Thursday, 29 August 2024

Housing

Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:10): (1111) My adjournment is for the Minister for Housing. The action I seek is for this government to take on the recommendation to establish a social housing ombudsman, as recommended in the Social Housing Complaint Handling:Progress Report of 20 March 2024. This report was tabled earlier this year, but over two years ago the Victorian Ombudsman provided a lengthy report on Victoria’s social housing complaint system advocating for a social housing ombudsman. I note in the foreword that the Ombudsman Ms Glass has also made comments talking about the strong support for the recommendation for a social housing ombudsman, noting that it:

… could be established quickly and cheaply within the Victorian Ombudsman’s office.

Sadly, under this government we are not seeing these things take place. Meanwhile social housing complaints to the Ombudsman have risen by 83 per cent in the past two years. Ms Glass said:

The systematic issues are not going away. Change is now even more critical, as Victorians grapple with dual housing and cost-of-living crises, increasing homelessness and an evolving social housing landscape, including the looming redevelopment of public housing towers.

We hear a lot about this in this chamber. At the time that the Ombudsman described this report, the Age also made comment. It said:

It’s not the first time the state ombudsman has issued a scathing assessment of Victoria’s social housing complaints system.

You do not have to go too far in your own regions and electorates to actually meet people who are having these challenges. Here we are two years later, and we are still waiting for an efficient and fair complaints handling system in the social housing sector. It has been described as not being hard to do, so why are we still waiting? As we face the worst housing crisis in Victoria, with Labor having spent nearly $4 billion on some half-baked investments only to increase homes available to Victoria’s homeless by 1322, the Ombudsman found:

… a tiny percentage of that investment, in good complaint handling, would reap huge rewards far sooner, for renters, social housing providers and the Government alike.

The Ombudsman also acknowledged at that time that a small investment would bring in these huge rewards, but one of the most important recommendations was to establish a social housing ombudsman. I just keep reading the article over and over again that the Ombudsman has provided here. Even in the foreword we see how incredibly important this is and – (Time expired)