Tuesday, 31 March 2026

 Katherine COPSEY (Southern Metropolitan) (13:52): It was an absolute pleasure on the weekend to head to the Glenferrie Festival and speak with the huge crowds that flocked there to enjoy the afternoon. One of the families that I spoke to got onto the topic of housing. It was a mum and dad and their young son, who had just moved to the area, and we were talking about the shared concerns of this family around getting access to affordable housing. As we heard before, less than 1 per cent of rentals in the Boroondara area are affordable, so this family were worried about how their son was going to manage the rent. One of the things we talked about, which has been proven to work in other jurisdictions like the ACT, is rent controls. This was ultimately a very hopeful conversation. I really loved connecting with the people who were there and speaking about their local concerns and things that are coming up for them every day. My congratulations to the traders association and to Boroondara council for putting on such a wonderful event. All afternoon there were cultural performances, dance, music and of course amazing food and shops to explore for people who were in attendance. It was a really wonderful day connecting with the community.