Wednesday, 11 September 2024

Petitions

Housing

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (17:47): I am honoured to move this petition debate on behalf of Elena, a public housing resident, and thousands of others that signed this very, very important petition. Each signature represents a story of a person for whom public housing may mean their home, their community, their friends or their values. I move:

That the petition be taken into consideration.

Last month the Victorian Labor government signed a contract to demolish five of Victoria’s public housing estates, granting the government authority to evict tenants at will. These estates are home to hundreds of families and beautiful communities from all around the world. The towers have been safe havens for those struggling to find homes in a broken system that prioritises profits over people. The community has strongly opposed the destruction of these and the other 39 public housing estates. Over 2300 people signed this petition, the majority of whom are residents themselves. Elena deserves commendation for her bravery in speaking out. It is not easy to oppose this government, which pressures and punishes those who hold it accountable. Elena is here today, and she summed up how residents are feeling:

This petition was signed by thousands of people, who demanded the government tell us the truth about its decision to demolish our homes and destroy our communities. We, the public housing residents, will not give up the fight for our rights to security of tenure and freedom from arbitrary eviction.

This Parliament has also passed many motions making it abundantly clear that the destruction of these homes and the displacement of these families cannot go ahead. Labor simply does not have a mandate to go ahead with its plans. Almost a year ago then Premier Andrews announced the destruction of these homes, leaving residents shocked and searching for answers. What will happen to those evicted? How will it affect the 100,000 people already on the public housing waiting list? How much longer will they have to wait for a safe and secure roof over their heads? We have no answers a year on. We do not even know if the government considered alternatives to demolition, like refurbishment. This option is cheaper and keeps communities together. Labor has also been evasive about what will be rebuilt at these estates, with no commitment to rebuild any public housing at the North Melbourne and Flemington estates, despite imminent demolition.

The minister has also said only 440 new social homes will be built across the remaining sites over the 28 years. That means a measly 15 homes a year. Thanks to pressure from the community and funding secured by the Greens federally from the Housing Australian Future Fund, the government did commit to public housing at the Elgin and Nicholson Street sites, but they were a separate announcement prior to Premier Andrews announcing what was going to happen to the remaining sites, which are going to be privatised and demolished.

In the worst rental crisis in a generation, destroying existing housing makes no sense. Residents, housing advocates, architects, policy specialists, community members and so many people have questioned the logic of this plan. The only ones who stand to profit will be private property developers who will get to build a majority of private market rent housing in some of the most prime locations across the city, while current residents will be shipped off to faraway suburbs where services and public transport are sparse. Labor is in the pocket of their property developer mates. Sadly, we know from extensive experience and research the devastating impact that evictions and relocations have on public housing residents – economic hardship, deteriorating health, social isolation, homelessness and for some incarceration.

This plan cannot go ahead, but do not take it from me. The Greens have doorknocked a majority of the 44 towers over the past few months, and we have heard what residents had to say. The community has spoken, and they detest this plan. And it is important to acknowledge how important these voices of protest are. They have won before, and they can win again.

Just under a decade ago an almost identical plan to demolish and privatise public housing in Fitzroy, Richmond and Prahran – the same towers – was proposed by the then Liberal government. It was met with opposition from Labor, the unions and First Nations who were distressed about the destruction of their meeting sites. Then opposition housing spokesperson and Labor MP for Richmond Richard Wynne said in an Age article titled ‘Fear and loathing as residents wonder what their future will be’ from 2013, that:

… it was financially and socially irresponsible to canvass the idea of pulling down the towers.

Another quote from Mr Wynne:

This government is going to consign poor people out to the furthest reaches of our community.

Then Trades Hall secretary Brian Boyd rallied against the Liberal government’s plans and asked the state government to use alternative unused land for private developments, not the public land at these estates. He said:

We feel there is merit in saving all of public space for the lower-income members of the community. The last thing they need is to be built in.

How far Labor has retreated from the values that once guided it. To the Labor MPs still supporting this plan, you will be written into the history books as the government that brought down public housing. Let us build thousands more public homes, not tear down the ones that we have. As a resident remarked just recently:

They are not just bringing down the buildings, they are bringing down the public housing system.

Labor, do not be the authors of the end of public housing in Victoria.

Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Housing, Minister for Water, Minister for Equality) (17:53): I rise to speak on this petition today, and I want to begin by making it very, very clear that we are under no illusions about the importance of respecting the views, histories and familial connections and the very identities of people who have called the towers home, often for many generations – that in fact every life experience that we could possibly imagine has occurred within and around those very particular buildings, which were built between the 1950s and the 1970s.

One of the issues that arises around these buildings is the fact that they are no longer fit for purpose. They have reached the end of their operational lives. This morning Dr Ratnam stood out the front of this building to tell the media that the towers are in great shape. Well, the communities are in wonderful shape for all of the reasons that I have just outlined, but the places that they call home are not. The towers themselves fail against contemporary standards for light, for ventilation, for insulation, for room depth to doorway width, for disability access and the way in which people can enter and exit those buildings. The underlying construction methodology of these towers means that it is not possible to modify them without an investment of many, many billions of dollars, and even then it is not possible to adjust them to meet modern disability and accessibility standards.

Dr Ratnam has talked about why it is that refurbishment is not able to occur. One of the things that I have been very clear about, and that the Premier and others have been very clear about, is that refurbishment has been costed at billions of dollars. But even if that were to occur, we would still need to relocate everybody in those buildings for the purposes of that refurbishment. When Dr Ratnam talks about the worst rental crisis in a generation, this speaks to the challenges and the lack of affordability and availability within our system. These are the competing tensions of population growth and indeed of a system that has not kept pace with the needs of communities, and this is why we need to make sensible, considered use of the spaces we have available to us. That is the work that grounds our housing statement and propels us, across a number of portfolios, to work around reforms to the planning system, around what we are doing to make use of those inner-city and urban spaces, to make sure that when and as we build new housing we are doing it in a way that reflects the needs and the aspirations of communities, not just now but for our kids and for our grandkids and for their grandkids.

The Greens would like people to believe that community housing organisations, part of the fabric of delivering social housing, do not do a good job. Community housing is comprised of charitable organisations. They are not-for-profit organisations that work for social purposes to provide housing and support. They include housing organisations for First Peoples, for young people, for women and for people with often very, very complex needs. They are strictly regulated to ensure that our significant public investment, the government funding that goes to these organisations, is protected for the benefit of residents, of future generations and of the community. I have stood up in this place many, many times to invite Dr Ratnam to a briefing on social housing. Dr Ratnam has not once – not once – taken me up on that offer. Not once has the former Leader of the Greens asked for a briefing on the detail of social housing policy. So what I will do today is be very, very clear about the matters which have been raised in this petition as Dr Ratnam has sought to characterise them in her contribution.

Regulation around community housing providers ensures that homes and assets remain within the sector as affordable rental housing in perpetuity. Where government has provided funding for a registered organisation, an interest recorded on the title to the land prevents that organisation from selling or using the property as security without the consent of government. Registered organisations are also required to include in their constitution both objects and a wind-up clause that commit their organisation to providing affordable housing. We need to address the challenges of a shortage of supply in partnership with community housing providers, developers, builders, councils and, most importantly, communities. We have engaged, through Homes Victoria, in thousands of discussions to make sure that people have accurate information and that work will continue in good faith and to give people autonomy, accurate information and the sense of security and certainty that they deserve as this work continues.

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (17:58): Can I firstly start off by thanking the 3200 people who signed this petition. Bringing petitions forward to this chamber or to the other place is a really important part of our democratic process, and I am pleased that this petition indeed has qualified for debate in this chamber again so that we can bring it here and talk out these issues on behalf of our constituents.

Like Dr Ratnam, I represent the Northern Metropolitan Region, and to suggest that this is not a huge issue would be an understatement, because I do consult with members of my community, I do consult with residents in particular at Flemington and North Melbourne. In fact I was recently at a Somali day celebration with a few of my colleagues, and it is safe to say that many members of the community spoke to me about it, but they also spoke about things like the lack of consultation, fear of the unknown and people not knowing where they are going to go, and so you can really empathise with that, particularly hearing that firsthand. I think that we ought to listen to the community on this and make sure that they are heard in this process.

