I have stood here in this place before and I have talked about the importance of recognising the rights of renters. I spent quite a few years over the past decade renting, and I can tell you some of the rental reforms here in this place have been outstanding to protect renters, but it is why our government is absolutely determined to get more folks into homes in places, most importantly – let us face it – where they want to live, because by increasing the supply of housing we make it more affordable; it is simple. It means that more people can afford to live in the inner and middle-ring suburbs that are well established and well connected to public transport and amenities. That is something I feel really strongly about as the member for Laverton, because I toggle inner, middle and outer western suburbs. It means that there is less of a reliance on outer-suburban growth areas like in my electorate of Laverton, like Truganina and Williams Landing, and like the folks that are living in the many, many suburbs that make up the Wyndham municipality. It means that there is less reliance on those outer-suburban growth areas to carry all the heavy lifting. That is what folks in the outer west are doing – they are carrying the heavy lifting for Victoria’s population growth. The City of Wyndham is bigger than Greater Geelong and still growing.

What this bill is also about is ensuring our kids can afford a place to themselves, close to their parents, in the communities they grew up in. That is something that people on this side of the house are out talking to folks about every day in their electorates. Parents do want their children to live close to home. I openly say I never want my children to leave home. I think the best I can hope for is that they will live down the street, or if I am extra hopeful they might be able to able to afford the house next door, but we need to make sure they can afford a home or a rental property.

I remember when the Premier began two weeks of incredible landmark housing reforms last year. I remember when those opposite, led by the member for Brighton – we all remember that – protested out the front of the Premier’s press conference. I am sure the member for Brighton thought that was a really smart thing to do, but time and time again it has come back to haunt him. ‘The blocker from Brighton,’ I think he is now known as here in this place. They were absolutely out of their minds with anger at the prospect of more homes being built in their leafy inner suburban areas, with ample amounts of train stations, tram and bus connections and schools – the sort of stuff that people in Truganina and Williams Landing and other folks in Wyndham can only dream of.

If those opposite and their protesters had their way, every single one of them looking for a place to live would just be pushed out into the outer burbs. I think, and I am pretty sure I am correct on this one – wait for it – I even heard one of them say in the news coverage, ‘Just send them to the outer burbs.’ Can you believe the audacity of those opposite? Send them to the outer burbs. What an anthem that is for the 2026 election, let me tell you that. Suburbs like ours in Melbourne’s outer west grow faster than our ability to service them with the infrastructure they need.

[Interjections]

You can think that is a laughing matter when you want to send people into the outer west. Believe me, I applaud what we are doing here in this space in reorienting this growth. We are getting more apartments, townhouses and units in those established inner- and middle-ring suburbs. But of course it is not just important that we build more homes; we need to ensure that these homes are well built, because God forbid if someone wanting to build a home or move into a newly built home should possibly ask for a quality build. That is what we are going to give them: you get what you pay for.

We need to ensure that the building activity – and there is going to be a hell of a lot going on in the next couple of decades – that goes on in these areas is up to scratch. It is why we announced a new building watchdog, the Building and Plumbing Commission, which will be a one-stop shop for all things related to building work here in Victoria for builders, for homebuyers and for renovators alike. If you go out and talk to people on the streets, this makes sense to them. It does not make sense to those opposite, but it makes sense to the punters out on the street when we talk about this. It will replace the existing Victorian Building Authority, Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria and the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority, enforcing building laws and regulations and building insurance and providing a space for resolving disputes between home builders and their contracted buyers. Because as much as those opposite would like to think it does not happen, these disputes are happening before us right now and there will be those in the future.

More importantly, this new integrated Building and Plumbing Commission will have greater enforcement powers. It will have the teeth it needs to go after builders who do the wrong thing. Those opposite time and time again only talk about builders doing the right thing. The majority do do the right thing, but what we know is there are situations where builders are not doing the right thing, and we need to do something to make it fairer. What we are saying is that if serious defects are identified by the commission and they are not rectified, it will be able to stop the issuing of occupancy permits or the completion of off-the-plan sales for apartments. Let me be clear: if it is not fixed, it is not for sale. I cannot tell the chamber how much this will mean for families living in my electorate who have had constant issues dealing with building defects, where builders have all the power and the homebuyers have absolutely none.

This bill will be absolutely transformative for the domestic building industry. It will make things so much easier for the folks in my electorate looking to build and buy new homes. We need to build more homes right across the state, and we need to make sure that those homes are built to the quality that Victorians rightly expect.