Wednesday, 17 June 2026

 Nick STAIKOS (Bentleigh – Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop) (14:52): I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

At the outset I want to say that this government has been committed to rebuilding the building industry, and this bill is the latest in a long legislative agenda to do so. In establishing the Building and Plumbing Commission, for example, we established an integrated regulator combining insurance and dispute resolution and regulation of an industry that is very important to Victorians – so important to Victorians because for most Victorians the greatest investment they will ever make is in their home. Too often Victorians buying a home have been left high and dry with homes that have been riddled with defects and even crushing financial consequences, like what we saw with Porter Davis.

Ensuring that we swing the pendulum to protecting consumers has been important. It is exactly what this government has been about, and this bill has been the latest in a long line of legislation to do just that. It has included, of course, laying the groundwork for decennial liability insurance, which is a 10-year insurance scheme which exists interstate, which in future we will be able to form here in Victoria. From 1 July, further protections take effect in our state, including the first-resort home warranty scheme – not the sort of last-resort insurance that we have at the moment; first-resort insurance. Also rectification orders take effect on 1 July. Next year we will have developer bonds. Every step of the way the government has been protecting consumers buying a home.

It is with regret, of course, that I inform the house that last night those opposite teamed up with the crossbench to water down the government’s proposals for the places of public entertainment permit system, or POPE, as it is colloquially known. The regulation of event safety keeps Victorians safe and protects the value of our nation-leading events calendar. We will not accept any changes which simply slash protections for young people at Victorian events and festivals.

We were committed to streamlining the process so that events could continue without compromising the safety of Victorians. But last night those opposite teamed up with the crossbench to water down those amendments, in fact to sneak through their own amendments which would have exposed young people to bushfire risk and to crowd crushes, among other risks. That is not acceptable to this government. We have put forward these amendments so as not to jeopardise the other parts of the bill, which are all about enhancing protections for Victorian homebuyers. I commend the amendments to the house.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:56): If you want to see a backflip, you just have to look at the Allan Labor government. We have the Commonwealth Games coming up shortly, and we will see the diving events, but you will see more backflips by this government than you will see during the Commonwealth Games. We have got another one when it comes to this building legislation. The minister just spoke about needing to build more homes and more affordable homes, yet everything this government has done adds to the cost of building and construction.

This government does not talk to the industry. This government does not talk to builders. This government has no idea what the industry, what builders, what consumers have to say. And again they have been caught out because the amendments that the government has put forward – these are not our amendments, these are the government’s amendments – kick the places-of-public-entertainment (POPE) permits, which deal with the events industry and regulations around the events industry, down the road. They have kicked them down the road because the government have not done the work. They have not spoken to industry. They did their own consultation, only to find out that the industry has been up in arms over further regulation, further uncertainty.

The one thing that we have been doing very well as a state in recent times is events, even though we have lost a lot of major events, yet this government wants to add more regulation and more red tape. Victoria is the only jurisdiction in Australia with a duplicate approval process for POPE, which means when you are getting approval for an event you also have this POPE process – which is place of public entertainment, which is what that is being used for – and you are dealing with additional surveying and other jurisdiction costs and building surveyor costs that run in parallel with council. You have got council regulation and you have got government regulation, and it all gets passed on to the consumer. We cannot have this government continuing to mislead Victorians by saying it is all about safety, because this government is not all about safety. This government is all about bureaucracy and red tape and cost, because all it does is add to their union mates, providing more jobs, more cost and more issues back to industry at a time when they need that absolutely the least.

We are seeing so many industries heading to other places, so many event companies that cannot make a go of it because of the cost that this government continues to impose. Victoria, the only jurisdiction in Australia to have a POPE process, wants to run regulation like there is no tomorrow. The council process, which brings together specialists in crowd management, traffic and emergency services, is a more genuine way of being able to do this rather than having a POPE, which the government has done. POPE has expanded far beyond 2006 when it was first introduced. It now requires full engineering sign-offs on a 3-metre by 3-metre pop-up marquee. That is a full engineering sign-off, and it means things like compliance costs could add an additional $5000 to $25,000 on events. Again, we are not talking about big major concert events. We are talking about a kind of festival, we are talking about a kind of fete, or we may even be dealing with the likes of an Anzac Day service in a local community – a council-run Anzac Day service.

