Polwarth electorate housing
Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (13:28): I wish to raise with the house today the appalling state of public and affordable housing in rural and regional Victoria, particularly in the seat of Polwarth. Changes in recent years relating to both the increased popularity of Airbnb and this government’s appalling lack of investment in public housing outside of its seats in Melbourne—and even more recently the changes to rental laws, which really penalise many small-time home investors who provide much-needed rental accommodation—mean currently throughout my electorate housing availability in the rental market is almost zero. No agents two weeks ago in Colac had any homes available for rental at all. I had a young single mum come to my office recently who had a profoundly disabled child and one under the age of one. She is in a one-bedroom unit unable to get any housing. She needs the support of family and people in her community around her to help look after the children, and yet the advice from the department is that she needs to move to Geelong or Warrnambool—larger centres—in order to access fair and equitable housing.
There is a great opportunity in our local community to do something about this. The likes of Rotary, the Salvation Army, the Catholic Church and even the local shire are prepared to help provide homes in our region, but we need the support from the department and the minister to come on board and help provide some land.