Tuesday, 31 March 2026

 Mary-Anne THOMAS (Macedon – Leader of the House, Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Women) (12:28): I move:

That, under standing order 94(2), the orders of the day, government business, relating to the following items be considered and completed by 5 pm on 2 April 2026:

Cladding Safety Victoria Repeal Bill 2026

Restoring TAFE in Victoria – motion

Big Housing Build – motion

Building and Plumbing Administration and Enforcement Bill 2026.

Can I begin by acknowledging and thanking the Minister for Police, on behalf of the Premier and the Leader of the Opposition, for their words, and can I add, in my capacity as Leader of the House, the condolences that we all extend to the families of the slain and incredibly courageous members of Victoria Police. It is a solemn day, but we hope also that for those families, as we have said, a chapter can close now, understanding of course that it will never take away their feelings of grief and loss.

The theme for this week is all about housing and getting on with it, building the homes that Victorians need and deserve and, of course, taking the opportunity to remind the house that it is only a Labor government that has a real plan for tackling what is the most significant challenge of our time.

This is being done through the Building and Plumbing Administration and Enforcement Bill 2026. We want to ensure that Victorians get the strong protections that they need when building or renovating their homes, because for most Victorians this will be the largest single financial investment that they ever make. Victorians deserve confidence that their builder and their plumber will be doing the right thing. The bill strengthens enforcement against dodgy operators and poor workmanship. Our government are absolutely committed to strengthening the protections that are available to Victorian families, and we are doing this by strengthening the regulator responsible for protecting Victorian home owners and enforcing building standards. It is all about ensuring that Victorians have confidence in our construction sector. Of course this bill, as I have already indicated, is significant in the way in which it addresses one of our key priorities, which is ensuring that we are building more houses and making it easier for Victorians to access the homes that they need and deserve.

The Cladding Safety Victoria Repeal Bill 2026 is, as it says, all about repealing the Cladding Safety Victoria Act 2020 that was in place. We can only bring this bill to this place because we have now successfully completed our world-leading cladding rectification program. Cladding Safety Victoria has helped address dangerous combustible cladding on hundreds of buildings right across the state, and now, as I have said, with this work largely complete, the legislation finalises the program and removes the cladding levy – and that means of course lower costs for building projects while maintaining strong safety standards for Victorians. I was reflecting on this work and again thought about how quickly our government responded to a crisis that we saw unfold in the most dreadful and tragic circumstances in the UK. We took pre-emptive steps here in Victoria, to ensure that we would not see a tragedy of such a scale occur here in Victoria, by proactively working to remove this combustible cladding.

Finally, we have two motions that are on the program this week, the Big Housing Build motion and the restoring TAFE in Victoria motion. I look forward to the Manager of Opposition Business’ comments that he will undoubtedly make on these motions. But I want to say this: we believe that it is absolutely vital that we use our time in this place to outline our priorities to the people of Victoria so they can clearly see the difference between the priorities of our strong, united Allan Labor government and those on the other side, who are, quite frankly, yet to detail in any way, shape or form what their priorities are. We are waiting to see some policy. I commend this government business program to the house.

 James NEWBURY (Brighton) (12:33): I rise to speak on the government business program, and I will start in the same way that the Leader of the House did in relation to the comments that both the Minister for Police and the Leader of the Opposition made further to the motion this house considered last year following the tragedy in Porepunkah. If I may just mention it, at that time the widow of one of the slain officers, murdered officers, spoke at the funeral of the officer and said that they looked to the sky and the weather of the day to feel whether or not their partner was still with us, and yesterday, on a beautiful sunny Melbourne day, we learned the news of the events that occurred yesterday. When first hearing an update from police, I immediately looked to the sky and remembered that reflection that she made at that time, and what a beautiful day it was to know that perhaps he was with us, all Victorians, yesterday as that news came in.

Again, on behalf of the coalition, we send our thoughts to all of those who have been touched by the tragedy but also to the emergency services personnel who never stopped working every single day – every single day – to ensure that justice was achieved. On behalf of the coalition, I pass on those comments.

In relation to the government business program, I do note, as I started to say last week on the government business program debate, my concern is that the government is so lacking in ideas that it is clear we are not seeing a full government business program and our Parliament used for politics rather than dealing with substantive legislation. That does not mean there is no legislation on the program. What I am saying is that a large part of Parliament’s time is now used for government base politics. Considering we are in a final year of a term, usually what happens is governments have so much legislation for background to the house and more broadly that governments start to prioritise the legislation that is forthcoming and they start to work through how they can get enough bills through the Parliament, through the lower house and the upper house, before the end of the session. As someone who when we were in government managed this process, I can see this government does not have a legislative program. They do not have a legislative program anywhere near justifying what you would expect from a sitting government. We are seeing a very light-on program by this government, a government that is leaning into base politics over legislative reform, which I think quite clearly shows why Victorians more broadly have lost trust in this government. They have lost trust in this government and –

Belinda Wilson interjected.

