Thursday, 30 July 2026

 Paul EDBROOKE (Frankston – Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Cost of Living, Minister for Renters, Minister for Men and Boys) (10:06): Most Victorians buy a home once or twice in their lives. They save for years, they work out to the dollar what they can afford, they find a place advertised inside that number and they let themselves hope. They bid to the top of the advertised price and cross their fingers, and then the worst happens – the home gets passed in because there was another number all along and nobody told them. They lose their Saturday and hundreds if not thousands of dollars, and they lose that hope. But they get up the next Saturday, and they do it all again.

Underquoting has rigged this market for decades, and it is unlawful. That is why we established the underquoting taskforce, and that is why we are making it permanent, because you cannot police your way out of a system built to keep buyers guessing. So we are fixing the system itself. From 1 October the reserve must be published seven days before an auction. A room full of buyers who can actually afford the home is not a weaker auction, it is a fairer one. Buying a home is stressful enough without the reserve price being a mystery on top of everything else. And I say to those opposite: while we, the Carroll Labor government, are standing with homebuyers, the opposition want to keep the people of Victoria in the dark by keeping reserves secret. They need to ask themselves why they want to keep these numbers secret and why they are not on the side of homebuyers like the Labor government is.