Tuesday, 12 May 2026

 Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (10:43): I rise to talk on the Environment and Planning Committee’s inquiry into the supply of homes in regional Victoria. This committee report was done last year, and I am very pleased to stand and talk about it today as one of the members that was part of the Environment and Planning Committee. Our terms of reference were:

That the Committee conducts an inquiry into the supply of homes in regional Victoria including the methods of building them and the mix of housing forms and types and report no later than 15 December 2025.

Which we did. In doing so and travelling around regional Victoria talking about housing, what was virtually straightaway brought up to us was the lack of housing being built in regional Victoria. I think any member in this chamber would be well and truly across the fact that the amount of housing that is being built right across Victoria, especially in regional Victoria, has fallen behind, with the amount of people that are looking for housing, and that supply is just not there. One of the other things that was of concern to us was the lack of trades in regional Victoria, so our builders, plumbers, electricians and plasterers and so forth that are needed to actually complete these houses for people, if they are building their first home or if we are building houses for any reason, for people to be able to rent.

The two major factors, the supply of the homes and also the fact that we do not have the trades to actually build them, were stark and consistent no matter where we went across the regions, and we did travel right around regional Victoria. We were in Colac, Warrnambool and Winchelsea. We were up in Horsham, Stawell, Ararat, Castlemaine, Ballarat, Pakenham, right down to East Gippsland, to Bairnsdale, Heyfield in the seat of Morwell, up in Morwell and in Longwarry North. No matter where we went, these were the two issues that were brought up constantly.

There were other issues. We talked to councils, because we need that ongoing release of land for these houses to be constructed, and some of the issues there were around hold-ups at a planning level, waiting for the government to come back and say that we could actually build on these sites. Also, in my local area in the Latrobe Valley, we have coal overlays, and the coal overlays were extremely unforgiving, as we were not able to unlock land down in the Latrobe Valley. So there was a great, wide spread of confusion and disappointment that councils are trying to get land up and to the stage of being developed, but they were hitting roadblocks every time they turned a corner.

Headworks – when I talk about headworks into these developments, that is our water boards: we need to make sure they have water and sewerage. And our power corporations need to be able to put the electrical supply into these new developments; they were being stymied also. For the developer to actually get the works up and make it viable for them to be able to employ their people to make sure the land is available, there were roadblocks there as well. We need a smooth transition with trying to get the land developed, trying to get our houses built and trying to make sure that our tradespeople are there. Thrown in on top of that now is the cost of actually building projects, with of course all our materials going up as well. So there needs to be a concerted effort from the government right across the board to actually make sure that we are doing the right thing by Victorians so we can build houses.

We came up with 12 findings, and we had 34 recommendations, which the government has taken on board. Regional housing is important, and people working in trades in regional Victoria are important also.