Imagine a school running a fete having to then put forth another $5000 to get a POPE for their marquee. This is the kind of bureaucracy that this government is all about. Let us create another level of bureaucracy and let the parents association fundraise. The very fete that they are fundraising for to raise money for playground equipment is actually running for permits. They are fundraising for permits, not for playground equipment. What a joke. This is where this government has got to. They are absolutely diabolical when it comes to red tape.

What we should be doing instead of having these discussions of bills before the house is every time we bring one of these bills forward we should have two days worth of red-tape reduction, because that is what Victorians expect – reduction in red tape and cost of living, not additional red tape which Victorians all pay for, taxpayers pay for. To the small businesses that have been up and about and saying that the government have got their heads well and truly buried in the sand, the government are not listening. We heard today from their very own state president, saying none of them are making calls into their electorates – none of them are doorknocking their electorates. They do not listen to constituents. They do not listen to small businesses. They do not listen to what people have to say. If they listened once to small business, they would find out that the additional regulation that this government is proposing is hurting small business and hurting taxpayers, because ultimately it is taxpayers that pay for it. That is why we did not support it, because unlike the government, which did not listen to the industry, we actually did.

I want to put on record my thanks to Simon Thewlis, who has been a very strong advocate, running an events business. He was there right through COVID to look at how they could keep a lot of the events industry up and about and surviving during those very difficult times, and he has continued to advocate for the industry and to sit down with industry. Despite the government not listening, Simon Thewlis did certainly consult and try to warn the government that the additional POPE legislation that they were putting through could have caused more regulation, caused more red tape and affected the very businesses they were trying to help – the outdoor festivals and events, the community-run events, the schools, the markets, the fetes, the Anzac Day services and the community types of things that we do every single day to keep some of these community organisations, these not-for-profits, alive. I am a big fan of community organisations and not-for-profits, and when they work every single day just to keep their doors open and are told by the government, ‘You know what, if you want to run a cake stall, you might need a permit. The money that you were raising for the cakes to go to help the kids, instead of helping kids, is helping to fund a permit,’ that is a joke. It should not happen, but it does under the Allan Labor government. It does every single day. That is why we actually did not support these changes, but we proposed amendments that would have made them more workable. Instead of the government looking at these amendments, they said, ‘No, it’s too hard. We didn’t consult. We’re going to kick the can down the road.’ I will tell you what, if the government had actually listened to industry, then we would have got it right the first time and not had the backflip that we have got now.

But this is not the first time. In this bill – and the reason why we did not oppose this bill in the first place – is another backflip. The other backflip is the minimum financial requirement. The minimum financial requirement could have added another 30 per cent onto the cost of construction. When we hear the member for Bentleigh, the minister, stand up here today and say, ‘We’re all about reducing cost and building homes,’ the minimum financial requirement, which the government has had to change, amend, because they did not get it right the first time, would have put small builders out of business because they could only take on a certain amount of jobs each time. They would have had to wait until a year was out before they could take up another job, even though they had concluded that job – another lot of bureaucracy and red tape. Rather than looking at the capability of a builder to do the job and turning around and saying, ‘Right, off you go, and once you’ve finished a job, big tick, go off and do the next job,’ this government said, ‘No, you can only do a certain amount of jobs each year depending on what your turnover is, and we’re going to limit that even if you’ve got a number of employees – bad luck. This is the formula that we’ve got worked out that will determine how many jobs you can do in each given year.’ That was unworkable.

We had the Housing Industry Association come here and actually do a press conference with the member for Narracan and me. We did a press conference in this Parliament only a few months back to say the bill that was before the house was unworkable and that we were not going to support that building bill because it was going to add up to 30 per cent to the cost of construction and building a home, which meant that 30 per cent would be passed on to the consumer, which also meant that builders were not building homes because they were just not going to actually add up.

Where are we, fast-forwarding to today? The government passed that legislation a couple of months ago and completely ignored industry. They ignored the housing industry and the Master Builders. Master Builders also said this was unworkable. You had two peak bodies, Master Builders and the Housing Industry Association, who both said these laws were unworkable, and the government ignored them and said, ‘We’re going to push on anyway.’ Fast-forward to today, and we have amendments or changes to the bill which actually get rid of the minimum financial requirement, because the government was wrong – not wrong in a year or two years, wrong in a couple of months. That is how bad this government are. They cannot even get things right in a couple of months. They rush things through. We have the same thing with the bill that we are dealing with on the racing legislation – same stuff.

