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?
Mr John Carey replied:
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.
