Mr BAYLEY question to MINISTER for HOUSING and PLANNING, Mr ELLIS
Homes Tasmania information in an RTI generated by the ABC has exposed the deceptiveness of your government’s claims to build 10,000 new dwellings by 2032. We have already debated at length how disingenuous it is to be counting crisis accommodation, vacant land and the use of Homes Tasmania funding to purchase accommodation for health workers, but this RTI exposes the scale of fudged figures. Less than one third of the 10,000 target will be social homes and over 1000 vacant blocks of land will help prop up the numbers. Almost 2000 involve private rental assistance or family violence rapid rehousing, which, while welcome, are not new homes.
When will you stop fudging the figures and invest the money needed to genuinely build new homes for Tasmanians in need? How can you justify a billion-dollar stadium when thousands of Tasmanians languish on the housing wait list because you will not invest what is needed to provide them a home?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, the answer to the last part of the question is we can do both, because this is a government that invests in intergenerational infrastructure. Whether that is homes for Tasmanians who are doing it tough, whether that is the new Bridgewater bridge that is popping up out of the water and is going to be so important for our transport industry and everyday Tasmanians, or whether it is the stadium that will unlock our AFL dream of decades.
I completely reject the characterisation of the member for Clark there. Our government has a target of 10,000 social and affordable homes by 2032. We have delivered more than one third of the target in a third of the time – 3772 homes as at the last dashboard, delivering nearly 100 over the last month of counting. Our government makes absolutely no bones about the fact that we will deliver across the housing spectrum.
That is part of the problem in our country more broadly, that action has not been taken in all parts of our housing spectrum – whether that is people looking to buy their first home and to take that first step onto the property ladder that unlocks so many opportunities for people; whether that is our key worker accommodation that ensures that the people who care for us and keep us safe have a place to put their head at the end of a busy day helping their fellow Tasmanians; whether it is our Tasmanians doing it tough who are seeking a social home so that they can have the stability there; or those who need crisis accommodation and need support in some of the most difficult moments that any of us can imagine.
Our government as part of this Budget commits nearly half a billion dollars to ensuring that we can continue to deliver, to build more homes that are social and affordable, just as we have always said, just as we outlined in our action plan and our strategy from 2023, when the counting rules were established. Can I say, too, that the government recognises the importance when we act across the housing spectrum of increasing supply.
You cannot on one hand complain about affordable land being released to the market and then on the other hand complain about not delivering supply. They are one in the same, Mr Bayley, and the reason why we do that is because we believe that Tasmanians should have the option to buy land, to build the house of their dreams rather than just the government’s dreams. We think that that is really important; that choice unlocks the capability for Tasmanians to live in a home that they love and to contract with builders from right across our community and our economy to provide jobs for Tasmanians, apprenticeships for young people who want an opportunity in our economy.
Dr Woodruff – That is not what you are doing.
The SPEAKER – Order, Leader of the Greens.
Mr ELLIS – We make no apologies for acting right across the housing spectrum.
Dr Woodruff – You are being dishonest.
The SPEAKER – The Leader of the Greens is warned.
Mr ELLIS – We have been upfront with that from day one and we will continue to deliver.
The SPEAKER – Just in case anyone did not hear, I warned the Leader of the Greens for consistent interjecting.
SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION
The SPEAKER – I will take this, I am assuming, supplementary question?
Mr BAYLEY – It is a supplementary, indeed, Honourable Speaker.
The minister talked about investing both in infrastructure and housing. He talked about the half a billion dollars, but we know from this RTI and other elements including the Budget that a lot of this is going be funded through borrowings. Can you update the House as to what TasCorp’s position is in relation to Homes Tasmania’s requirements to build the houses?
Mr ELLIS – Speaker –
The SPEAKER – First of all, I have not called you. I am going to rule the supplementary in because it comes out of the answer, but if I could ask you not to jump to your feet as the question is being asked again, that would make my life a bit easier. I call the Minister for Housing and Planning.
Mr ELLIS – Honourable Speaker, I get very excited to talk about our plan to deliver 10,000 social and affordable homes. I have to say, it was one of the most embarrassing things about Estimates for the Greens when Mr Bayley did not even realise that his own alternative budget proposed double the amount of borrowings as our proposal did in the housing space. You were not even aware, and it is there in black and white. It was the same with Ms Badger about their plan to defund the police, which she was not aware of.
Mr Bayley, you have to be honest with people. Our plan is to deliver 10,000 social affordable homes, and we will do that with one‑and‑a‑half billion dollars’ worth of funding that we have proposed to deliver that. We have said that from day one when we set the targets, and as part of this Budget, we set out nearly half a billion dollars of funding to deliver it. These are intergenerational assets. This is a good asset that will be with us for decades to come and so, like everyday Tasmanians, we borrow to build our state.
