Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in support of the member for Macnamara, and to thank him for bringing this important motion before us. It's fair to say that the member for Macnamara and I represent vastly different electorates in this place, but the fact that the Morrison government's policy failure affects both our communities shows just how deep the dereliction is. This government's neglect in such an important area of policy cripples the people I represent.

Only last week Choice released data showing the western suburbs of Melbourne is a hotspot for mortgage stress. The postcode 3029, encompassing Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit and Truganina, ranks seventh in the nation and third in Victoria for mortgage stress, with an estimated nearly 8,000 households on the brink. The postcode covering Werribee and Point Cook, 3030, has 6,399 households anxious about how they are going to make their mortgage payments. That's 14,000 households in just two postcodes. In the last census around 26,000 households in my community had a mortgage. I have no doubt that has increased slightly in our growth area. On those figures, roughly 55 per cent of mortgage holders in Lalor are sitting around their kitchen tables, distressed, looking at their bills.

It gets worse. ABS data from 2016 shows that over 800 local residents were homeless—a number which no doubt has grown following the pandemic and the Morrison recession. Over half of those are between 12 and 24 years of age. Let that sink in. This is an increase of 76 per cent in the five years previously. There is no doubt that homelessness is growing across our suburbs across the country, and growing intensively in outer suburban areas. On top of these numbers are the 15,000 locals who are renting and paying an average of $310 a week. This may sound like not a lot to many who live in other suburbs, but when the personal income in Lawlor is $662 a week a rent of $310 is unaffordable.

Women's Health West recently highlighted to me the need for crisis accommodation, which this government has recently neglected to deliver. The scourge that is family and domestic violence also needs to be addressed in the housing debate, with Women's Health West receiving 13,000 referrals from Victoria Police between March 2020 and February 2021. We know many more women won't be reporting domestic violence if the impediment of the lack of crisis accommodation is not overcome.

This nation needs a proper housing policy. My community needs this nation to have a proper housing policy—one that addresses the unaffordable nature of housing, one that addresses homelessness, one that gets to the heart of skyrocketing and unaffordable rental prices for working families, one that addresses the shortage in crisis accommodation for women and their children fleeing domestic violence, one that delivers affordable and reliable housing. This nation needs Labor's plan for housing announced by the opposition leader in the budget reply.

It's on that basis I want to acknowledge and congratulate the Victorian Andrews government for tackling this issue not just across the state but locally in Werribee, with local member Treasurer Tim Pallas delivering $30 million to build a 74-home social and affordable housing development in partnership with Unison. He the first sod on the Cottrell Street site with housing minister Richard Wynne last month. It is also going to create 50 local jobs. That's what Labor does. It's in our DNA. It's what Daniel Andrews is doing in Victoria. It's what Anthony Albanese will do as Prime Minister after the next election.

During this debate I also want to congratulate our local Wyndham City Council for their fair-minded and caring approach to this issue—no ducking, no weaving, no 'Not in our backyard'. Social housing should be across the country. It should be in every community to support the homeless and those people who need it in every community across the country. I look forward to working with Melbourne City Mission, who are also building in my community a crisis accommodation centre for youth homelessness.

All of this is being done without the federal government. The federal government has vacated the space. This government thinks every piece of work in this country can be pushed off to someone else and that homelessness is the responsibility of state governments. This government needs to get out in front of this immediately. I commend this motion to the House and I call on this government to assist in the areas of need in my community.

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