Members statements
Housing
John BERGER (Southern Metropolitan) (09:39): It has been a massive couple of weeks in my community of Southern Metro. On 20 September we released our landmark package to boost housing supply and increase affordability as part of an affordability partnership to build 800,000 homes in Victoria. It is Australia’s biggest and one of the biggest reforms to our housing sector in generations. Everyone wants to be a Victorian. When international students choose Australia as the place to study, they do so because of Victoria. When immigrants choose our shores to start a new life, they choose Victoria. We are the fastest growing state in Australia, and our population is going to hit 10.3 million by 2051. But that means we need to build and build fast: 2.24 million homes including a target of 425,000 homes across regional and rural Victoria. We have got a plan thanks to Victoria’s Housing Statement: The Decade Ahead 2024–2034. It sets up a target of 80,000 a year. I commend the Andrews and now Allan Labor governments on this work, so vital to my community of Southern Metro, with some of the highest numbers of public housing in the country.