The SPEAKER: Member for Narre Warren North, you are not in your place. Interjections are disorderly.

James NEWBURY: I would say my observation, which I began last week but now have the opportunity to put on the record more fully, on looking at the government business program is that the government is spending a lot of time on politics. You can see it in the program this week. We will not support a program which is about base politics. That is not a reflection on the program or some of the bills that are in the program each week, it is a reflection on the government using probably half of our parliamentary time now for base politics. The coalition not only does not support the program in that form but is calling it out. Not only do I suspect will we maybe consider the two motions on the program, but I am sure the government will afford time on another sledge motion this week. I do not think anyone would be surprised by it. The government is spending more time on sledge motions in this chamber than on legislative reform, which is just wrong, so we cannot support that. We certainly cannot support a program of that nature. I think Victorians will see over coming months how light on this legislative program is and how the government has not got the priorities that Victorians expect to be dealt with. Again, on this program, we certainly will not be supporting it.

 Ella GEORGE (Lara) (12:39): It is a pleasure to rise and make a contribution to the government business program debate and follow my colleague, the Leader of the House, in her contribution. It has been a busy week away from this place. My colleagues and I have been in our communities talking about everything that this government is doing to help Victorian families. I note this week we are talking about housing, something we on this side are incredibly passionate about. The Leader of the House’s passion comes through in every debate, and I know she is passionate about housing, as we all are on this side.

My colleagues and I have been speaking about the things that matter to Victorians, and the increasing cost of petrol is something we have all been talking about in our electorates. While we cannot control the war in the Middle East, there is plenty that we can do and we are doing.

From today public transport in Victoria is free until the end of April. You can leave your Myki at home. Whether you are jumping on the train, tram or bus right across Victoria, you will not have to tap on and you will not have to pay. That is the kind of thing that this government prioritises – real support for hardworking Victorian families. We have also had the much welcome news this week that the federal government has halved the fuel excise tax to 26 cents per litre. When they need to fill up the car, Victorians can use the Victorian government Servo Saver app to check for the lowest fuel costs in their area.

We know that while we have been busy in our community, those opposite have also been busy with their own. They have had some business of their own to attend to, with a number of very, very, very hard fought preselection battles that we have seen play out across the media this week.

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker: relevance.

The SPEAKER: Member for Lara, you have digressed significantly from the government business program, and I will ask you to come back to the government business program. I do not want to have to remind you again.

Ella GEORGE: Back to the government business program in what is shaping up to be a very, very busy week in this place. We on this side are focused on delivering what matters most to Victorians, and this week, as the Leader of the House mentioned in her contribution, we are focusing on housing. What a shock to see that those opposite are not supporting it. I do not think they have supported a single government business program in this session of Parliament, which is very disappointing but probably something we should not be surprised by at this point.

This week we have the Cladding Safety Victoria Repeal Bill 2026 on the notice paper. I am actually quite shocked that those opposite are not supporting this, given the role that former Premier Ted Baillieu played in setting up Cladding Safety Victoria. I believe he was formerly the co-chair of a cladding safety body that was set up by a Labor government. I know he had a real passion about making sure that Victorians were kept safe from faulty cladding and potentially flammable cladding, so I am actually quite surprised that those opposite are not getting behind this bill, which one of their colleagues I am sure would be supporting. This bill is something truly to celebrate. In Victoria we have led cladding rectification work. It has been a world-leading reform that has seen buildings across the state made so much safer with the removal of potentially combustible cladding. It is no shock to anyone in this place that it was a Labor government that established and funded Cladding Safety Victoria to protect Victorians from combustible cladding related harm. Cladding Safety Victoria has then gone on to identify buildings which put Victorians most at risk, fronted half the cost of removal and made tens of thousands of homes safe from combustible cladding. This is the real reform that we are talking about on this side of the house when we say we are backing in Victorians who want to get into safe homes. It is a program of which Victorians can be very proud, and I am very, very proud that the state Labor government has delivered that and has completed this program, and I look forward to hearing my colleagues make contributions on the Cladding Safety Victoria Repeal Bill as we progress this week.

Also on the notice paper we have the Building and Plumbing Administration and Enforcement Bill 2026, another incredibly important bill for Victorians. I hope those opposite will take a look at it and decide that they can back it too. It is a bill that only a Labor government would bring before this house, because Labor fights for working people who are making the biggest investment of their entire lives when they are buying or building a home. The Liberals leave Victorians on their own when they have the chance to come to the table and help us help working Victorian homebuyers. They try and stop these reforms even being debated and vote against our reforms – we have seen that time and time again from those opposite. I do commend the government business program.

