Wednesday, 1 April 2026

 Ella GEORGE (Lara) (11:15): It is with great pleasure that I rise today and speak on the Legislative Assembly Environment and Planning Committee’s inquiry into the supply of homes in regional Victoria. I would like to begin by thanking the chair, the member for Wendouree, along with the deputy chair, the member for Morwell, committee members and the secretariat for their tremendous work in compiling this important report. I would also like to thank everyone who attended hearings, made submissions or hosted a site visit as part of this inquiry. The committee received 118 submissions, conducted five days of public hearings and held numerous regional site visits throughout 2025. That is no small effort and reflects just how much this issue matters to people right across regional Victoria.

Housing underpins everything. When people have a safe, secure and affordable home, they can focus on their children, build careers and put down roots. When they do not, every other part of life gets harder to manage. Our community in Geelong is growing. New estates are appearing and the streets of Lara are filling with young families who come here looking for exactly that – a house with a backyard, a place to build something and put down their roots. I also hear from the people who cannot get there – the young couple who have been saving for years and cannot crack the market; a nurse at Barwon Health driving 45 minutes each way to work because renting near work is not affordable; older residents who want to downsize but cannot find anything suitable; and a family in Corio who came to my office needing help and not knowing where to turn. This report speaks to all of them.

Victoria is building more homes than any other state – nearly 10,000 more than New South Wales and more than 20,000 more than Queensland in the last reported 12 months. But we know there is more to do, particularly in regional Victoria, where population growth is outpacing housing supply. This report makes 12 findings and 34 recommendations. What runs through all of them is a message familiar to anyone representing a fast-growing regional community: building houses is only part of the job. Community infrastructure is vital. The housing mix must reflect how people actually live, not just what is easiest to build. Investment in social housing must be sustained as a long-term commitment, not delivered sporadically.

The report is also clear about who is feeling the pressure most. Those most vulnerable in regional communities are disproportionately affected by insufficient housing supply – young people, older Victorians, people living with a disability, victim-survivors of family violence, migrants, refugees and people living with mental illness. The housing shortage does not land evenly. It falls hardest on the people with the least capacity to absorb it. As the chair wrote in her foreword, stable housing is more than just shelter; it is the foundation people stand on when they are trying to do everything else in their lives.

I want to speak specifically about what this means for the electorate of Lara, because none of this feels distant to me. According to the Regional Movers Index, Geelong ranks as one of Australia’s most popular regional destinations, consistently attracting around 6.6 per cent of all capital city leavers. People are choosing to come here for the lifestyle, the community and the fact that you can still find a backyard without paying Melbourne prices. That is something to be proud of, but it also creates real pressure. The median house value in Greater Geelong now sits at $793,000, up 3.2 per cent over the past year, with tight vacancy rates and limited supply continuing to push prices. The shift has happened quickly and people across my community are feeling it. When house values sit at that level and rental vacancies are below 2 per cent, the private market simply cannot do the whole job. This underscores the importance of social housing investment provided by the government.

This report makes 12 findings and 34 recommendations, as I mentioned earlier, and there are some incredibly important recommendations in those that I would like to touch on.

In Lara West we are looking to accommodate another 11,000 people in approximately 4000 homes, supported by new schools and employment precincts, community facilities, sporting grounds and upgraded infrastructure. What this report really focuses on is the importance of delivering entire communities, not just homes, and delivering infrastructure where people can build their lives, put down their roots, support their children, support their families and support their elderly parents. Anyone who represents a fast-growing community knows pace creates pressure and just how important infrastructure is. This is an incredible report, a very important piece of work that was done, and I commend the report and its recommendations.