We are having it now, where the government has had a backflip on two key points of this legislation. We know that it is so hard for Victorians to buy a home, to build a home. We have the lowest amount of housing being built in this state in a decade. The government talk about the Big Housing Build, that they are building more homes everywhere. We know that is just simply not true. Even though the government might be approving permits, as I have said many times, you cannot live in a permit, you only live in a home, and you do not live in a home if they are too expensive to build. Forty-three per cent of building a home in Victoria is taxes and regulation, and we will not build more homes until you reduce tax, you reduce regulation and you allow small businesses to operate in Victoria. That is what a Liberal–National government will do – more homes, more choice and more affordability.

Juliana Addison interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: The government can interject all they like, but they know that they are simply not delivering when it comes to housing. It is an absolute shame that we see that. Again, we see lots of legislation that is before the house to try and change things, but none of it is working, because it is a supply issue. It is not a permit issue, it is a supply issue, and the supply issue is all about cost. We have just seen the Victorian government’s counterparts, the Albanese government in the federal Parliament, absolutely smash the housing industry apart in some of the changes that they have made in their budget. Not only have they completely smashed housing federally, but the one thing that the Labor Party are in unity with is doing it at a state level as well. When it comes to building, when it comes to construction, you will always pay more under a Labor government – you will always do that – because the Labor government will look at how many other feeds can they give everyone else along the way.

We are seeing the Big Build – or the big bill – with the CFMEU absolutely in the trough for $15 billion worth of corruption. Again, the Premier could not answer questions today when it came to that. All we know that is happening under this government is they are going to transfer the big bill of the Big Build on their transport projects into the big bill of the Big Housing Build in the housing projects with their activity centres, and that is what is happening – 60 of them. You will not build any of these homes in activity centres. You will not build them in the growth corridors unless you deal with the supply issue. On taxation, the Liberal–Nationals have said that we will reduce land tax, we will reduce stamp duty –

A member interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: No, this is tax we are talking about. We will also reduce payroll tax, allowing those that work in the building industry to work in the building industry and not be taxed further, which is another disincentive to encouraging anyone to actually work on housing in this state.

When you see a Victoria that is really struggling and acronyms like ABV – anywhere but Victoria – because of the cost of doing business in Victoria, I can say that under a Wilson Liberal government we will ensure that we are the best place to do business, not the worst. We will roll out the red carpet to business and we will make sure we have housing right across the state, not just in these activity centres that do not stack up. They just clearly do not stack up.

The government has not dealt with the 8000 empty apartments in Greater Melbourne, 8000 apartments that have been built and that are locked up and no-one is occupying because they are now too expensive to buy. They are empty houses sitting in Greater Melbourne. The government says it is going to build another 60 activity centres and build 80,000 homes a year and people are going to live in them. What about starting with the 8000 empty homes that are sitting there, that have been sitting there for years? No-one has ever lived in them. They have been built, constructed – high rise – sitting there unoccupied, because they cannot sell them. Yet this government magically thinks it will build more – this was years ago – in the current environment at a more expensive price and people are magically going to be able to afford for them. This government has no clue about economics, no clue about money – zero idea about money. That is why this government can say anything they like about housing but no-one believes them.

Let me say to this government: no-one believes a government that could not manage a chook raffle, that could not manage anything. They could not manage a home budget, let alone a state budget. This government could not manage their own home budget, let alone the state budget of Victoria, and that is why we are approaching $200 billion worth of debt. That is why it is costing us millions and millions of dollars an hour just to pay the interest on the debt, and that is why debt is running out of control. The government is spending like there is no tomorrow, but there is a tomorrow. Victorians need certainty and Victorians need –

A member interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: Again, the government is just ignoring the fact that their popularity is completely through the floor. People have had enough. They have turned their backs on the government because this government has turned their backs on them. This government is not listening, and that is why Victorians have had a gutful of them.

John Lister interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: I would say that the member for Werribee, that has made no calls and doorknocked no homes, does not talk to his constituents. I can tell you that when I have been to Werribee –

Members interjecting.

David SOUTHWICK: I can tell you where Werribee is – absolutely, I can tell you. I have been to Werribee more than you have, that is for sure. I can say that the people of Werribee tell me that this government has ignored them. This government has completely ignored them. They are not building any homes because they are not building any infrastructure. They are not building anything in Werribee because this government will not put the infrastructure into Werribee.

