Wednesday, 18 October 2023

Department of Treasury and Finance

Budget papers 2023–24

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (17:29): I rise to speak on the state budget, which raises the budget for the housing portfolio, and this is an area where the government like to talk big but where they are actually failing Victorians significantly. The public housing or social housing waiting list now has reached 65,195 applicants. But it is not the total that I want to talk about it, because it is not the register of interest people; I want to talk particularly about the access to priority housing, which has reached 36,690 families waiting for priority housing. Now, when we were in the government that figure was at 9990, and I thought that was far too long and was working to get that down. But we are now at four times the figure it was when we were in government.

These are people who are escaping domestic violence, who are homeless, who are living with a disability or who have a special housing need. What we know is that not only are there more people on the list but people are actually waiting longer for housing in this state as well. Budget paper 3 on page 192 reveals that if you are trying to escape domestic violence you will be waiting an average of 20.2 months to be housed. That is dreadful, and that is the expected outcome for the 2022–23 year. The target is 10.5 months. That is bad enough, but imagine if you are living in fear for your life in a domestic violence situation and the state says to you, ‘Oh, look, you’ve got to wait almost two years before we’re going to give you housing.’ In other categories, for people who are homeless, people living with a disability and people who have a special housing need, they are waiting an average of 16.5 – or 16½ – months. That is the expected outcome for this year when the target was 10.5 months. This government is failing badly.

I would like to talk about some of the priority lists in my own area. What we know is that this government has become really secretive with housing information, and the waiting lists are now being published very late. They used to be published by the end of the first month after the end of the quarter, but now we are having to wait to the end of the following quarter, so the June figures only came out at the end of September. And what we saw in my region was a significant increase in families on the priority list waiting list.

In the Bendigo local government area we saw an increase of 48 families, rising to a total of 2194 families waiting on the priority list only – those who are escaping domestic violence, who are homeless, who are living with a disability or who have a special housing need. 2194 families – what a disgrace. In Benalla it went up by 42 to 406 families. In the flood-affected areas in Campaspe it went up by 58 to reach 1265 families waiting for priority access to housing. In Greater Shepparton it went up by 72 families – interestingly Merrigum and Murchison went down by two families each and Shepparton itself went up by 76 families – to reach 1549 families waiting on the waiting list in the Greater Shepparton area for priority housing. In Indigo the priority housing list rose by 14 families to 169 families waiting for priority access. In the Macedon Ranges there are 754 families waiting for priority access; in Mildura, another flood-affected area, an increase of 39 families to reach 1029 families waiting for priority access to housing; in the Mitchell shire, another severely flood-affected area, an extra 37 families to reach 906 families waiting on the priority list; in Moira, another flood-affected area, an increase of 45 to reach 616 families; in Murrindindi, an extra 16 families to reach 139 families; in Wangaratta, an extra 71 to reach 575 families; and in Wodonga, an extra 28 families to reach 719 families.

These are all waiting for priority access. They are trying to escape domestic violence. They are homeless and sleeping on the riverbanks. They are living with disabilities or they have special housing needs, and yet this government is prepared to just let them languish on the social housing waiting list while it does very little to deliver social housing in regional areas. We are not getting our fair share. More than 25 per cent of those on the housing waiting list are waiting for access in regional Victoria, but the government only ever say they will deliver 25 per cent of the houses in country Victoria, and they are delivering nothing.