Wednesday, 18 March 2026

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (16:01): I grieve about the extreme cost-of-living pressures facing so many people in my electorate and across Victoria. This is so real and something not to be laughed about at all when it comes to paying the rent or paying the mortgage just to keep a roof over one’s head or even the cost of getting into a home or a rental to begin with, with ever-increasing rental costs and the cost of loans, and when it comes to putting food on the table or paying the bills – electricity, gas, water and more – not to mention especially filling up one’s tank at the moment or the cost of getting to and from study, work, community, health care and shopping in cars or in public transport if that is even an option for you. It is now meaning more and more people are lining up at food banks; it is meaning so much pressure on support organisations like Mornington Community Support Centre, who are all doing a great job but are bursting at the seams; and it is leading to ever-increasing homelessness affecting men, women and, sadly, children – children who are losing opportunity, children who are losing hope.

This goes to the fundamentals of why many of us are in this place. It is why I am in this place – to give freedom, opportunity and hope to children and any person no matter their background, postcode, family or socioeconomic situation. These are the issues we should be debating in bills before this house today. But instead of bills, for much of today we have been debating a housing motion that really bigs up this Labor government. Instead of talking about bills that would actually resolve these issues, it is a government that is trying to commend its own housing strategy, which is totally failing, whether it comes to new housing builds, housing affordability, public housing or homelessness. Housing and shelter are crucial to human survival and to going from a situation of survival through to thriving, as are food and other essentials.

Let me address homelessness to begin with as one of the crucial issues relating to cost-of-living pressures. Homelessness really is becoming worse and worse and worse. We have an absolute crisis here in Victoria. Across Victoria this is going up and up and up, and my own local area is an example. On the peninsula we have the highest rates of rough sleeping in the state. So many people are passionate and have angst about this issue in my electorate and across Victoria. It is palpable. The other night in Mornington there was an event run by the Council to Homeless Persons which saw over 350 people attend, where I spoke on a panel that included Minister Harriet Shing from the other place, Rosie Batty, Ben Smith from the Mornington Community Support Centre and Gemma Hughes from Fusion Mornington Peninsula.

We heard about lived experience. I spoke about locals that I and my office have been trying to help over this term and in particular over the last few months. I spoke about one gentleman who called my office on Melbourne Cup Day and left multiple messages. He had been made homeless a few weeks before. He was in a tent near some shops. He was moved on from that location, like many are, to live on the foreshore in Mornington. There are many, many people living on the foreshore along the Mornington Peninsula. I sent many emails to the minister, to authorities, to support organisations and more, but there was no sufficient response. There was nothing from this Labor government to actually help this gentleman when it came to public housing, crisis accommodation or more. Actual help came from my community. When I put out a call via social media, community members donated bedding, they donated food, they donated a tent and they donated more for this gentleman. The Mornington Community Support Centre helped him out as well. They currently receive nothing from this state government. He is a gentleman, as one example, that had been homeless since October. He only managed to get accommodation in a rooming house in the last two weeks. That was five months where we were helping this gentleman, actively helping him, and trying to get him into accommodation. That is an example of someone we have been advocating for, let alone the many people who are not in contact with a local MP, who are not getting help and who are not getting support.

On this panel the other night I also spoke about my own lived experience, which I have rarely talked about in this place or anywhere, as it is not about me, it is about the many people who are in a much worse situation than I have experienced in the past. But I will say it here: I have slept under a bush; I have slept in a car in the freezing cold, not of my own choice; I have couch surfed; I have stayed in a place for several weeks where I had to sneak in late at night and leave early in the morning so I would not be noticed. I have had $2 in the bank. I have applied for 50-plus rentals with another bloke, before we finally got a place. I have dealt with bureaucracy, whether it was Centrelink or whether it was state authorities such as bond management and so much more. All of that was not through lack of trying and lack of applying. Many people find themselves in this situation. It can really happen to anyone, and it can happen to people with a simple change in their situation. It could be loss of their rental, loss of their job, health situations, domestic violence, family breakdown and more. But here in Victoria we have barely enough support to cope.

I will go into some local examples. Ranch and Ranch 2.0 are the only crisis accommodation on the whole of the Mornington Peninsula, and that is provided through philanthropic funding, not through the state. Public housing numbers have barely gone up on the peninsula over the last 10 years. There may be investment across Victoria, but it has not happened on the peninsula. We see many local public housing premises in disrepair. As the member for Narracan mentioned before, we have over 65,000 ‍people on the public housing waitlist. We have over 30,000 on the priority waitlist. On the Mornington Peninsula we have 2600 or so locals on the waitlist versus 1300 or so dwellings, so more than double are on the waitlist locally compared with what is available. For many people the waitlist is long; it can be five years if not more.

