Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Seventy-six thousand—that is the number of children in Australia who have sought help from homelessness services in the last year. Over 15,000 of those have been reported to be from my home city of Melbourne, cementing our city with the unenviable title of youth homelessness capital of Australia. This is as devastating as it is avoidable. Housing is a human right, and everyone—no matter their income, postcode or age—should have access to safe and affordable housing. This right, however, has been eroded by successive governments prioritising the interests of banks, property developers and wealthy investors over everyday people. It has been eroded by successive governments hell-bent on treating housing as an investment vehicle rather than as a place to live or as a home. The Victorian Labor government demonstrated this with their insidious plan to knock down 44 public housing towers and hand over swathes of public land to developers.

I recently spoke with some residents of public housing towers in South Melbourne about this callous decision. Many of the people I talked to had been living in the towers for decades. Others had recently moved there after experiencing years of homelessness as a result of Victoria's public housing shortfall. Residents are terrified about what the Victorian Labor government's decision could mean for them, their families and their community. They are furious that the government is choosing to sell public land to wealthy investors instead of investing in quality public housing and repairing existing homes.

When 15,000 kids are seeking homelessness support, why is the Victorian Labor government choosing to defund and destroy the limited public housing that we have? Labor, your policies are costing lives. It's time to listen to the Greens and the community and to invest in public housing. It's time to end unlimited rent increases and phase out negative gearing. It's time to start putting people ahead of corporate profits. It's time to fix the housing crisis.