Dr Ratnam does raise some good points. If it was a Liberal government proposing this exact policy, you can bet Trades Hall would have already whipped up a protest with protesters as far as the eye can see down Burke Road. The CFMEU would have already proposed a green ban on the rebuild, and you can bet that side of the chamber would be in absolute opposition to this plan. But here we are, with the government proposing this, and it is just the latest in a long line of failures when it comes to the public and social housing space. We know even today the Allan government has been hiding the true extent of its housing crisis and has now removed almost 10,000 families from the Victorian Housing Register, reclassifying them deep in Homes Victoria spreadsheets to try to hide the true reality of what has gone on. It follows contracts being finalised for the demolition of over 600 public housing units across towers in Flemington and North Melbourne, exacerbating the crisis as the government reveals a stock decline of 446 homes in the six months to December.

Hiding nearly 10,000 homeless people from public view is a disgrace and seems the only way the Allan government can combat Victoria’s out-of-control housing crisis. Desperate families are languishing on Victoria’s ballooning public housing waiting list because ultimately Labor cannot manage money and it cannot manage housing, and it is vulnerable Victorians that are paying the price. I thank Dr Ratnam for bringing forward this important motion.

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:02): I will begin my contribution today by quoting one of the community members who have taken part in today’s petition that has been brought to our Parliament. The quote reads:

Why did the government decide to demolish the high-rises and only talk to residents after they have already made this decision?

People have lived at these towers for 20, 30, 40 years. They have built a community. We are a family.

We saw what happened with the Flemington walk-up flats. The government told us that people could come back. But they are not public housing anymore.

I want to remind everyone in this chamber that this petition debate today is about the community. We are here because so many people have signed on to support the idea that our public housing estates are valued communities which should be respected. Over 2000 – thousands of people here today – have called on this government to stop the wholesale destruction of the 44 public housing towers, to stop the privatisation of public housing and to truly invest in maintaining our current public housing while building much, much more. That is why we are having this debate, because it is an important issue to our communities and we owe it to them to consider their requests and their opinions thoroughly.

We have heard things from the government today like the towers being no longer fit for purpose. We have heard a lot about what is not possible. But really what we ought to be doing here today is talking about what is possible – a government with vision that would build new public homes, expand en masse public housing in this state to bring down the waitlist to make sure that public housing is available to all. That is not what we are currently hearing from this government, and it is truly shameful.

We all know in this place that we are in a housing crisis. No-one here is trying to argue that we are not, but the fact that Labor is trying to knock down every single one of the 44 public housing towers at this point in time just feels unbelievable. There does not seem to have been any consideration of what other options might be available and then the publication of this work. Work needs to be done to consider what is possible and what is not. Knocking them all down and then eventually rebuilding them with, frankly, a minuscule increase in social homes is unacceptable. We are so desperately in need of so, so many more public homes in Victoria. Now is most certainly the time to invest in this, not a mass build of market rate private apartments with a smattering of additional social homes. That is not it. We need tens of thousands of new additional public homes. We need to address the increasing public housing waiting list. The numbers are eye-watering. But it is underpinned by thousands of people – individual people, their own lives, their experiences – people who need affordable, safe, secure housing. So many in our community care deeply about public housing communities. I thank you all for signing this petition, and I urge this Labor government to listen to you. I commend this petition to the house.

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (18:05): Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this petition debate, and once again, most of all to everyone who took the time to sign this petition and talk to the community about why this message was so important to bring to this Parliament today. We have heard some arguments repeatedly from the government for months on end that claim that somehow the public housing towers that are set to be demolished fail to meet contemporary standards, in their words, without any proof that backs up these claims. We have repeatedly, for over a year now, asked the government for documents through motions in this Parliament, and we have been denied these documents – basic information – about the rationale, any feasibility work and any engineering reports that could rationalise this very shocking decision. You have treated us in this place with contempt and, by virtue of this, treated the community with absolute contempt – many of them still in the dark about why this plan has been developed and what will happen to their lives.

The minister talked about the values of community housing, and as I spoke to this morning, we believe that community housing has an important place in the continuum of affordable housing options in this state. But it was never designed to replace public housing, and it is actually really disappointing that this government has pitted community housing against public housing and created an imagery around community housing that is the fault of the government retreating from public housing. Essentially, this government is confirming that it has plans to outsource the provision of public housing to non-government providers. Yes, community housing provides an important service, but it is not meant to replace public housing. Despite all the dressing up, the ground lease model and the long-term commercial leases are a form of privatisation. They are not public housing, and we have repeatedly made this point. I urge the government to listen to the thousands upon thousands of residents who are asking them and pleading with them to remain in their homes and to be guaranteed to remain in public housing.

Motion agreed to.