Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (12:16): My question today is for the minister for housing. During the recent bushfires around 340 homes were destroyed. Those homes housed single families, multiple generations and individuals. Exact numbers are hard to calculate, but there could be somewhere in the region of 500 to 1000 people who are homeless and are now forced to live with relatives or in caravans or are housed in hotels. Minister, apart from the grants and funding, what is the government doing to get these people into appropriate and stable housing within their communities while they rebuild their lives?
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:17): Thank you, Ms Tyrrell, for that question. The breadth of your question is something that may invite a conversation with a number of ministers across a number of portfolios. Beyond the housing component to bushfire rescue, response and recovery, there are also a number of supports that are available through emergency services, local government, the work across agriculture and of course the partnerships between the Commonwealth and the state government around access to programs, supports and payments available for families and short- and longer term accommodation.
I will, however, perhaps take you through some of the information that we have around Homes Victoria. At this stage we have no known Homes Victoria buildings that have been lost in these bushfires. In terms of the general figures, the update that we have as at last night is there were at least 437 homes that had been destroyed and 28 homes significantly damaged. But numbers are in flux. As you would appreciate, Ms Tyrrell – and Mrs Cleeland in the other place – things are changing on the ground, and local information and intelligence will continue to be of really significant importance, particularly as those condition processes and assessments are ongoing.
We also know that as we continue with the state of disaster, which will remain in place until 8 February across those 18 local government areas and one of the alpine resorts, ongoing support will be of crucial importance to people. This goes well beyond the housing portfolio, however, so what I am very happy to do – and without setting any precedent under the standing orders – is perhaps arrange for some further information to be provided to you. But I do want to reaffirm our commitment to making sure that the long tail of recovery is at the heart of what is delivered, whether it is crisis accommodation or short- or longer term housing. The work to rebuild communities to assist them with that resilience development, with preparation, is also about making sure that as we contemplate and respond to ever more acute situations of vulnerability to emergency and to disaster – whether it is landslips, whether it is flooding or whether it is fires or droughts – we are in a position to help communities with information and we are in a position across local, state and Commonwealth governments to have those partnerships that meet people in their hour of greatest need. We will continue to do that, including by reference to gathering information on the ground from communities who know best what it is that they have and what it is that they need.
Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:20): Ms Tyrrell, that goes again to a question much broader than the housing portfolio. But just to underscore what has been said on many occasions by the Premier, the Minister for Emergency Services, the Minister for Agriculture, the ministers for local government and planning, Commonwealth counterparts and so many people around this chamber in the condolence motion yesterday, we really need to make sure that we have our shoulders to the wheel in the longer term around response, recovery, resilience and rebuilding. This is where housing is a really important part of that work. After the Lismore floods we saw that emergency accommodation was necessary. We also saw that in October 2022, with that flood recovery work across the north and the east, and of course after Black Summer, so we know where the areas of greatest need have been. We continue to gather further intelligence and information about how to do that better. Continuous improvement is all part of better response and adaptation to emergencies and natural disasters, and we will get you some further information on that work.