the member for Richmond and her Greens political colleagues to provide misinformation and disinformation that is all designed to drive fear among some of our most vulnerable Victorians. I condemn that approach because what we should be doing –

Sam Hibbins: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, the question was specifically about the government’s evidence to justify their public housing demolition plans, not to debate the question or to debate what the Greens are saying.

The SPEAKER: Order! A point of order is not an opportunity to repeat the question. There was a very long preamble to that question, and the Premier was being relevant.

Jacinta ALLAN: There was, and it is important that we provide factual information. Indeed the government is already on the record as providing the information that it is estimated that it would cost $2.3 billion over 20 years to keep these current towers in a habitable condition. When you are faced with that information and when you are faced with an opportunity to not only provide modern homes for public housing tenants but actually build more homes for more Victorians at the same time, we have chosen to build more homes.

We have chosen to build more public, social and affordable homes for vulnerable Victorians, who deserve modern facilities. What they do not deserve is the misrepresentation that is coming from the Greens political party. I mentioned a pattern of behaviour from the member for Richmond, who opposed social and affordable housing developments in Collingwood. We reject that approach from the Greens political party. We are determined to support those Victorians who rely on the government to build a home, to put a roof over their head. We will work with those public housing tower residents. We are prepared to work hard every single day of the week, but that work is made just that little bit harder because of the misinformation and disinformation, the deliberate campaign that is being run by the Greens political party. We will continue to work constructively with public housing tenants. It would be great if the member for Richmond could get on board with that opportunity.

 Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (14:28): Let us talk about the facts that we do have, Premier. The facts are that when the government demolishes homes, they have to displace over 10,000 people ‍–

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Richmond, through the Chair.

Gabrielle DE VIETRI: Let us talk about the facts, and the facts are that when a government demolishes homes they have to displace over 10,000 people, and leaked information coming out today shows that Homes Victoria is stockpiling private rentals in Melbourne suburbs, offering premium rents just to accommodate the public housing residents whose homes they are demolishing. When the private rental market is under such strain, when the impact of displacement on public housing residents is so great and when we have proof that the buildings can be refurbished, it just does not make sense to press on. Premier, it is not too late to change course. This was your predecessor’s careless plan. Will you now stop the demolition and privatisation of public housing?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:29): The member for Richmond has exposed that she is all about the politics and not about supporting vulnerable Victorians by making reference to privatisation. There is no privatisation going on here. Whilst the Greens use fundraising efforts to support these sorts of reports and while they go on with those sorts of disingenuous approaches, what we are focused on doing is, yes, working through the public housing tower refurbishments. Yes, we will have to provide temporary accommodation for those residents because we are building them new homes. Like through our $6.3 billion Big Housing Build, we are building homes right across the state. Yes, we are, where the opportunity arises, in a very modest way, looking at properties on the private rental market, because we are supporting vulnerable Victorians to have a roof over their head.