Thursday, 5 February 2026

 Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (09:50): It has been a tough week in terms of housing affordability. Everyday Victorians are getting punched in the face by this government. There are over a million households within Victoria with a mortgage, and more than half of them were already under mortgage stress before this week. They got punched in the face because despite working their guts out, cutting the extras, skipping holidays and watching every dollar coming in and out just to keep paying their mortgages, interest rates have increased again, and while families hand their hard-earned money to the big banks in the name of fighting inflation, it is wasteful spending from Labor governments that has pushed inflation back up. ‘Oops,’ they say.

But there is now another group that is about to be punched in the face by the Allan Labor government: renters, who are trying to move forward and to get a foot into the property market. According to Resolve Financial, more than 62 per cent of Victorian renters – nearly 1 million people – hope to buy a home within the next two years, but forecasts predict that within the next two years Melbourne’s median house price is set to jump by 14.1 per cent, adding $150,000 to the cost of a home and pushing the median house price beyond $1 million. Prices rise when we do not build enough homes, and already under Labor Victoria is now falling 20,000 homes short year on year. No wonder it is getting more expensive. Labor has failed on housing and the economy. Victorians needs a fresh start.