Wednesday, 19 March 2025

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:25): My question is to the Premier. The Labor government plans to demolish 44 public housing towers across Victoria, starting with Alfred Street in North Melbourne in my electorate. Last week the Labor government confirmed that once Alfred Street is demolished no state-run public housing will be built on this site at all – absolutely none. Most of the housing will be expensive private housing; some will be community housing. Many residents at Alfred Street only accepted relocation offers because they were assured by Homes Victoria and this Labor government that they would be able to return to public housing rent and conditions, not community housing, which has different rent and conditions. Now it is clear people cannot return to public housing because none will be built. Why did this government mislead my residents?

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:26): Thanking the member for Melbourne for her question, I do make the point that these are residents in public housing who deserve to have the support of the state and, yes, their local member to provide them with accurate and important information and to not necessarily mislead them in terms of what is going on across the 44 public housing towers program. I do say this in the context of the constant demonisation by the Greens political party of community housing as a really good support for people who need the government to be investing in a roof over their head and for people who rely on government investment in providing homes. The reason why I say this is community housing providers are not-for-profit providers, and they also provide additional supports. When you consider that there are many vulnerable Victorians who live in these properties who get a range of services thanks to the hard work of community housing providers, I just will not accept the constant demonisation from the Greens political party of a community housing sector who work damn hard every day, every single day, and frankly deserve better than this constant smear that they get from the Greens political party.

What we are going to do is continue to get on and invest. Whether it is in the public housing towers program or whether it is through our Big Housing Build in all corners of the state, we are going to continue to invest. We have a partner in Canberra through the Albanese Labor government, and we do note too that a lot of that carry-on in Canberra came from the Greens political party holding up the investment in public housing in Victoria for their own political posturing purposes. Well, we are getting on and delivering a program, whether it is in the housing towers, across our Big Housing Build or indeed right across the state, and building more homes for more Victorians.

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:28): The red-brick towers on Nicholson Street in Carlton, also in my electorate, are also being demolished. The government previously committed to rebuilding these with government owned and run public housing, not community housing – that was a commitment. However, the community has recently noticed the government’s language has changed, and public communications now only talk about social housing, not public housing. Can the Premier confirm that the red-brick towers in Carlton will definitely be replaced with 100 per cent state-run public housing, not any other form of housing, or is she admitting that this government is washing its hands of state-run public housing entirely?

The SPEAKER: There were actually two questions there, member for Melbourne. I will allow the Premier to decide which one to answer.

 Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:29): I make the point to the member for Melbourne that we are investing $6.3 billion through our Big Housing Build. I would say that is a significant investment in putting in more homes for more Victorians, for vulnerable Victorians. I go back to this very binary argument that the member for Melbourne is putting – government-owned, not community, housing. Well, when we invest and partner with community housing providers, that is government investment, that is supporting community housing providers to provide a very strong program of support.

Ellen Sandell: On a point of order, Speaker, on relevance, the question was: are you building public housing at Carlton or not? Are you going to commit to it or not?

The SPEAKER: Member for Melbourne, I ask you not to repeat the question in your point of order.

Jacinta ALLAN: I will make this very clear to the Greens political party: you can continue with your campaign of division; we are going to get on and invest in building more homes and, yes, partner with the community housing sector and deliver more homes through our Big Housing Build to support Victorians right across the state.