Thursday, 11 September 2025

Housing

Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (17:41): (1970) My adjournment is for the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek is that the minister immediately cut the unnecessary state regulations, taxes and charges that are killing housing development in Victoria. ‘Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.’ Those words of Ronald Reagan could not be more pertinent to Victoria today, a state facing crisis after crisis, all of Labor’s making. Let us talk about housing. This crisis has been created and fuelled by government interference, which distorts the market and drives up prices. I have met with many stakeholders involved in the industry, I have met with councils, and I have met with developers, builders, planners. They are all unanimous: it is simply too expensive to build homes in this state.

The Age recently revealed that three-quarters of Melbourne’s councils are set to fall short of their housing targets – half a million homes short by 2051 – yet when you look at the data, councils are not the deadlock and the roadblock. Take Manningham, in Melbourne’s east: since 2020–21 their approval rates have been between 81 per cent and 93 per cent. Last year alone, 733 applications came before them and 82 per cent were processed within the statutory timeframe, with only 2 per cent refused. So who is to blame for the 16,500-home shortfall projected in Manningham by 2051? Safe to say it is not the council; it is this Allan Labor government. Instead of fixing the real problem, Labor strips councils of planning powers and lectures older Victorians about selling their homes. Meanwhile, regulations, taxes and charges pile up and choke off supply. Excessive planning rules, ever-changing compliance requirements, duplicative approvals – all of them add unnecessary time and money. And then come the state-imposed levies, taxes and infrastructure charges that get loaded on to the final price of a home.

The Age also reports that the cost of planning suburbs in our growth corridors has skyrocketed by 750 per cent. As Villawood’s Rory Costelloe has said:

[QUOTE AWAITING VERIFICATION]

Labor’s obsession with cramming high-rise into established suburbs while stalling precinct structure plans in growth areas is strangling supply and driving up costs.

The inner-city dwellers on the other side of the aisle might like tall towers, but it is not what families want. They want backyards and more bedrooms, but Labor will not respect those preferences. It would rather dictate from Spring Street than empower industry to meet demand. The outcome is entirely predictable: fewer homes at higher prices and ordinary Victorians left footing the bill. This government could not build a chook shed, let alone solve Victoria’s housing crisis.