Wednesday, 18 October 2023

Adjournment

Ingrid STITT (Western Metropolitan – Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (17:44): I move:

That the house do now adjourn.

Housing affordability

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (17:44): (513) My adjournment is to the Minister for Housing, and the action I am seeking is an update and further detail on the government’s housing statement and how it will tackle the issue of long-term housing affordability in the Southern Metropolitan Region. We know that right across Victoria finding an affordable home is becoming harder than ever before, and having a stable and secure home gives you a solid base to hold down a job and get a good education and keep your family safe. Victoria is a fast-growing state; our population is set to surpass 10 million by 2051. To ease the housing pressure that Victorians are facing it is becoming more important than ever to build additional social and affordable homes right across the state. The government’s housing statement is not just an investment in building – and an investment in buildings – it is going to change lives by giving people a place to live and the security that comes with it.

In order to tackle the issue of housing supply and affordability the government is having to take a range of actions on multiple fronts. It is not just one thing that is going to get us there. We are going to need to reform the planning system to clear the backlog of planning permits, unlock new spaces to stop the urban sprawl, protect renters rights by closing down loopholes that drive up the cost of renting, rapidly accelerate the construction of more social and affordable homes and deliver a long-term plan that works for and with Victorians, not against them. We have got to build more housing closer to where we have the transport infrastructure, the roads, the hospitals and the schools, and the government has certainly been investing record amounts in improving that existing infrastructure. Those are the things that people need, and they need them near their homes. We are also going to make it easier for builders and buyers and renovators to get permits, which will help accelerate the expansion of our existing housing stock to accommodate more people, in particular making it easier to put a second home on the back of a block – a granny flat, if you will. We know that so many want to be able to do this and are often hamstrung by regulations preventing them from doing it.

We have set an ambitious target of building more than 800,000 new homes across Victoria in coming decades. It is a big job, and it is an important job. But this is the sort of action that the state needs, that people in this state need, in order to ensure that we have the supply of houses that our growing population needs and that we are building them close to jobs, close to infrastructure and close to schools and hospitals. This is exactly what the state government should be doing.