Tuesday, 18 March 2025

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:09): (846) My question today is to the minister for housing. Last week we found out that there will be no public homes rebuilt on the Flemington or North Melbourne estates. Residents had already begun moving out of these estates prior to this announcement. However, now it is clear that people will be moving back to an estate at the site of their former public homes where there will be no public housing present. Given that these residents left their public homes under the proviso that there was still a chance they could return to the security and affordability of public housing and now this will not be the case, is it the department’s determination that residents have been able to provide informed consent, given they agreed to relocate away before these revelations came to light?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:10): Thank you, Mr Puglielli, for your question. You are right: I did make an announcement last week in relation to the 39 per cent uplift in social housing that will be provided across North Melbourne and Flemington, so that is a total of at least 700 new homes. I do want to use this opportunity to correct some of the misinformation and disinformation that is causing an enormous amount of distress across communities, and avoidably so, for what I would describe as cheap political purposes without regard for the impact by those who promulgate it. What I would say, Mr Puglielli, is unambiguously there is a right of return for people who are relocating from housing in these locations. Unambiguously, Mr Puglielli, we work very, very hard with people throughout the process of relocation and throughout the process of people nominating areas to which they might want to move – that might be in the neighbourhood or it might be in other parts of the city.

What I would also say to you, Mr Puglielli, is that your constant inference that community housing is somehow not as good as public housing betrays the fact that every week I get correspondence from you and your colleagues talking about how the public housing in which your constituents are housed is not fit for purpose, does not meet standards and does not enable people to live well and to live in accessible environments. I get constant requests for assistance – again, against the backdrop of record investment in maintenance and the backdrop of record investment in making sure that people have what they need – and what I would say to this is when we are delivering community housing across these sites we are doing so in a way that does not involve the sale of any land, that does not involve –

Aiv Puglielli: On a point of order, President, the question has not been responded to. It went to informed consent provided by the residents. I have not heard that mentioned in the response.

The PRESIDENT: I think the minister was relevant to the question and actually did answer it early on in her answer.

Harriet SHING: What a shame, Mr Puglielli, that you do not actually want to hear about the housing that is being delivered for the very people that you say you represent and care about, because we work very hard with people to make sure that they understand the process, that they are in a position to provide informed consent, that they have access to interpreters and that they are encouraged to get a legal support person or a support person as part of those conversations. Mr Puglielli, we will continue to do that work because, again, access to accurate information and to the autonomy and ownership of decisions is at the heart of what we are doing for some of the most vulnerable people in this state. It is something that beggars belief that you would again seek to perpetuate these myths about people not being encouraged to have conversations about what they need, because we work tirelessly to make sure people can identify the areas where they want to move, that they have a right of return and that they understand it. Please stop saying that, again, community housing is not permanent, that it does not involve a right of return or that it does not involve the sort of wraparound support that everybody deserves.

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:13): I always appreciate being verballed by the minister in responses. Now that we know that there will be no public housing on these sites, will you guarantee that public housing level rents and conditions will be applied for the residents of Flemington and North Melbourne when they return?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:13): Mr Puglielli, there is no verballing when I am taking this stuff directly from the information that you are putting out there publicly. Again, when I want to quote Adam Bandt, Gabrielle de Vietri or Samantha Ratnam about what we are actually doing to deliver housing, I am very happy to take you to that detail, because the bottom line is that you are happy to sit back and make sure that people are anguished, distressed and dismayed about what is actually not the case around the delivery of social housing.

Katherine Copsey: On a point of order, President, this is not an opportunity for the minister to attack the opposition or the crossbench. I ask that you return her to the question.

The PRESIDENT: I uphold the point of order. There are many precedents of that particular point of order being upheld. I will call the minister to the question.

Harriet SHING: Again, I am not going to stop calling you out on the sort of misinformation that you are providing. What I would also say – and again, I answered this question in the substantive, and I will continue to say it – is there is a right of return. Where tenants remain eligible for social housing – where they are not actually excluded because of household income and where they do remain eligible for the same configuration of housing – there is a right of return, whether to new developments or to the neighbourhood. Now, Mr Puglielli, please take that information – please take it and use it for good rather than making up disinformation that spreads lies and creates further confusion.