Housing
Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:39): (947) My question is for the minister for housing. Minister, I refer to the meeting minutes of Homes Victoria, which show the board considering plans to lower the unit prices of the government’s 44 public housing towers project by cutting corners. Does every proposal for the 44 towers meet the government’s guidelines and rules for the size and amenity of that housing?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (13:50): Thank you very much, Mr Welch, for that question. Again, this is a really important area of the growth and the delivery of amenity and of housing across the state. Now, the 44 towers are part of a long-term policy framework and an arc to make sure that we can not only treble the density of housing across those sites but also make sure that we are replacing that ageing stock, which is no longer fit for purpose, that does not comply with current codes, including as they relate to flood, fire, seismic activity and to ventilation, to natural light and to general amenity and right to live in quiet enjoyment. One of the things that I do want to address just before I go on to the work of what we are delivering across standards and codes is the fact that one of the things that we did have to do when we were elected in 2014 was unravel the abject disgrace that was the environment of permission to build vast volumes of dogboxes, as they were referred to, under the former coalition government. It was something which was not only a disgrace, it approached farce – that people were not in a position to get into a bedroom and not be able to touch the walls when they spread their arms out; that there were homes that had no natural light –
David Davis: On a point of order, President, the question as I heard it was very specific about the government’s current 44-tower proposal. It was not about the past; it was actually about the government’s current proposals and whether they met every requirement.
The PRESIDENT: I believe the minister is being relevant in her backgrounding.
Harriet SHING: Thank you very much, Mr Davis. It is very defensive when a coalition opposition does not want to talk about the place that brought us here, where dogboxes were de rigueur for the green-light go-aheads for enormous towers. One of the things that I do also want to make sure that there is no doubt about is we are building homes that comply with the standards and the codes that exist around the delivery of a range of high-quality, safe and livable metrics that make sure that people have places to call home that are modern, that are energy efficient and that are able to be warmed in winter and cooled in summer. It is also about making sure that when we replace these old homes across the towers we do so in a way that is in response to community consultation and engagement, a development that includes a number of different options for bedroom configurations, for size, for the environmental standards and for disability access.
In relation to environmental standards, all of the new Big Housing Build homes that are constructed by Homes Victoria and community housing providers meet a minimum 7-star nationwide house energy rating scheme energy efficiency standard, and people with a – (Time expired)
Richard WELCH (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (13:53): Thank you, Minister, for your answer. Minister, is it a fact that the government is planning to cut corners and cut costs by building these new buildings at standards lower than your own recommended standards, building by your own words dirty, dark dogboxes and forcing public housing tenants to accept that lower standard?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (13:54): Dogboxes, Mr Welch? We got rid of the dogboxes and the standards that you had actually imposed. Just to be really clear, all new homes constructed by Homes Victoria will continue to meet or surpass the National Construction Code and Better Apartments Design Standards, including in areas of natural light, ventilation and internal spaces. Homes built by Homes Victoria to date meet these standards, Mr Welch.