Public housing
Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:12): (274) My question is to the Minister for Housing. Congratulations, Minister Shing, on being appointed to this portfolio. But given the current housing crisis, I fear that your government has handed you something of a poisoned chalice, with a strategy for the biggest privatisation of publicly owned assets since the Kennett era. Labor’s recent housing statement failed to respond to the scale of the housing crisis bearing down on Victorians. Not only did the government retreat on giving urgent immediate relief for renters through a rent freeze or rent caps, it outlined a plan that could mean the end of public housing in Victoria. The plan will destroy 44 public housing high-rise buildings with no commitment they will be replaced with public housing, as well as a plan to sell off two-thirds of the surrounding public land to private developers to build housing that will not reduce the record waiting list for those in need – land that should be used to build more public housing. Minister, will your government commit to building 100 per cent public housing at all of these sites?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:13): Thank you, Dr Ratnam, for that question. Before I get into the substantive detail of the answer to a question that you have posed on a number of occasions before, I want to acknowledge the work that has been done by Colin Brooks in this space around social and affordable housing but also to remind you and indeed others in this place that housing is, as one of the most significant priorities, if not the most significant priority, for this state in managing population growth and providing opportunity, one which sits across a number of different portfolios. So for the avoidance of any doubt, when we talk about the development of private housing and we talk about bringing that stock on line consistent with the housing statement, delivering 80,000 new homes each year for the next 10 years – and social and affordable housing is part of this work – that will sit with Minister Brooks. When we talk about rent –
Members interjecting.
Harriet SHING: I am trying to help. When we talk about rent assistance and the sorts of challenges that have been the subject of a number of clarifications on your point about rent controls and rent freezes and the fact that they do not work, because they actually change market conditions and do not deliver the outcomes for which you are saying the objective is there to deliver them, the rent work that we are delivering, which as you will see is outlined very comprehensively in the housing statement, is work which is being delivered through Consumer Affairs Victoria and Minister Williams.
The other piece that I want to talk to today sits in regional development and the work that Minister Tierney will be doing and will continue as part of our investment in at least $1.25 billion as part of the Big Housing Build in regional Victoria, the $150 million Regional Worker Accommodation Fund and a lot of engagement to make sure that we deliver housing in the areas where it is needed, in the ways in which it is needed and through collaboration and consultation.
Samantha Ratnam: On a point of order, President, I have tried to afford the minister enough time to get to responding to my actual question, understanding it is the first question time with this portfolio. However, my question was quite specific, which you have not referenced at all – no reference to public housing once in your response so far, with 42 seconds to go. The question again was: Minister, will your government commit to building 100 per cent public housing at all of these sites? I appreciate the background, but it does not pertain to my question.
The PRESIDENT: I think a point of order is not an opportunity to ask the question again. I believe that the minister was addressing a lot of sections of your preamble. She has got 42 seconds left, and I ask the minister to continue.
Harriet SHING: Thank you, President. I am looking forward to working with my colleague the Minister for Planning as well in making sure that this work is done and done carefully and done well. The public housing locations, those towers – we will be making sure that we can increase the amount of housing on that footprint across those locations. We will take a 10 per cent uplift in the work that we do to deliver an increase from 6660 public housing units up to 7100, and we want to make sure that as 30,000 people call these locations home there are mixed opportunities for people to connect with community and to realise the opportunities that they want in the terms that are right for them.
Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:17): Thank you, Minister. I just note in your response I am glad you mentioned public housing right at the end, but my question was: will you commit to 100 per cent public housing? You talked about 6600 to 7100. You said 500 extra but you did not commit to them being public homes, which is my question: will you commit to these being public homes? I note too that under your plan the public housing waiting list will continue to grow because it does not address the scale of the homes that we need as public housing in Victoria, and given the length of that waiting list – over 125,000 people now and growing – that can only be reduced by building more public housing. It is the most effective lever available to governments anywhere in the world to provide genuinely affordable housing and release more stock onto the private market. Why won’t your government commit to retaining all this public housing land that you are earmarking for privatisation? Why won’t you commit to retaining that to build tens of thousands more public homes in the midst of the housing crisis we are facing?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:18): Thank you, Dr Ratnam. The housing crisis, as you have indicated it, relates to housing shortfalls across every part of the housing continuum. Whether that is people moving from emergency accommodation right through to home ownership, this statement actually addresses all of those things. We are absolutely determined to deliver that uplift in social housing to make sure that we have the units online that are fit for purpose, energy efficient, accessible and connected to local areas and to precincts that are light and bright and modern, that are safe, that are dignified and indeed that are homes that people can be proud of. We will continue that work. We will do it in accordance with the housing statement, and we will make sure that we continue to collaborate and to consult and to engage with communities as we deliver those outcomes. This is a reform of the entire system. As I indicated in my answer to the substantive question, this is why we require and will deploy and are deploying five different ministers across the housing challenge to make sure that across the entire state we have in place what we need to meet these demands into the future.