Thursday, 19 March 2026

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:20): (1281) My question is to Minister Shing as minister for housing. Will the minister confirm that the Homes Victoria advisory board last met on 22 May 2025 and that therefore Homes Victoria, under her watch, has been operating without a board for almost 10 months?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:21): Thank you very much, Mr Davis. At the outset I want to thank you for your sudden interest in housing here in Victoria. What you seem to be more interested in is blocking and opposing – it has been 12 seconds, Mr Davis.

David Davis: On a point of order, President, it is a time to answer questions in question time, not to attack the opposition. My question was very specific about the Homes Victoria advisory board. It was not a general or broad question; it was a very specific question about a board that the minister is responsible for. She cannot go on a broad ramble.

The PRESIDENT: She had only been talking for, I think it was, less than 16 seconds and –

David Davis: Yes, but she was off onto a new tangent.

The PRESIDENT: She might have been giving some context to start with before she answered the question.

Harriet SHING: So what I would like you to do, Mr Davis, is to –

David Davis: On a point of order, President, in question time questions are put by other members of the chamber and ministers answer questions. They do not give advice or say what they would like us to do. It is a simple thing, a simple question. May 2025, 10 months, no advisory board – that is all the question was about. It is not about the minister giving advice.

The PRESIDENT: If the point of order was that the contribution should be directed through the Chair, I uphold that. But I was a little bit relaxed about it because I believe the minister was trying to assist you in your question and therefore personalise it to that degree.

Harriet SHING: We did miss you yesterday, Mr Davis, but it is good to see that the quality has at least remained consistent. One of the things that we have seen is that in delivering more housing across the state and in operating a program of ambitious delivery we have between 16,000 and 17,000 new social housing homes being delivered, and this is being done not only at a local level but also in partnership with the Albanese government. This includes the Housing Australia Future Fund –

David Davis: On a point of order, President, this is a very narrow, specific question about the advisory board, which last met on 25 May. I have asked the minister to confirm that and to explain why it has not been meeting for 10 months.

The PRESIDENT: I am sure the chamber understands the question. Once again, the minister has still got 2 minutes to address the question. If she does not, then there are provisions in the standing orders around written responses. If you do not believe the judgement I make around that is correct, there is a provision to ask me to review it and get back to the chamber. You are not going to stand up every 3 seconds and do a point of order; we are not playing that game. The minister has got 2 minutes. Let us see how she goes.

Harriet SHING: Mr Davis, relevance relates to the question as you asked it, the preamble as you put it and the subject matter of the portfolio that I hold. What we are doing is delivering, as I said, between 16,000 and 17,000 new social housing homes. Under the last coalition government –

David Davis: On a point of order, President, it has got nothing to do with the previous coalition government. It is not a time to attack the opposition. This is a very specific question about a board the minister is responsible for that has not met for 10 months. I am asking her about that board, nothing else.

The PRESIDENT: Mr Davis, maybe we have varying levels of patience. The minister still has a minute and a half under the standing orders to address your question.

Harriet SHING: Mr Davis, you may not have created any new homes when you were in government –

David Davis: On a point of order, President, it is not up to the minister to attack the opposition. She just needs to answer the question, the very simple question, about a board that she is responsible for – that is all it is.

The PRESIDENT: You do not need to repeat the question.

Harriet SHING: Not only are we delivering between 16,000 and 17,000 new homes, we are also creating jobs, Mr Davis. One of the things that you would have noticed had you been in the market for a new job is that there is a recruitment process that has been underway for the Homes Victoria advisory board, and that was in fact on the Homes Victoria website.

David Davis interjected.

Harriet SHING: I am going to pick you up on that interjection. You see that process of recruitment. You see that that has been a process that we are undertaking. We are continuing with delivering homes. We are continuing with the process of due diligence as it relates to recruitment. Mr Davis, I am not sure whether you put your hand up, but in the meantime, what we are continuing to do –

David Davis: On a point of order, President, it was a very specific question about the date of the last meeting of the advisory board and the fact that it is now 10 months later. My question to the minister is very specific. It is not a broad question. She just needs to answer it and be relevant to the question.

The PRESIDENT: My opinion is she was actually relevant to the question just then, before you called your last point of order, about the machinations of this particular board.

Harriet SHING: The clue is in the title, Mr Davis: it is an advisory board. But what I do, consistently, is listen to residents to get their advice and to get their lived experience. Mr Davis, I am not sure whether you have got seek.com on your phone, but it has certainly been advertised there. There is certainly a recruitment process underway, Mr Davis, and I look forward to continuing the work to deliver housing that you continue to oppose and to block.

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:28): We almost got an answer there about the last date the board met. But let me advise the minister that in section 11A of the Housing Act, for which she is responsible, you are required to have a board with a minimum of five members and a maximum of 11. Minister, for 10 months you have acted in breach of the act by effectively, having a board with no members, running Homes Victoria by yourself. That is correct, isn’t it?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Minister for Housing and Building, Minister for Development Victoria and Precincts) (12:29): Thanks, Mr Davis. The act itself is pretty clear: it vests authority in the minister and the portfolio holder, which I am privileged to be, and it enables the Homes Victoria advisory board, the CEO of Homes Victoria and other parts of the housing system to provide advice, recommendations and information and to operationalise the policy priorities of government in delivering housing for the purposes set out and established in that act. Standing here and playing quid pro quo and quoting sections of the Housing Act with me I would caution may be potentially an exercise that may end in misfortune for you, given the work that we are doing, including with an advisory board, including with the recruitment process. We are doing that work carefully and appropriately. Mr Davis, the same could not ever have been said for you.

David Davis: I move that the minister’s failure to appoint an advisory board for 10 months be taken into account on the next day of meeting.

The PRESIDENT: Maybe you can try something different. I am not putting that question. Have a go at one that I might be able to put.

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (12:30): I move:

That the minister’s answer be taken into account on the next day of meeting.

Motion agreed to.