This is exactly why the member for Bulleen’s face for the last two years has been on a fence in my rental property, blocking the gaps, the holes in my dodgy rental property in the fence that the landlord would not fix for so long. I was so worried that my Beagle Ringo Starr would not only push through the fence but more importantly that he could see out, and he could see people walking around and he would go absolutely ballistic and be bang-up against the fence. So we put up some old corflutes I had, member for Bulleen corflutes. I think it was ‘Matt Guy, the guy that cuts’ – was that the slogan? That was one particular election. That kind of planning lost you guys elections time and time again. But that is the member for Bulleen and what he has done here to this state, particularly one part of the west.

Our government here on this side of the house is determined to ensure that in Victoria renters have fair protections – fair protections over their leases, their living standards and most importantly their finances. We know on this side of the house that the biggest way that we make rents cheaper is by creating more supply of homes and housing, and that is exactly what we have set out to do and we are doing. The Premier has made this the challenge of her premiership, and I for one will gladly support her in that challenge.

Much to the dismay of those opposite we have announced a series of new reforms aimed at jump-starting housing development en masse – projects that are well designed, close to major transport links and, most importantly, where people want to live, not where they absolutely have to live so far out in the burbs they cannot get transport. It is not there yet. These estates are going up from whoa to go before any kind of infrastructure has happened out there. There is nowhere left for them to go. Part of our housing statement is about addressing that fact. You cannot keep shoving families into the outer suburban fringes of metropolitan Melbourne and Victoria and expect that to be the right thing to do.

That is what this housing statement is about. This is also why we need to build more housing. It is why we have a housing plan, and it is why the Premier has made this the challenge of her premiership. Over the last six and a bit years here in this place I have not heard anyone from the coalition ever talk about a housing plan. They come here and they talk about a housing crisis. They seem to get that there is a housing crisis, and it is really great they agree there is a housing crisis. But they have no plan, no strategy and no greater vision that they have been able to communicate to Victorians about how they are going to address that, and that is really scary. That is really dangerous.

As a westie and someone who represents a growth corridor, I have time and time again said the announcements that we have made around not continuing to shove and push people further and further out into already busy and – I am not saying overpopulated, because people in the west and many of the families that I meet in the outer west love living out there. They love their suburbs, but they do not want those suburbs to continue to grow as fast. So it is about slowing that down and building more housing where people, yes, want to buy and, yes, want to live but also close to already existing and extremely accessible, functional and satisfactory public transport. That enhances the standard of living here in this state. That makes for happy Victorians and happy Victorian families, and that is the kind of thing people on this side of the house and this side of the chamber are fighting for. We think about this with a broader vision, we go ahead and we implement it, we create the legislation and legislative reform agenda and we bring it to this place to debate, and time and time again those opposite block it. They block it because they think, ‘We can’t understand how it fits in here.’ They have tried to block other things and have said, ‘But we didn’t get a long enough briefing,’ only for folks like me to find out they did get a briefing but they chose not to attend or they did not ask a particular suite of questions but the minister’s office has spent a considerable amount of time trying to educate those opposite.

Our housing policy and agenda is not just about rental reform and landlord reform and addressing a housing crisis, it is about addressing a population in coming decades, as the Premier has talked about, that will be larger. Melbourne will be larger than the size of London. If anyone has been to London over the past couple of years or happens to be on Instagram looking at all the amazing things they can do in London if they are lucky enough to go over, they can see it is a really busy place. And it is not just during tourist season; it is a really busy city, it is a big city, it is a major city, and that is the size that we are going to become. Not only do we need to be able to build the infrastructure to address that population – stuff like the Metro Tunnel, the West Gate Tunnel and so on – it is also around housing, because people are going to need somewhere to live. Does that mean people are going to have to change the way in which they think about housing and the way in which people at different stages of their life will want to live in particular houses or apartments or townhouses? Yes, it does, and we need to make sure that the housing supply is there.

I feel like this conversation always ends up hitting ‘Landlords versus renters’. Many of us in this place have been both, and we all know – and I would like to think that the member for Richmond would also know, but I will make that assumption after her contribution this afternoon – that is not true. It is not one versus the other. It is not pitting good versus bad. The world does not exist like that. These are laws and reforms that we are putting in place to ensure there is adequate protection for landlords and for renters, because we know more and more people are either choosing to rent or having to rent because being able to afford a house is not like it was when my parents were buying their first home. But is not us versus them. I am guessing, based on the conversation and the narrative of people like the member for Bulleen and the member for Narracan, that they are pushing it as one versus the other. They are saying that Labor is for the renters and the Liberal Party is for the landlords and it is one versus the other. It does not work that way. Everyone deserves to be protected equally, and at the end of the day what we know, what any rational person in this house knows, is that the majority of landlords and renters do the right thing.

But sometimes problems arise, and that is why laws and protection mechanisms like the ones in this reform bill are so important. But it is also important to realise if we continue this divisive debate and pit landlords against renters – because we actually need both in this state – and that one is better than the other or one is more protected than the other or one happens to behave worse than the other, that everyone has stories on either side and it is really important for people in this place to be able to have a balanced argument and not to be fearmongering out in the community for political gain.

I do have to commend the minister for bringing this reform bill before the house in the first sitting week for 2025. It is the right thing to do; it is the sensible thing to do. It is full of great reform, and I would urge those on the other side to go ahead and support this bill. It is about getting things done and protecting people that still need protecting. I commend the bill to the house.