TRANSCRIPT:
I rise today to speak on the Building Legislation Amendment (Buyer Protections) Bill 2025. It is a bill that we cannot support. The bill’s general aim is to address ongoing challenges that new home buyers have when it comes to unresolved defects on their properties. This is something that does require urgent attention – there is no arguing that – but serious questions do remain about whether this piece of legislation is the right way to do it.
The main purpose of this bill involves transferring the domestic building insurance operations of the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority and the operations of Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria to the Victorian Building Authority; granting the VBA a monopoly on the provision of domestic building insurance for homes, including those with buildings of up to three storeys; creating a statutory insurance scheme for homes, including those with buildings of up to three storeys, to be administered by the VBA; empowering the VBA with stronger authority to mandate the rectification of defective, noncompliant or incomplete building work; and introducing a system of developer bonds for residential apartment buildings over three storeys, set at 2 per cent of construction costs, to be held for up to two years. These changes will be primarily done by a series of amendments to existing legislation, including the Building Act 1993, the Domestic Building Contracts Act 1995, the Sale of Land Act 1962, the Subdivision Act 1988 and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 1998.
While both the construction industry and consumers acknowledge the issues surrounding building quality rectifications, and while the builders warranty insurance system has been poorly managed for some time, the bill fails to properly address fundamental problems. I will go into those details.
There is a total lack of clarity around the contents and obligations within building contracts, which are often at the absolute heart of these disputes. VCAT remains the ultimate decision-maker, and it continues to be underfunded and under-resourced. The proposed renaming of the VBA to the Building and Plumbing Commission is typical of Labor’s approach to name changes, and it essentially leaves all the existing processes and personnel who currently oversee the construction industry absolutely unchanged. The 10-year defect liability period for builders is too long and not clearly defined; the legislation is not supported by the industry, importantly, which is something you have to consider; and consultation must be improved.
We have already seen that the VBA has consistently failed in its licensing inspections and enforcement duties, including allowing unqualified, unlicensed builders and inadequate inspections and ignoring consumer complaints. The VBA has also failed to properly manage the insurance payments of builders, with catastrophic failure, particularly during the Porter Davis collapse. We cannot expect different outcomes just by dressing up the VBA with a new name. They do say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I feel like that is where we are at. This is what Labor does. Sadly, the issues are compounded by the government’s inability to manage other areas of housing, particularly through their so-called big build.
Housing waitlists continue to grow under Labor, with the Victorian housing register seeing a staggering increase of 65 per cent over the last eight years. Since the launch of the Big Housing Build in 2020 we have seen a 23 per cent increase alone. It now means as of December more than 65,000 families are on that waitlist, many of whom are facing nearly two years of waiting before they can secure a home. This waitlist number is a new record, but it is a record that this government should be absolutely ashamed of. For families escaping domestic violence the situation is dire: waitlists of nearly 20 months. It represents an alarming and heartbreaking increase of more than 120 per cent since 2018. We have to face the fact that the current approach is not enough to meet the needs of our community and those who are most vulnerable.
The statistics point to broader concerns to be had with this government’s legislative ability when it comes to managing housing policy. Much like this piece of legislation before us today, we have seen insufficient investment, poor planning and a lack of effective solutions to tackle the housing crisis in Victoria. These issues have carried over into the big build, with public housing and general housing construction numbers failing to hit their mark despite promises made by the government. Between June 2015 and June 2024 Victoria added just 4000 new social and community dwellings, less than half of what New South Wales delivered during the same period. The overall number of public housing bedrooms has also shrunk. In June 2018 there were over 160,000 public housing bedrooms. In June last year that number had dropped to less than 156,000. Public housing initiatives like the Benalla West project in my electorate have completely stalled and gone ridiculously over budget – something very on brand for Labor – resulting in the displacement of so many families and so many households and leaving countless on housing waitlists and moving out of our region.
How can we trust a government to manage their building authorities and protect new home buyers from dodgy builders when they are unable to manage the basics of building homes and even the government’s own budget targets are falling well, well short? They have failed to reach their housing targets and are building fewer homes on land they own. That is 440 fewer homes on Homes Victoria land and more than 1100 less on land owned by other government departments. These are huge numbers. When we look at the housing crisis, this is where legislation has to look. Since 2018 a total of 3085 public housing homes have been demolished, 741 sold and nearly a thousand properties disposed of. These statistics speak for themselves. The government is failing to deliver the social and public housing Victoria so desperately needs. The targets are missed, homes are being sold off or demolished and the shortage is growing astronomically.
Another area within housing that needs desperate attention revolves around the ongoing and persistent delays relating to housing and building permits. In Seymour we have seen a 365-day turnaround for basic building permits, with councils ill-equipped to handle them. Areas like Seymour are trying to deal with complicated flood overlays, insurance challenges and delays, making it hard for builders and housing industries to succeed. And it is having a harmful impact on buyers and renters. We have got less than 3 per cent rental availability in our communities – 1 per cent in some. It is impossible to get a roof over your head. And we have seen this government backtrack already when it comes to planning flying squads, recently reintroducing a trial after previously cancelling the cost-effective and successful initiative. This is something we have been calling on for years, particularly as the housing crisis under the government continues to get worse. Labor’s planning failures are the reason we have a housing affordability crisis.
A member interjected.
Annabelle CLEELAND: I have just listed it all. Now they are scrambling to catch up with yet another plan and yet another piece of legislation that will not deliver results and again continues to miss the mark. I look forward to seeing a day where effective housing legislation is introduced in these chambers, but this bill does not hit the mark.