Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:37): It does appear appropriate, given a range of matters in this place, that I talk today about our support for women. Whether it is building homes for vulnerable women and their children at risk of homelessness or delivering trades and construction jobs for women on state-shaping, nation-building projects like the Suburban Rail Loop, we are helping women to work and to live safely and securely. Support begins with providing housing for those facing the greatest barriers, giving vulnerable Victorian women the dignity and the safety of a secure home. That is why our Big Housing Build is delivering homes for 1000 victim-survivors of family violence. This work is well underway. In 2024 we put the finishing touches on almost 100 new social housing homes for older women in Melbourne’s south-east. That is on top of the recently completed 49 homes for older women in Summerhill Village, West Footscray. At Essex Street in Prahran we are delivering 86 social housing homes dedicated to women and children experiencing financial instability or homelessness or escaping family violence. At Alphington we are transforming unused government land to build around 70 new homes, including seven affordable homes for women on low incomes.

Labor is also increasing women’s participation in our booming building industry, whether it is the Building and Plumbing Commission’s commitment to gender parity or engaging women in the building regulatory industry through the building surveyors group’s women’s network. It is not surprising that the Liberals tried to block us from establishing the Building and Plumbing Commission in the first place. But it does not stop at housing. The Allan Labor government is providing long-term, well-paying, safe job opportunities for women in construction and their families. We are mandating that at least 40 per cent of apprentices, trainees and cadets on the Suburban Rail Loop are women, and we will also be driven by the first all-women tunnelling crew in the world when tunnel boring kicks off later this year. But that is all under threat under you lot – $11.1 billion of cuts and scant regard to respect for women.