Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (14:29): My question is to the Premier. Victoria is in the midst of a housing crisis, rental stress is at record levels and young Victorians are finding it impossible to even dream of owning a home. More than 65,000 people remain on the public housing waitlist. In September the Minister for Housing and Building in the other place stated in response to a question about completions that over 11,100 homes are ‘completed or in construction or planning’ under the Big Housing Build and Regional Housing Fund. There is a major difference between a home that exists and one that is only in the planning stage. People cannot live in a permit. Premier, how many of those 11,100 homes have actually been completed?
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:30): I thank the member for Ringwood for his question regarding our government’s work to build more public housing. We are doing this through our Big Housing Build because we understand that not only do you have to build more homes everywhere across the state, as the Minister for Planning was just referring to in her statement to the house, whether it is around train and tram activity centres or in regional areas, in the outer suburbs or in the inner city. We need to work with the private sector to build more homes, and we are doing that, because Victoria leads the nation in the number of homes that are being built, completed and are underway. We lead the nation by some thousands and thousands of homes. But on this side of the house we also understand that the government has that centrally important role of building homes for the most vulnerable in our community, that we should and must and do invest in more public housing, which is why through the Big Housing Build we are actually delivering more than 13,300 social and affordable homes across Victoria.
In terms of the breakdown, I would go and refer to the minister for housing for the latest figures because I know there are projects that are being completed every single month. In terms of that question, the request was for a breakdown between projects that have been completed and projects that are underway. I will seek that information from the minister for housing. I say this because I look at my own electorate of Bendigo East and my neighbouring electorate of Bendigo West where we have a number of projects that are being supported through the Big Housing Build, where we partner with organisations like UnitingCare and other agencies to build more homes through the Big Housing Build. And I am confident that colleagues around the state have projects in their own electorates that are coming to completion. I will seek that information from the minister for housing, but it comes to the central point that we need to build more homes for everyone but particularly to support the most vulnerable in our community, which is what our Big Housing Build program does.
One other constant that is there in our Big Housing Build is projects that continue to be opposed, particularly by members of the Liberal opposition. We reject that. We understand that we need to build more homes, and through the good work of the Minister for Planning we are also seeing more and more homes being built by the private sector. In the 12 months to the end of August 2025 there were 55,000 homes approved. To give you a comparison point, that is 6100 more than New South Wales, which is the next biggest state. But we know there is more to do, and that is why we will continue through our planning regime and through our funding programs to build more homes for more Victorians.
Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (14:33): It is abundantly clear, with the refusal of the minister in the other place to detail the number of completions and the fact that the Premier does not know how many completions there have been, that the number is not a good number. Does the Premier accept that all of this work, all of this noise, around housing is thus far primarily delivering permits rather than homes?
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:34): I appreciate the member for Ringwood perhaps wrote his supplementary question before having heard the answer to his substantive question. I reject the claims that he has made in his supplementary question, because they are also not borne out in the answer I gave to his substantive question. We are building more homes through our Big Housing Build, as I said earlier. There are more than 13,300 social and affordable homes that are being delivered or are complete or underway through that program. In terms of the breakdown, we can provide additional information. But the point here is that we are building these homes. There is a program here that is funded. It is delivering homes. We are doing that through our $6.3 billion of investment, and we are partnering with the private sector to build more homes right across the state.