Housing
Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:34): (540) My question is for the Minister for Housing. Minister, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal recently found that National Affordable Housing Victoria has breached its duty in maintaining the affordable housing premises rented by Grace Bell in Dunlop Avenue, Ascot Vale. They have been ordered to carry out urgent repairs. I remind you, Minister, that this is one of the first public housing sites demolished and outsourced by your government. No public housing remains at the site. When I raised these issues previously, I detailed the struggles that Grace has experienced in getting anyone, including Homes Victoria, to take her complaint seriously. The VCAT ruling is helpful, but Grace and other tenants continue to have issues with their affordable and community housing at this site, including concerns about the structural integrity of the buildings and drinking water quality. Minister, what are you doing to ensure affordable housing providers that you have outsourced your responsibility to are fulfilling their duties to tenants so people’s homes are livable?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:35): Thank you, Dr Ratnam, for your question. I wish I had a counter for the number of days that it has been since you have not asked for a briefing on social housing, but that to one side. The work that we are doing to deliver social housing comes in partnership with the community housing sector. Now, as you would appreciate, this is a really important part of delivering on the investment that we are making of more than $6.3 billion from state funding, the largest investment ever, alongside significant investments, particularly off the back of the Commonwealth budget, that will enable us to deliver additional infrastructure and capital and ongoing recurrent funding for programs and service delivery.
The particular development that you have talked to is, as other social housing developments are, covered and regulated by building defects warranties and the capacity to have those defects remedied in accordance with obligations that sit with builders for a 12-month period after completion. In addition to that, community housing providers are required to comply with the terms of their contracts for delivering and building and maintaining and operating social housing, which is, as I said, a really important part of meeting the challenges of availability and affordability.
We also want to make sure that in addressing the challenges around maintenance and supply, we continue to deliver on bringing down that backlog. As I indicated to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee last week, we have brought that down by about 80 per cent – down from over 90,000 maintenance requests to about 17,787 off the top of my head. Dr Ratnam, we also need to make sure that under the terms of the Residential Tenancies Act people have recourse to remedies, to dispute resolution and to early intervention when it comes to social housing being able to improve amenities to an acceptable standard.
National Affordable Housing is currently responding to that VCAT order, and I am looking forward to seeing what they have to say. Given that it has been within the remit of a legal proceeding, I do not intend to comment on it here. I will leave that for National Affordable Housing to respond to. Again, you would be well aware of that, Dr Ratnam, in terms of the work that happens in this place being distinct from the work of the judiciary or of quasijudicial tribunals in that regard. I will say, however, that when we look to the work that is being done and undertaken within the community housing sector, it is my expectation that remedies will be forthcoming as they relate to defects, whether that is within the scope and the contemplation of defects remedy obligations – that 12-month defect rectification part of a contract – or indeed as it relates to the standards and the reporting obligations that community housing providers have in discharging their responsibilities and in taking the benefit of contracts to deliver social housing across the board.
Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (12:38): Thank you, Minister. I think it was really unfortunate that you did not even mention the social housing regulation review that has been sitting now on the government’s desk for years. We are still waiting for the government response, which is the government’s responsibility to regulate these providers. You are basically saying to these residents, ‘It’s not our responsibility. Go and work with the broken system that is already failing so many private renters out there.’ Minister, given the failure of your government’s outsourcing approach to public housing sites across Victoria already, will you now buy back 26 Dunlop Avenue, Ascot Vale, as public housing?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (12:39): I will start as you started. I think it is really disappointing that in your supplementary question you go directly to the social housing regulation review when that was not in fact part of your substantive question. Nonetheless, what I will say is that alongside the review of social housing regulation, which is, as you would hopefully be aware, the remit and the responsibility of the Assistant Treasurer and me in delivering and overseeing, I am looking forward to continuing to deliver on those policy, operational, administrative and funding implications and making sure that we can continue to support growth and to make sure that quality is delivered across our social housing portfolio. Dr Ratnam, I need to be really clear here: we are delivering social housing, including in partnership with the community housing sector, and whatever you want to say about that not being good enough, it is part and parcel of delivering on the largest ever investment in social housing across the state. We are determined, as I referred to earlier, to continue to assist people, including with an $18 million investment for maintenance pipelines and inquiries and responses, and we will continue that work to make sure that amenity – (Time expired)