❓ The Minister for Housing and Works outlines the Cook Labor government's housing initiatives and criticises the opposition's housing policies, questioning their commitment to change.
AnsweredQoN 18Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
Housing—Availability
18. Ms Emily Hamilton to the Minister for Housing and Works :
I refer to the Cook
Labor government's focus on growing Western Australia's housing supply so that
every Western Australian has a home.
(1) Can the minister outline to the house how the
Cook Labor government's innovative housing initiatives are delivering thousands
of additional homes, including nearly 3,000 social and affordable houses?
(2) Can the minister advise the house whether he
is aware of anyone who does not support the government's efforts to reset
housing policies and investment?
18. Ms Emily Hamilton to the Minister for Housing and Works :
I refer to the Cook
Labor government's focus on growing Western Australia's housing supply so that
every Western Australian has a home.
(1) Can the minister outline to the house how the
Cook Labor government's innovative housing initiatives are delivering thousands
of additional homes, including nearly 3,000 social and affordable houses?
(2) Can the minister advise the house whether he
is aware of anyone who does not support the government's efforts to reset
housing policies and investment?
AnswerView source ↗
I thank the member
for Joondalup for her questions, and congratulations, Mr Speaker, on your
appointment.
(1)–(2) As members know, our government
has a resolute focus on doing everything we can to boost housing supply across
the continuum in Western Australia. We have, since 2021, invested more than $5 billion
in social housing, affordable housing and homelessness programs. We are nearly
at that magic figure of 3,000 social homes. I watch it every month—tick,
tick, tick. There are 2,950 social homes, and we have done that because we
reset our housing programs and policies. We looked outside the box. We embraced
modular to deliver housing. We changed our planning rules to cut red tape, to
streamline and to get housing out the door. The Premier referred to the
fee-free courses and radically rethinking how we do TAFE.
We reset those policies and
there is more to come as part of our election commitments, with a new
innovation fund to embrace the modular industry. That reset is paying off. The
most recent data shows that there has been a 47% rise in building approvals to
22,000. That is outstripping the situation in other states. The Perth rental
vacancy rate is now at 2.3%—doubling that from a few years ago. That
builds on the latest data for housing completions, which shows that Western
Australia is leading the nation. All those key housing indicators show that
Western Australia is leading the nation.
When it came to the election,
despite four years of criticisms, the opposition would not commit to a social
housing target. In fact, it would not commit to any target. Then, one day, the
opposition slipped a social housing media commitment online, in which it said
after four years of criticisms, "We'll do everything they're doing."
That was it! The opposition's plan was our plan. That was the social housing
policy it took to the election. The opposition says it is doing a total reset.
I am not seeing that reset to date. It has not been demonstrated by the Leader
of the Opposition. In one of his first acts, he went to a WA Planning Commission
meeting to publicly oppose critical new housing for housing supply.
He also did the favourite
Liberal thing, and that is undermine the integrity of the independent Western
Australian Planning Commission by stating at that meeting that it had made a
predetermined outcome. We have the former Liberal leader, who said that the
election was a referendum on the women's and babies' hospital, yet has not
acknowledged the will of the Western Australian people and still says that the
Western Australian people got it wrong and that the location is wrong. But I
think the most telling lack of total reset comes to "The Clan". "The
Clan" is still in control of the WA Liberal Party; Nick Goiran is still
firmly on the front bench as its shadow Attorney General. It is interesting
that there was an avalanche of media articles by The
West Australian and WAtoday ,
including "Clan-aligned WA Liberals candidates to duke it out for winnable
upper house spot" and "Clan member Nick Goiran insists he didn't pull
strings in the South Perth pre-selection", knocking off the most
recognised and best Liberal candidate Hayley
Cormann, and Josh Zimmerman was talking about "The Clan". It is
interesting that everyone in this chamber knows that "The Clan" exists,
except one person. One person has no knowledge of "The Clan". I refer
to the Leader of the Opposition, who said:
Look, Oli, I've said many times,
as I have been asked about it over the last few months, I can only go on
personal experience and I don't believe or—if "The Clan" exists,
I have no awareness or have seen no evidence of it. Clearly, Nick Goiran exists
…
I thought I was having a
metaphysical crisis, because I saw Nick Goiran and he was not real! But I am
glad the Leader of the Liberal Party has given his assurance to all Western
Australians that Nick Goiran exists. This is the reality. There is no total
reset by the WA Liberals. I say this to the Leader of the Opposition: if you
want to understand the machinations of "The Clan", perhaps you would
like to talk to the member for Carine, the education spokesperson on your front
shadow cabinet who takes his orders from Nick Goiran, who is a clan boy. What
is very evident is this: it does not matter what they say or do, there is no
reset when it comes to planning, when it comes to housing or when it comes to
getting its house in order and finally dealing with the extremist power brokers
who operate in the WA Liberals.