 Jade BENHAM (Mildura) (12:44): Once again here we are discussing a government business program light in actual legislative reform that could help improve the lives of everyday Victorians and in fact, in some cases, could make them more costly. If we want to talk about housing and solving a housing crisis, and clearly the government does – for what reason I am not quite sure – and if we want to talk about providing housing and incentivising private landlords again, or builders, the Building and Plumbing Administration and Enforcement Bill 2026 that is on the program this week certainly will not do that. In fact it will add to the pressure that builders in this state are under, and we know that they are under a lot. That is one of the main issues that we have in the regions. I know that it is hard for this government to think outside of the Melbourne city limits, but one of the hardest things we have in regional Victoria right now is finding tradies to actually build more houses, to the point where we have some entrepreneurial businesspeople finding themselves creating side hustles, if you will, in very quick to construct housing to backfill small towns or provide housing where it is actually needed out in the regions.

That all seemed like a good idea until the last couple of weeks. I do not want to be alarmist or make alarmist claims; however, there is an issue we have now with finding not only the people to construct new housing but the materials that are used in relation to anything that uses petrochemicals – PVC piping, any of the conduit stuff, pretty much anything – the costs for which have gone up at least 36 per cent overnight. It again contributes to an increased cost of building a house, an increased cost of buying a house, of getting into housing, and an increased cost of rentals. Then you add on 62 new or increased taxes and you add on the rest of the waste from this government – $15 billion into the pockets of criminals on Big Build sites. I mean, this is a government –

Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Speaker, the member on her feet is required to be truthful. I ask that you bring her back to debating the narrow procedural –

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the House will resume her seat. There is a requirement that all members, when they are on their feet, be truthful. Member for Mildura, I ask you to come back to the government business program.

Jade BENHAM: I mean, the fact that the Leader of the House thinks that that is not truthful is quite perplexing, to be fair. If this government cared about Victorians, who are going through not just a cost-of-living crisis but a housing crisis, a crime crisis and now a fuel crisis – farmers are facing a fertiliser crisis. This is a government that has created a crisis in just about every sector of this state, and to present a government business program with two bills and two sledge motions is an absolute insult to every single Victorian when we have a plethora of crises that have been created by poor policy by this government. And now they ask us to be truthful – this is the truth, this is reality and this is why this government will not be able to make life easier for Victorians in the foreseeable future. It is that simple. When they are presenting a government business program like this, how can we even consider supporting it? Honestly, we are coming up to the last sitting week leading into the Easter break, and the next sitting will be when we return for the 2026–27 budget. We have another motion that the government could choose to finish debating, the take-note motion of the 2025–26 budget, and I know that colleagues on this side of the house would love to debate that. The government will not go anywhere near that because they understand how horrific it has been for Victorians, particularly over the last 12 months, and it is getting worse. That is fact. That is the truth. I know that is very hard for this government to swallow.

 Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (12:48): I am really proud to rise to speak in support of the government business program. It is absolutely no surprise that those opposite are not supporting it. You could hear it in each of their statements so far, because all that those opposite have come here with today is alarm and no solutions – no practical solutions for Victorians. Our government business program is focused squarely on the work we are doing to provide practical support. Protecting people from fire in their buildings was something really practical we did to support over 150,000 Victorians. Making sure that dodgy builders get out of the sector so that people who spend their hard-earned money to build their home can know that it is going to be somewhere they can house and grow their family, and they are opposing it – practical support for Victorians. I am also not –

James Newbury: On a point of order, Speaker, this is a government business program debate, not a bill debate. The member is reflecting on what the opposition may or may not do in a bill debate. This is a government business program debate.

The SPEAKER: Some members have digressed significantly from the government business program already. Member for Yan Yean, come back to the government business program.

Lauren KATHAGE: On the government business program is our housing motion as well as our building bill. Those opposite are opposing the government business program for the week. It is not a surprise to me as someone from the outer suburbs, because we saw their housing policy when it stuck its head above the parapet and it has disappeared ever since. Their policy was to rush development in the outer suburbs.

James Newbury: On a further point of order, Speaker: relevance.

Mary-Anne Thomas: On the point of order, Speaker, the member on her feet is being relevant to the government business program, which also countenances two motions that will be taken to the guillotine this week.

The SPEAKER: I do not mind some comparison, member for Yan Yean, but I do remind you that this is a very tight debate on the government business program.

