Housing snub with the lot

LOCAL Federal MP Anne Webster has written to the National Audit Office after questioning the Albanese Government’s latest housing support grant funding, saying property consultant data shows the electorate is in “rental pain”.

The Mallee electorate missed out on Thursday’s round of funding of the Government Housing Support Program for regional areas.

Five projects valued at $35.8 million will receive enabling infrastructure – such as roads, sewage and water – to build new housing lots.

But Dr Webster cited “rental pain index” analysis by property data consultants Suburbtrends, which found three of regional Victoria’s six highest municipalities on the index were in Mallee – Northern Grampians (second), Swan Hill (fourth) and Yarriambiack (sixth) – while Mildura was 19th out of the state’s 78 councils.

The index ranks areas on five factors: rent change, vacancy rates, advertised rentals, vacancy change, and rent affordability.

None of the five Victorian municipalities selected in the grant funding – Whittlesea, Latrobe, Ararat, Pyrenees and Greater Bendigo – were in the the top 20 of the index.

“I stand shoulder to shoulder with our Mallee shires who desperately need housing and have been kicked to the kerb by Labor’s rejection,” Dr Webster said.

A 2024 Anglicare report, looking just at affordability, found Mallee-shire rentals were among the cheapest in the state “by proportion and number of houses available for households on income support”.

However, once those figures were adjusted for advertised rentals in that price range, Yarriambiack (which had only two dwellings advertised), West Wimmera (2) and Swan Hill (1) fell out of the top 10 most affordable.

Yarriambiack Shire Mayor Kylie Zanker said the council put in applications for “four quality projects”.

“As a mayor, to say our council is disappointed is an understatement,” she said.

“We work restlessly on funding applications and to miss out again is just heartbreaking.

“We submit quality applications investing time and money on consultants to assist to ensure our applications are of the highest standard and to be unsuccessful is devastating.”

A spokeswoman for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King said the latest stream of funding received more than 400 applications nationwide, which “greatly exceeded” the available funding.

She said all applications were independently assessed against eight assessment criterion published in guidelines, which identified how proposals should meet policy and program objectives.  

“The Coalition neglected housing for a decade, didn’t have a housing minister, and their only housing policy is a half-baked attempt at copying an initiative Labor is already rolling out,” the spokeswoman said.