for Joondalup for her questions, and congratulations, Mr Speaker, on your
appointment.
(1)–(2) As members know, our government
has a resolute focus on doing everything we can to boost housing supply across
the continuum in Western Australia. We have, since 2021, invested more than $5 billion
in social housing, affordable housing and homelessness programs. We are nearly
at that magic figure of 3,000 social homes. I watch it every month—tick,
tick, tick. There are 2,950 social homes, and we have done that because we
reset our housing programs and policies. We looked outside the box. We embraced
modular to deliver housing. We changed our planning rules to cut red tape, to
streamline and to get housing out the door. The Premier referred to the
fee-free courses and radically rethinking how we do TAFE.
We reset those policies and
there is more to come as part of our election commitments, with a new
innovation fund to embrace the modular industry. That reset is paying off. The
most recent data shows that there has been a 47% rise in building approvals to
22,000. That is outstripping the situation in other states. The Perth rental
vacancy rate is now at 2.3%—doubling that from a few years ago. That
builds on the latest data for housing completions, which shows that Western
Australia is leading the nation. All those key housing indicators show that
Western Australia is leading the nation.
When it came to the election,
despite four years of criticisms, the opposition would not commit to a social
housing target. In fact, it would not commit to any target. Then, one day, the
opposition slipped a social housing media commitment online, in which it said
after four years of criticisms, "We'll do everything they're doing."
That was it! The opposition's plan was our plan. That was the social housing
policy it took to the election. The opposition says it is doing a total reset.
I am not seeing that reset to date. It has not been demonstrated by the Leader
of the Opposition. In one of his first acts, he went to a WA Planning Commission
meeting to publicly oppose critical new housing for housing supply.
He also did the favourite
Liberal thing, and that is undermine the integrity of the independent Western
Australian Planning Commission by stating at that meeting that it had made a
predetermined outcome. We have the former Liberal leader, who said that the
election was a referendum on the women's and babies' hospital, yet has not
acknowledged the will of the Western Australian people and still says that the
Western Australian people got it wrong and that the location is wrong. But I
think the most telling lack of total reset comes to "The Clan". "The
Clan" is still in control of the WA Liberal Party; Nick Goiran is still
firmly on the front bench as its shadow Attorney General. It is interesting
that there was an avalanche of media articles by The
West Australian and WAtoday ,
including "Clan-aligned WA Liberals candidates to duke it out for winnable
upper house spot" and "Clan member Nick Goiran insists he didn't pull
strings in the South Perth pre-selection", knocking off the most
recognised and best Liberal candidate Hayley
Cormann, and Josh Zimmerman was talking about "The Clan". It is
interesting that everyone in this chamber knows that "The Clan" exists,
except one person. One person has no knowledge of "The Clan". I refer
to the Leader of the Opposition, who said:
Look, Oli, I've said many times,
as I have been asked about it over the last few months, I can only go on
personal experience and I don't believe or—if "The Clan" exists,
I have no awareness or have seen no evidence of it. Clearly, Nick Goiran exists
…
I thought I was having a
metaphysical crisis, because I saw Nick Goiran and he was not real! But I am
glad the Leader of the Liberal Party has given his assurance to all Western
Australians that Nick Goiran exists. This is the reality. There is no total
reset by the WA Liberals. I say this to the Leader of the Opposition: if you
want to understand the machinations of "The Clan", perhaps you would
like to talk to the member for Carine, the education spokesperson on your front
shadow cabinet who takes his orders from Nick Goiran, who is a clan boy. What
is very evident is this: it does not matter what they say or do, there is no
reset when it comes to planning, when it comes to housing or when it comes to
getting its house in order and finally dealing with the extremist power brokers
who operate in the WA Liberals.
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