Social housing regulation review
Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:40): (421) My question is to the Minister for Housing. In 2021 the government conducted a review into the regulation of the social housing sector in Victoria. The interim report from this review made several significant recommendations for reform, including a proper complaints system and legislated rights for tenants. With your government’s increasing reliance on non-government housing providers, there is a clear need for regulation of this sector in order to protect the rights of tenants. Despite this, the final report from this review has not been tabled, over three years since the review began, and throughout this time we are hearing more and more from community housing tenants who are unhappy with their housing providers but do not know where to turn. Minister, when will the report from the review into the regulation of the social housing sector be released to the public?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:41): Thanks, Dr Ratnam. I am going to take issue with, yet again, a number of the ways in which you have characterised social housing and with what I think you have referred to as an increasing reliance upon non-government providers to deliver social housing. Dr Ratnam, we rely, and rely with good reason and for a proper purpose and in a well-founded way, upon our community housing sector to develop and to deliver housing that meets critical need. In the course of making sure that we can respond to that need, we have made a record investment into social housing, which includes public and community housing. We are making sure that we have that investment in place in the areas where it is needed, in the configurations that it is needed, and with a regulatory approach that manages obligations and responsibilities across all levels of government. We also want to make sure, Dr Ratnam, that in delivering these benefits the Assistant Treasurer’s work and my work in overseeing the review are targeted towards delivering those outcomes.
It is a really significant body of work that you have referred to. There are policy and operational administrative components to it, and obviously funding implications as well. We are in the process of undertaking work to deliver on the responses, to all of the review, to transform the sector and also to enable a greater focus on rental reforms, which is, as you would all know and hopefully respect and understand, a big part of the work that we are doing to transform the sector overall. We need to be able to incorporate developments that have occurred since receiving the final report itself, and that includes the Commonwealth announcements in relation to the Housing Australia Future Fund.
There has been an extensive body of work undertaken by the review panel, and contributions were made by numerous stakeholders who participated. We are taking action to address a number of the issues identified in the course of that review. The interim report, for example, highlighted numerous areas for more Aboriginal community controlled organisations to become registered housing providers, and we are also in the process of supporting Aboriginal organisations to become registered community housing providers and participate in the big build program. We are also undertaking a program to significantly reduce the outstanding maintenance requests that remain in the system – I have spoken about that at length – and we are trialling for local maintenance repair crews and establishing a statewide public housing renter consultative committee. All recommendations are being implemented – (Time expired)
Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:44): Thank you, Minister, for your response, but you did not actually answer the question that I asked about when the report will be released to the public. It has been sitting on various housing ministers’ desks for the nearly two years since it was completed. Given Labor’s housing statement commits to the mass privatisation of public housing and the outsourcing of its responsibilities to community housing, the fact that the government has refused to release the report from the social housing regulation review, or its response, nearly two years later – three years since it commenced – is really concerning. We know that community housing tenants pay more in rent than those in public housing. Some are being offered shorter term leases, and many do not know where to turn when things are going wrong – and more and more things are going wrong. So, Minister, given the government has had the social housing regulation review recommendations on hand for nearly two years, when will we see better and stronger protection for social housing tenants?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:45): Dr Ratnam, what is it about the clue in the title of ‘community housing’ that you do not seem to understand? Community housing is delivered by community organisations – for-purpose organisations that are in a process of providing wraparound services and care, whether that is Aboriginal community controlled housing organisations or organisations that support victims and survivors of family violence or organisations that support multicultural communities, that support young people, that support older tenants or that make sure that we have the sorts of supports that people need. When you talk about mass privatisation, you do a massive disservice to your own understanding of the issue. If you actually cared about providing support for people who deserve access to modern, safe and fit-for-purpose accommodation, you would stop this ridiculous, misinformed, misleading narrative about housing and what it means in Victoria.
Samantha Ratnam: On a point of order, President, I asked a specific question. I will not repeat it, because you have asked me not to repeat the question, but I asked a specific question. The minister has not responded to any part of the question that I asked in my supplementary.
The PRESIDENT: I am happy to review the answer and the question, but in real time – and I hate paraphrasing, because this will get me into trouble with everyone – you asked her when there will be better progress in a positive way. The minister’s response was there has been progress in a positive way. Anyone can jump up and say, ‘You’re wrong,’ but that is me. At the end of question time, which is in 1 minute, can you make a point of order then? I am always to open to everyone making a point of order.