Lauren KATHAGE: It is really important to me and my community that this government business program goes ahead this week. We have estates being built in the outer suburbs where the quality of people’s lives for years to come depends on making sure and having confidence that the people that build their homes do it properly – that they can trust that the result of their hard-earned money, their hard-earned savings, is not going to fall down around their head and they can rely on that. In doing that, we do not have a good guy and a bad guy in this in terms of tradies. We love proud tradies. They should be proud of their work, and they are. That is why this government business program is working to make sure that we can get the dodgy builders out of the way, so people can have confidence in the money that they are spending and proud tradies can continue to be proud of the work that they are doing and rightly receive the thanks of people whose homes are built by them.

As we heard from the member for Lara, these practical steps that we are taking are what we are hearing from our communities that they want to see from us. Our communities want this government business program to be focused on them – not on ourselves, not on alarmist claims and not on drama but on practical, everyday help that means that Victorians can achieve the type of life that they aspire to achieve and that our community can move forward, united without division and reaching the best of our abilities. That is why I stand so strongly in support of this government business program.

On the government business program is the free TAFE motion. People in the communities that I represent have built their livelihoods on TAFE and, I am proud to say, are increasingly building their livelihoods on free TAFE. The types of people, if I can say it like that, who are building these lives are increasingly diverse. Women, people with disabilities and people who live in regional Victoria are increasingly receiving a free TAFE education and setting up themselves and their families for the future. So this government business program focused squarely and solely on the people of Victoria is something that I believe we should be debating this week.

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (12:54): This week’s government business program tells us everything we need to know about this Allan Labor government. As raised by the member for Brighton and the member for Mildura, this government business program is not one that we will support. What is this government business program about and what does it contain? First, in this government business program we are asked to deal with two building bills that exist because Victoria’s building system has been plagued by defects, weak oversight and declining confidence, such as in Culcairn Drive in Frankston South, which I have been raising since 2018. Then, after that, this Labor government asks this chamber to sit through two basically self-congratulatory motions so it can applaud itself for both TAFE and housing. That is the pattern of this government in a nutshell – failure first and spin second.

This TAFE motion is basically one that my colleagues will talk about with respect to the fact that no-one on this side of the house doubts the value of vocational education. Victoria indeed needs apprentices, tradies, nurses, carers, technicians and skilled workers, so TAFE does matter. But this motion is not really about supporting students, it is about this government patting itself on the back. This motion boasts of more than $16 billion in investment and it talks about more than $777 million in saved tuition fees, yet the very amendment before the house points to a much less flattering reality. Labor’s own Silver review found duplication across the TAFE network was hurting service delivery and the student experience, and it recommended shared service reform and even consideration of mergers or a single entity. That is not the language of a system in good health. This Labor government cannot seriously come in here and demand a standing ovation for restoring TAFE, as per this motion while its own commission review is pointing to inefficiency, duplication and structural problems. When the amendment moved by the member for Evelyn notes that ‘real recurrent expenditure per annual hour in Victoria is the lowest in the nation’, that should trouble every member of this place. Victorian students deserve more than a slogan; they deserve a system that is properly run, properly resourced and focused on outcomes, not headlines.

Then under this government business program we come to the so-called Big Housing Build motion. Again, this government wants praise for the branding, but Victorians are not living in a slogan, they are living in a housing and homelessness crisis. The government’s own housing statement set a target of 800,000 homes over 10 years. Its own housing material says that the Big Housing Build and the Regional Housing Fund are delivering over 13,000 social and affordable homes and that the broader combined programs deliver over 16,000 homes, with parts of the pipeline running through to 2051. Those figures do not justify a victory lap; they show just how large the challenge is and how far we still have to go to get there. The latest ABS figures should be setting off alarm bells. Victoria’s total dwelling approvals fell 32.2 per cent in December 2025 and then fell another 11 per cent in January of this year. I note we have over 65,000 on the public housing waitlist and over 30,000 on the priority waitlist, and on the peninsula public housing has hardly moved forward at all. We have the highest amount of rough sleeping in the state, and in three weeks we will have the closure of what is basically our one and only crisis accommodation. You do not solve a housing crisis by issuing press releases or self-congratulatory motions, as we see today. Zoning does not pour concrete, and targets do not build homes. We need actual solutions and actual funding.

Next we have the Cladding Safety Victoria Repeal Bill 2026. This house should be clear-eyed about what is actually happening. Cladding Safety Victoria was always intended to be a temporary body, and its functions, assets and liabilities are now being folded back into the broader regulatory architecture. Let us not pretend that this marks some triumphant conclusion to a problem that this government helped oversee. Serious questions remain about residual risks, future responsibilities and the use of remaining funds.

Last we have the Building and Plumbing Administration and Enforcement Bill 2026, which raises even more serious concerns. We have a government that has totally failed in this space. They have not enforced existing laws properly. What is to make us think they will do this any better?

Assembly divided on motion: