Tuesday, 15 October 2019

 Dr RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (17:55): My adjournment matter tonight is for the Treasurer, and my ask is that the Treasurer immediately freeze all current and future plans to sell off publicly owned land. Last Thursday we marked World Homeless Day, and once again on World Homeless Day Victoria remained in the midst of a housing and homelessness crisis. More than 24 000 Victorians are homeless on any given night. More than 85 000 people are waiting for public housing. These numbers are constantly growing as more Victorians are experiencing housing stress and are increasingly at risk of homelessness. Last week the YWCA reported on the growing demand for housing from women over the age of 50, who are the fastest growing group at risk of homelessness in Australia. Since 2011 there has been a 30 per cent rise in the number of older women in unstable accommodation or accessing crisis accommodation.

With so many more Victorians at risk of homelessness, we urgently need to do more to tackle the housing and homelessness crisis in our state. Victoria is in desperate need of a significant investment in our housing and homelessness sector that goes beyond support services and funds the creation of thousands of new homes. The best way to manage homelessness is to end it. The best way to end homelessness is to create more public, social and affordable housing for everyone who needs it. To create more public housing the government needs to protect and commit public land for housing development, yet this government is proceeding with plans to sell off 2600 hectares of government-owned land—151 public sites that should be kept for public use and are instead being sold to generate a profit for the government.

Of the 151 sites that are being prepared for sale, several have been singled out by Melbourne University housing academics as ideal sites for housing development. Two of these sites were in fact included in the report’s top five sites to fast-track for social and affordable housing development. These pieces of land, one in Footscray and one in Clifton Hill, were ranked first and second due to their good access to transport and services, their appropriate size to make a difference in meeting affordable housing targets and their suitability to be developed into a residential site. Yet instead of taking this opportunity and utilising the land for public housing that Melbourne so desperately needs, the government is getting rid of it in order to prop up its bottom line.

This follows the unprecedented privatisation of our public housing estates throughout metropolitan Melbourne, allowing private developers to build on our invaluable public assets and dislocating our public housing tenants from the communities they love and are connected to. In a housing crisis the government should be investing in housing like it does in health and education. Housing should be worth billions in investment and given well-located land just like hospitals, roads and schools. But instead of acknowledging its responsibility to ensure everyone has a safe and secure home and creating more housing, the government is selling off land that has been identified as ideal for public housing development. I ask the Treasurer to immediately freeze all current and future plans to sell off our publicly owned land.