Thursday, 5 March 2026

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:10): Last week I was in South Melbourne with the member for Albert Park, an excellent member, visiting the precinct at Dorcas Street. This is vacant land that previously had 64 old flats now being turned into 131 brand new social housing homes. This is being delivered in partnership with the Commonwealth government’s Housing Australia Future Fund. That is a $10 billion fund which your friend the former leader Peter Dutton was going to scrap had he been given the opportunity. This is a project that will deliver so many families the housing that they need and that they deserve. This is just one of many projects that are being delivered right across Victoria – projects that those opposite promised to scrap, projects that the Liberal–One Nation alliance, alongside the Greens, have voted and opposed time and time again.

Over the last year we have been building, commencing and completing more homes than both New South Wales and Queensland. Try as you might with a fictitious narrative about the work that we are doing, the work that we are doing is working. We are issuing more first home buyers grants than New South Wales and Queensland. In fact it is 11,900 more than New South Wales and about 16,000 more than Queensland. Melbourne is the only capital city where the time required for a first home buyer to save for a deposit for an entry-level home or unit has decreased in the last five years. That means more affordability. And when we talk about rental affordability, renting a home in Melbourne is also more affordable than in any other capital city. While we are building a future where more Victorians have the opportunity to live in our vibrant inner suburbs, the Liberals are plotting to keep people out, as we keep saying – anywhere but Brighton, keep out of Kew, stay out of Sandringham. While we are building more homes for people who deserve them, the Liberals are voting time and time again to oppose redevelopment, including of the high-rise towers. Come November, the choice is clear.