John Lister interjected.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Kim O’Keeffe): Member for Werribee, please stop interjecting.

David SOUTHWICK: People in the west of Melbourne – all the way through Point Cook, through Laverton, through Werribee, through Melton – are telling me that there is no infrastructure, so they are missing out. It is no surprise why the government want these activity centres in inner Melbourne, because they have got no money to put infrastructure into the west. That is why the people of the western suburbs are saying that this government, the Allan Labor government, has stopped listening. Member for Werribee, your own state director is saying that you do not even make phone calls into your electorate. That is what the state director is saying. The state director of Labor is saying that this government will not even do the work in their own electorates to get themselves elected. That talks volumes.

Members interjecting.

David SOUTHWICK: This government, the very members that are interjecting, like the member for Werribee – he has made zero calls into his electorate, done zero doorknocking in his electorate. This member wants you to believe that he is listening to his own constituency –

John Lister: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member is required to be factual. If he is referring to the figures that he believes are true, I actually made around 170 knocks in my electorate in the period that was reported, and in fact I made over 200 doorknocks over the last weekend. The member is required to be factual in this place, and if he wants to play that game, show us your figures.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Kim O’Keeffe): That is not a point of order.

David SOUTHWICK: Again we can see how touchy this government is. The government’s own state director published a report, and the report was made public. I do not know who leaked it, by the way, but somebody from their own government has leaked a report that has shown that all of these members, about 18 of them, do not doorknock, do not listen, do not make any phone calls and have failed to listen to their constituents – failed.

John Lister: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I believe the member on his feet has strayed very far away from the amendments – so far that he has started talking about a party process rather than the actual bill at hand, and I ask you to draw him back to the bill.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Kim O’Keeffe): Please come back to the bill, member for Caulfield.

David SOUTHWICK: It is clear that in the likes of the western suburbs the government has failed to do any work to ensure that we are going to get any infrastructure or any housing. This government gets up and says that it is going to provide more homes. What an absolute joke that is. Provide more homes – are you kidding? This government has no idea how to build more homes or provide any legislation for more homes, because the government has no idea about economics. And as I have said, if you have got 8000 –

John Lister interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: As the member for Werribee wants to keep interjecting, I would like the member for Werribee to explain to me this: if you have 8000 unsold homes in greater Melbourne, in high-rise apartments that have never been lived in, how will you make 60 activity centres work when the cost will be two years later and about 20 per cent more? Very simple – you will not. It is clear that the government do not understand economics, because they say, ‘We’re just going to build these 60 activity centres, 80,000 homes a year,’ but the government could not get that right, because they are 50,000 short in two years. So what this government have now done is said, ‘We won’t do 80,000 a year, we’ll do 800,000 over 10 years.’ Why? Because this government will not be around in 10 years. The member for Werribee will not be around in a few months, let alone 10 years. He will be shown the door along with so many others, because this government has stopped listening.

This government is the worst government that Victoria has ever seen. It is a corrupt government that has allowed $15 billion of taxpayer money to be used by the CFMEU, and the Premier herself will not get to the bottom of it. It still allows Women in Construction to be out there with all the rorting that Women in Construction have been doing, and this Premier thinks that it is okay for them still to be up and about in business. If any government wanted to show leadership, they would show Women in Construction the door and delist them. Yet this Premier says, ‘No, that’s okay. We’ll allow it to work its process.’ Well, that is the construction-related industry that we are all paying the price for. How are you going to build more homes when you allow the rorting of the likes of Women in Construction to continue to happen? And this government – now they are all silent, by the way. Now they are all very silent. They are all looking at their phones. The member for Werribee is down on his phone because he does not want to talk about Women in Construction, that rorting company.

John Lister: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I do believe the member has again strayed from the amendments at hand, and this is definitely not on topic.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Kim O’Keeffe): There is no point of order.

David SOUTHWICK: I will keep going, thank you very much. This is specifically about Women in Construction. I think the member for Werribee needs an education lesson, because this is a building legislation amendment specifically talking about construction. These are building changes. You cannot make the changes if you have got corrupt organisations that this government sponsors and allows, and that is what has been happening. The Women in Construction organisation has allowed corrupt processes to happen, has taken government grants meant to be helping to get more women into construction, but it has taken grants and spent them for its own benefit. What a disgrace. This government should hang their heads in shame. They are all very quiet now. The government is all very quiet now because they know how corrupt this kind of stuff is. It is corrupt at its core. We will not build any more homes when you have a corrupt government like we have here, and that is why we have got to show them the door in November. This is the worst government we have ever seen. $15 billion, CFMEU corruption, Big Build –

A member interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: This is construction. It is coming to a suburb near you, with the Big Housing Build and 60 activity centres. The CFMEU are coming to you, and this government knows it.

