❓ Ms Lai asks about the Cook Labor government's role in WA's leading position in new home construction and how their affordable housing efforts compare to the opposition. The Minister responds by highlighting government initiatives and criticising the Liberal Party's housing policies.
AnsweredQoN 69Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Housing—New home construction
69. Ms Sook Yee Lai to
the Minister for Housing and Works:
I refer to the
recently published data that demonstrated that Western Australia is leading the
nation in the construction of new houses.
(1) Can the minister outline to the house how the
Cook Labor government has enabled this strong growth?
(2) Can the minister advise the house how this
government's efforts to ensure that people have access to secure affordable
housing compares with the proposal of those opposite?
69. Ms Sook Yee Lai to
the Minister for Housing and Works:
I refer to the
recently published data that demonstrated that Western Australia is leading the
nation in the construction of new houses.
(1) Can the minister outline to the house how the
Cook Labor government has enabled this strong growth?
(2) Can the minister advise the house how this
government's efforts to ensure that people have access to secure affordable
housing compares with the proposal of those opposite?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I thank the member for her
question. As I have said on the record before, every state in the country has
been facing housing pressures. We are deeply cognisant of how those pressures
affect renters and people wanting to buy a new home. That is why, as a state,
we have undertaken a huge number of measures to boost housing supply across the
continuum.
As the Premier has outlined, all
the data indicates that Western Australia is leading the nation in housing
completions and housing approvals and even the data around rental vacancies,
which has doubled from 0.7% to now 2.5%, which the Real Estate Institute of WA considers
is part of a balanced rental market. It shows that all our measures—cutting
red tape, streamlining systems, facilitating investment in skills in the
construction industry to build those homes and utilising lazy land—are having
a real impact.
Today I joined the Deputy
Premier and the Premier on one of our innovative approaches. It is big; it is
bold; it is ambitious. It is unprecedented for a state government, through
DevelopmentWA, to build 14 build-to-rent projects
that will add more than a thousand social housing and affordable rental
apartments. It is unprecedented, and I want to say it marks in strong
contrast to the other side. We know that the federal Liberal Party has given a
clear commitment to abolish the funding for those projects. It would kill those
projects. Members of the Liberal Party and their partners in crime who do
everything they are told—the Nationals WA—support abolishing
that fund. But on top of that, we had the Liberal Party leader and the new
housing spokesperson come to a press conference and say, "Thousands? We
need tens of thousands of houses!" So let us ask this: What plan did the
Liberals take to the last state election?
Several members
interjected.
Mr John Carey: This is interesting. Members will remember
the debate a few days before the election. The
West Australian acknowledged that I beat the Liberal leader hands down
in a radio debate, and he was asked there, "What's your social housing
target?" He was like an octopus! He was moving around. I do not know whether
it was kung fu fighting; I do not know. Do not sit next to him in a cinema! But
I can tell members this: he could not give a number. Today we have the Leader
of the Liberal Party who comes out and says that we need to build more homes
but in his first test was not able to give a number. This is the other irony.
In its policy on social and affordable housing, after eight years, I will read
you the Liberal Party's commitment. It said that it will take a do-no-harm
approach, quarantining the current quantum for social and affordable housing
and homelessness across the forward estimates. What they said just then is,
"We will just do what they're doing." You would think, after eight
years, they might come up with some different policies. They slipped it out. This
is the truth: the Liberal Party does not support social and affordable housing.
We have the member for Geraldton, who came out and opposed the location of a
critical social housing development; we have the member for Carine, who opposes
a Department of Communities site to be upzoned to three storeys; and we have
the Leader of the Liberal Party, who has the gall to talk about housing when he
shut down a women's shelter at the most critical time. This is their record.
They have no genuine commitment because when they are pressed on these issues,
like the member for Geraldton, like the member for Carine, and like the Leader of
the Liberals himself, they fall, they fall and they fall. Only one side of this
house is committed to delivering social and affordable housing, and it is this side
of the house.
question. As I have said on the record before, every state in the country has
been facing housing pressures. We are deeply cognisant of how those pressures
affect renters and people wanting to buy a new home. That is why, as a state,
we have undertaken a huge number of measures to boost housing supply across the
continuum.
As the Premier has outlined, all
the data indicates that Western Australia is leading the nation in housing
completions and housing approvals and even the data around rental vacancies,
which has doubled from 0.7% to now 2.5%, which the Real Estate Institute of WA considers
is part of a balanced rental market. It shows that all our measures—cutting
red tape, streamlining systems, facilitating investment in skills in the
construction industry to build those homes and utilising lazy land—are having
a real impact.
Today I joined the Deputy
Premier and the Premier on one of our innovative approaches. It is big; it is
bold; it is ambitious. It is unprecedented for a state government, through
DevelopmentWA, to build 14 build-to-rent projects
that will add more than a thousand social housing and affordable rental
apartments. It is unprecedented, and I want to say it marks in strong
contrast to the other side. We know that the federal Liberal Party has given a
clear commitment to abolish the funding for those projects. It would kill those
projects. Members of the Liberal Party and their partners in crime who do
everything they are told—the Nationals WA—support abolishing
that fund. But on top of that, we had the Liberal Party leader and the new
housing spokesperson come to a press conference and say, "Thousands? We
need tens of thousands of houses!" So let us ask this: What plan did the
Liberals take to the last state election?
Several members
interjected.
Mr John Carey: This is interesting. Members will remember
the debate a few days before the election. The
West Australian acknowledged that I beat the Liberal leader hands down
in a radio debate, and he was asked there, "What's your social housing
target?" He was like an octopus! He was moving around. I do not know whether
it was kung fu fighting; I do not know. Do not sit next to him in a cinema! But
I can tell members this: he could not give a number. Today we have the Leader
of the Liberal Party who comes out and says that we need to build more homes
but in his first test was not able to give a number. This is the other irony.
In its policy on social and affordable housing, after eight years, I will read
you the Liberal Party's commitment. It said that it will take a do-no-harm
approach, quarantining the current quantum for social and affordable housing
and homelessness across the forward estimates. What they said just then is,
"We will just do what they're doing." You would think, after eight
years, they might come up with some different policies. They slipped it out. This
is the truth: the Liberal Party does not support social and affordable housing.
We have the member for Geraldton, who came out and opposed the location of a
critical social housing development; we have the member for Carine, who opposes
a Department of Communities site to be upzoned to three storeys; and we have
the Leader of the Liberal Party, who has the gall to talk about housing when he
shut down a women's shelter at the most critical time. This is their record.
They have no genuine commitment because when they are pressed on these issues,
like the member for Geraldton, like the member for Carine, and like the Leader of
the Liberals himself, they fall, they fall and they fall. Only one side of this
house is committed to delivering social and affordable housing, and it is this side
of the house.
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