Thursday, 5 February 2026

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:37): Victoria remains the leading state for building homes. Over the year to the end of September 2025, we built more than 54,000 homes. That is about 10,000 more than New South Wales and about 20,000 more than Queensland. On top of this, Victoria approved the construction –

Wendy Lovell interjected.

Harriet SHING: Ms Lovell, it was better when you were asleep. Victoria approved –

Members interjecting.

Harriet SHING: President, I cannot hear. Can I go from the top? It is really, really hard to listen to myself or to hear what I am saying.

Members interjecting.

The PRESIDENT: Maybe I will go from the top. I am happy to grant that, so if we could reset the clock. Sorry, I was distracted. Minister, without any help from anywhere.

Harriet SHING: Victoria remains the leading state for building homes. Over the year to the end of September 2025, we built more than 54,000 homes. That is about 10,000 more than New South Wales and about 20,000 more than Queensland. On top of this, Victoria approved the construction of more than 54,000 new homes. Again, that is more than Queensland and New South Wales. Between September 2021 and March 2025 Victoria built around 220,000 new homes. Once again, that is more than Queensland and more than New South Wales. All of this reflects the strong action we are taking to build more homes that Victorians can afford in the places where they want to live – homes that are within walking distance of jobs, services and public transport links and close to family and friends.

While there is much more to do, it is clear that whether you want to buy or rent in Victoria, the data shows that what we are doing is working. According to the latest Domain rental report, the weekly asking rent for a house in Melbourne is the most affordable in Australia. In addition to that, we have banned rental bidding and no-fault evictions, and with the introduction of a portable bond scheme, we have got a number of initiatives that are helping people to make a better entry into rental accommodation and long-term housing as a result. We also want to make sure that rents for units in Melbourne continue to remain affordable, and indeed they are more affordable than Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.

Let us be really clear: this flies in the face of what certain commentators have to say about our housing market here in Victoria. They have consistently opposed and blocked the reforms that improve housing affordability in Victoria. They opposed Victoria’s short-stay levy, which is about delivering more long-term housing for people who need it, and they opposed Victoria’s vacant residential land tax that is all about an incentive to use land rather than let it stand idle.

The latest Leader of the Opposition claims that she cares about home ownership. Well, her deputy leader, who is also the Shadow Minister for Housing and Building and Shadow Minister for Planning, certainly does – at last count he had an interest in 16 properties. But so far the only homes the Liberals have supported are Airbnb beach houses. They are not on Victorians’ side. We are going to keep building.