It is jobs for the mates. That is what they are planning, and that is why we have got to make sure we rip this up. The activity centres will be ripped up, because it is just another portal to allow the CFMEU corruption to play out in areas and suburbs near you, and it should never happen. We desperately need more housing across the state. We need to ensure we have more supply across the state. We have got to make it more affordable to build across the state.

Belinda Wilson interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: I would say we absolutely welcome building in Caulfield. The member for Narre Warren South can argue and interject –

Belinda Wilson interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: Exactly. The member for Narre Warren North can interject all she likes, but let me say this –

John Lister interjected.

David SOUTHWICK: The member for Werribee is just completely off the charts.

Let me say: we want more housing. We want more housing in Caulfield. We want more housing across the state. We support more housing across the state. I have not seen where there is anyone negating that. But what we do want is we want it to work. We do not want it to just be a press release, and that is what we have from this government – it is all a press release. Again, the minimum financial requirement, which is what this bill originally was going to deal with, was going to put 30 per cent on the construction of homes and put a lot of small building businesses out of business, and this government think that is okay.

We have a national construction code which is going to add further costs to the building industry, which has been delayed in just about every other state. But in Victoria it is like, ‘Come in, spinner. Let’s charge more small builders more costs.’ And do you know why? You put more small builders out of business, and you bring the big multinationals and the union-connected businesses back into the game. That is what this government is all about. They want to put small business out of business because they hate small business. We have got the Minister for Small and Family Business at the table, and the small business minister knows that this government hates small business. I am even surprised that the Allan Labor government has a small business minister. I am surprised that this government has a small business minister, because this government hates small business.

Natalie Suleyman: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I think the member knows clearly that he has really strayed from what is before the house. Let me say, for the record, I am very proud to be the Minister for Small and Family Business, and we on this side love businesses in Victoria, with 123,000 in the last 12 months opening their doors.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Kim O’Keeffe): Member for Caulfield, please come back to the amendments.

David SOUTHWICK: I was specifically relating to small business in the building industry, and that is very much on this bill. The small businesses that I speak to absolutely know that this government has turned its back on them. The small business minister actually needs to walk the talk. The small business minister needs to talk to a few of the building small businesses that have left the state or gone broke under this government’s watch, because this government –

Members interjecting.

David SOUTHWICK: For the record, I am talking down this useless Allan Labor government. I love this state and I hate what the Allan Labor government has done to this state. They have failed Victorians. The Allan Labor government has failed Victorians. This is the most corrupt government we have seen. This is a government that hates small business. This is a government that hates anyone that has had a go – hates them. We will ensure, when we get finally into government in November, once we see half of the Labor government being booted or looking for another job – who would employ them, quite frankly? Who is going to employ this lot? Who is going to employ a failed, useless former member of the Labor government? Who is going to employ them when they have not been able to manage a chook raffle? You would not give them the responsibility of managing a school fete, let alone a budget, let alone a business. That is why we need to fix things and make every dollar count. When we see the waste – there has been $50 billion on the Big Build wasted. We have the Suburban Rail Loop still costed at $35 billion – years ago.

I mean, what a joke. This government is a joke. They cannot manage anything. They cannot add up. They are corrupt. They have a small business minister who completely does not care. This government just does not care. They do not care about small business. The Liberals absolutely will ensure that small business has a go and gets a go, because that is what they need. We need to be able to support small business.

Natalie Suleyman: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I think the member on his feet has been totally misleading the house, and I ask you to bring him back to order and ensure that he is speaking on the bill that is before the house. It is important that people do in this chamber and that the audience also gets those facts. He needs to continue to ensure to be factual.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Kim O’Keeffe): Would the member please come back to the amendments.

David SOUTHWICK: I ask the small business minister to finally do her job and look after small businesses and not turn her back on them.

Motion agreed to.

The SPEAKER: A message will now be sent to the Legislative Council informing them of the house’s decision.