Hansard debates

Mr McGUIRE (Broadmeadows) (10:08:08): I refer to the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) inquiry into the budget estimates and in particular to the contribution from the Minister for Housing. I want to highlight the enormous commitment the Andrews Labor government has made to housing and to homelessness and how we are trying to address these issues. The minister actually highlighted before PAEC that the Andrews government has since 2014 committed a total of $1.2 billion. This is a commitment that carries on today, with more than $400 million in the 2019–20 budget allocated to the housing portfolio. This has been a real area of concentrated effort and priority from the Andrews Labor government. I want to analyse that and look at what we can do for the future as well. This goes to a proposition that I have been advocating for: how do we actually give more people a chance to reimagine the Australian dream? The argument that I am putting forward is that we are using population growth to drive economic activity, so why don’t we put the people where we have the infrastructure and why don’t we revitalise housing estates? As the member for Broadmeadows I have in my electorate one of the areas that has nearly 2000 of these old housing commission homes which were built in the 1950s—the old concrete homes, just different pastel colours, row upon row. It was for the factory fodder. I grew up in one of those homes myself. It was a great home, no problem with that. But what I am saying is that there is the opportunity to unlock the value, to change the mix of the population and to change the aspiration. One of the reasons poor people remain poor in my view is because they only know other poor people. We have got to change that so they get a chance and get the connection. So here is the opportunity. This is an emblematic Labor-empowered initiative to drive. We have a one-off opportunity, with the record low interest rates and so much government debt that is in the system at the moment. That is why I am also reaching out to superannuation funds to become part of the mix so that we can do this. One of the best things is that we have proof of this concept locally. This was the old mews area, which was all but derelict. That has been transferred into the Valley Park redevelopment, which is an outstanding mix of public, private and social housing. That was done in conjunction with Australand, now Frasers. Here is a really clever combination with the government being involved. I can tell you that it was the now Minister for Housing, who was also the housing minister at the time. He hit me up at Pellegrini’s. I had just walked in the door to see my old mate Sisto—God rest his soul—and to have a coffee. The minister said, 'Can you be part of trying to get the people to move out of this community so that we can change how this redevelopment is done?’. We were able to do that, and it has had a huge impact on the community, on the people and on the quality of housing. Of course, it is the proximity to the centre of the city that makes it of such high value. It is only 16 kilometres from the heart of one of the world’s most livable cities. My argument is, 'Why don’t we put the people where we have the infrastructure already?’. We have got two train lines into the electorate of Broadmeadows, we have got the spur into the Ford site, we have got the ring‑road, we have got the widened Tullamarine Freeway, which was done by the Andrews government, we have got Sydney Road and we have got the curfew-free international airport at the back door. This is what we need now to bring back the investment and the jobs. We have got the $500 million investor who wants to bring the new industries and high-tech jobs of the future into the Ford sites. So we have got that, we have got the blue-chip infrastructure. We have now this opportunity to unlock this value to change the whole aspiration of the community and to provide affordable housing for the next generation. I think it would be a wonderful emblematic achievement of the Andrews Labor government if we could couple this up and get people to invest, and I think now is the time to absolutely deliver on this—and that is what the Andrews government does best. Public Accounts and Estimates Committee