We also need support for groups and organisations providing supported accommodation. One example is Fusion Mornington Peninsula, based at the old Balcombe army barracks, which provides housing support for young people and also young parents experiencing homelessness. It is a place that used to host the army apprentice scheme, where my father actually started at the age of 16. He was living at the place which is now used to house young people from the age of 16. I know that without that opportunity for him to join the army and get housing at the same time, mind you, he might have gone astray as well, because he was in a situation where his mother, my grandmother, had died at the age of 23. He was sent to live at multiple different relatives’ houses. He had a very rough upbringing. His younger sister was sent to Kew Cottages and died at a young age, basically through neglect.

That opportunity to live at that place, which is now used to this day for 16-year-olds and others experiencing homelessness, can be crucial, but they are getting insufficient funding. They have ideas and proposals as well for young mums and young parents, to provide housing for them as well, but they need investment from this state government. They have asked for that investment, but they do not have it at this time. I used to be on the board of Zoe Support Australia in Mildura, which was originally set up by Anne Webster, who is now the member for Mallee. That is a place that provides supported accommodation to young mothers to help them get back into housing, to help them with parenting, to help them with education and more. These are the sorts of things that we need amongst the mix of housing that is available to support people, particularly young parents and particularly young people.

We have places like the Mornington Community Support Centre, which is getting busier and busier and busier, but they get zero state funding, despite the crisis and despite more and more people coming to their door every single day. We have food banks as well, with lines out the door. An example is Theodora’s Cheerful Givers, which has been run for decades off the smell of an oily rag. And I must acknowledge Gina Poulos, who unfortunately, after decades of tireless work, passed away a couple of weeks ago. She is a person that deserves an AO, an Order of Australia, because she is a person who has dedicated her time, her energy and her resources to helping people who are doing it rough, who are on the streets, who have a lack of food and more, and it is this support that people need.

We also have unmet needs across Victoria and on the Mornington Peninsula for those fleeing domestic violence. A proposal that has been put forward for the peninsula is the Moonah House women’s community shelter. I must acknowledge Despi O’Connor, a former local councillor. We have not seen eye to eye on many issues over the past few years – we have different political views – but she is a person who has really spearheaded this project, and I must commend her for what she is doing, because these are the projects that we need. I know the member for Narracan, before he was a member of Parliament, put a significant amount of work and effort and his own resources, money and time into providing accommodation and housing for those who are fleeing and who have experienced family violence. These are the sorts of initiatives that we need, but these all need state government support as well.

We also need innovative programs, like I have suggested for a number of years now, such as a matching program linking people who could offer a home or a room with those who need it, making better use of existing spaces, such as homes and rooms, and we can do that with incentives as well. Housing First must become both a policy and a mindset. We must move to get people into housing as soon as possible. Yes, the up-front cost is higher, but the massive prevention of hopelessness, loss of purpose, antisocial behaviour, crime, drug and alcohol abuse, mental ill health, family breakdown and loss of opportunity make that up-front preventative investment worth it. We will have much bigger benefits both socially and economically if we invest in this prevention. Stability, even if it is just for a few months, can make a huge difference to a person’s life, whether it comes to hygiene, applying for rentals, getting food, looking after their family, getting a job, going to study, getting a car and so much more.

I use my local area as an example as well. The peninsula as a subset has 1.4 per cent social housing, and this is a figure that has remained largely at this percentage for decades. We are not getting our fair share of investment in public housing and social housing more generally on the Mornington Peninsula, and this was made greatly apparent recently through the benchmarking report done by the Committee for Frankston and Mornington Peninsula, where they compared Greater Geelong versus Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula. On the Mornington Peninsula we are paying much more when it comes to property taxes and payroll taxes, which affect young people and their ability as well to get employment. On payroll tax, for example, we are paying $290 million versus $65 million in Greater Geelong just because of our classification of metropolitan versus regional.

But we are not getting the funds back to our local area. We are getting about $6000 for every single person in Frankston and on the Peninsula, versus about $14,000 for people in Greater Geelong. That means less when it comes to housing, public housing, homelessness support services, public transport and more. It means that housing can often be far from where there are support networks when it does become available. It means that older residents are being pushed out. It means that homelessness services, as I mentioned, are being overwhelmed.

I know this government has talked about building more homes where Victorians live, work and access transport in the motion that they have been discussing today. But what if you cannot access transport? Eighty-two per cent of Peninsula residents have no public transport. Nepean and Mornington electorates are the only couple that I can think of in metropolitan Melbourne that have no passenger rail whatsoever. Does that mean no public housing or insufficient investment in public housing because there is not the access to public transport nearby? I know what it does mean. It means that people are spending more and more time in their cars. That is costing people money, particularly at the moment given the fuel prices. The cost-of-living pressures that people are facing are enormous. This government needs to take urgent action.