Tuesday, 17 June 2025

Housing

Wendy LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (18:07): (1699) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Housing and Building. The action I seek is for the minister to urgently initiate the construction of new social housing in the Macedon Ranges shire municipality. Victoria is in the middle of a housing crisis, but the Allan Labor government has gone missing when it should be building houses for Victorians. Exactly one year ago to the day I asked the minister for housing to tell me when the promised social housing announced in 2020 for Macedon Ranges shire, as part of the four-year Big Housing Build, would be fully completed. At the time of asking only $12.5 million of the $30 million promised for social housing in Macedon Ranges shire had been spent. Across four housing projects, only six homes were complete and 19 were still under construction. The minister promised that the government would work to identify other locations to build new social housing, but obviously it has not been working very hard, because when I last looked at the Big Housing Build website in January no more money had been spent and no more projects had been started in the Macedon Ranges shire.

To hide Labor’s failure, the government has now totally redesigned the Big Housing Build website. It no longer shows how much investment has been earmarked for which municipality, it no longer shows how many houses have been built from the allocated funding and it does not say how many houses are predicted to be built. The new Big Housing Build website does not show any existing or planned housing projects for the Macedon Ranges shire. The Allan Labor government is totally failing on its housing policy at the very time Victoria is in the middle of a housing crisis. Forty-two per cent of low-income renters are experiencing rental stress, and the private rental crisis is deepening. Since the Big Housing Build began, the number of families on the Victorian housing register has ballooned by at least 24.5 per cent. A record 66,117 families, including 1094 families in the Macedon Ranges, are still waiting for a safe and secure place to call home, but the Labor government is not demonstrating any urgency to help, and I note the minister for housing is leaving rather than listening to this contribution.

Harriet Shing interjected.

Wendy LOVELL: Labor has also fallen well short on its affordable housing promises. Labor committed to building 2900 affordable homes, but Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings revealed just 608 have been completed.

Harriet Shing: On a point of order, President, Ms Lovell has just indicated that in leaving the chamber I was not listening to her adjournment. I would seek that she withdraw that on the basis that I find it offensive.

Members interjecting.

David Davis: Further to the point of order, President, whilst it may be inconvenient for the minister, it is literally and factually true that as she moves out there she will not be able to hear clearly –

Harriet Shing: I wasn’t listening to her anyway.

David Davis: I rest my case. But the point here is, President, it is hard to have a point of order where what has been said is literally and factually true, although inconvenient for the minister.

The PRESIDENT: A point of order where someone is offended about something is a tough thing for the Chair – to determine what is offensive. I think in this case we will leave it. I have been here for a long time, and a bit of this goes on. I do not like it, but I do not want to set a precedent by ruling that it is offensive. I do not like it. I do not think it is necessary, because people cannot be in this chamber every second.

Wendy LOVELL: The remaining homes are now delayed until 2029, which means desperate Victorians will wait even longer for an affordable home. There is a total lack of accountability from the Allan Labor government for their failure to meet their own housing targets, and now Labor is trying to hide the truth about their failures. The failure of the Big Housing Build is leaving thousands of Victorians without a roof over their heads. Many of my constituents in Macedon Ranges are desperate for housing, but this Labor government has let them down yet again with another broken promise. The minister must urgently identify appropriate sites and initiate construction of new social housing in the Macedon shire.

I do thank the minister for coming back, but I note that she would not have heard it had she got to the corridor.

Harriet Shing: On a point of order, again, President, you had just indicated that you did not find this sort of aspersion from Ms Lovell particularly savoury. I then had another reflection on my presence in the chamber as opposed to my leaving the chamber. Yet again this is on the record as some kind of unparliamentary tactic which has no respect for the parliamentary processes that we are here to debate. It is an adjournment matter with an action for the minister. That is all that it is, and nothing more.

The PRESIDENT: I will not rule on that point of order. I will just take it as a comment for future reference.