Minister for Housing and Building Nick Staikos. Photo: AAP/Jay Kogler

Nick Staikos is Victoria’s Minister for Housing, Building and Precincts, and Minister for Seniors. Until the April reshuffle, he was also Minister for Local Government.

He’s young, regardless of the J.D. Vance-like beard. When Pauline Hanson burst onto the scene in 1996, winning more than 10 per cent of the conservative vote and unerving Labor, he was 10. Staikos has held Bentleigh for Labor for 12 years, so politics is clearly in the blood.

Staikos won a seat on Glen Eira Council in 2005 at just 19, the youngest person ever elected to the council. The East Bentleigh Senior Citizens Club later made him an honorary life member at the ripe age of 25, in recognition of his service, .

Staikos cut his teeth working for state and federal MPs, including the late-Simon Crean, Clare O’Neil, Judith Graley and Ann Barker.

He won the seat of Bentleigh in the 2014 Victorian election by a razor-thin margin of 0.8 per cent. His first term coincided with major changes, three level crossings removed, schools upgraded, and the St Kilda Football Club’s return to Moorabbin. He was comfortably re-elected in 2018 with a swing of more than 11 per cent, after which he was named Secretary of the State Parliamentary

Last year he married Loretta Burgess, an early childhood teacher. “Loretta used to be at Geelong Grammar. She is at another school now. We married last December.”

The son of immigrants, a St Kilda FC fan, and a community-minded local member for Bentleigh, Staikos has led a political life.

Staikos, here with Father Chris, secured $100,000 for the refurbishment of the hall at St Raphael, Nicholas and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Bentleigh, along with $1.5 million for a nearby pedestrian crossing. Photo: Supplied

The spark to a political life

While his family weren’t overly political, he says, “All my family loved Gough Whitlam, like much of the Greek community.” As with many post-war Greek migrants, Whitlam, the philhellene and great reformer, was regarded as a saint; the lay canonised him.

“Mum arrived from Samos when she was two years old, and my dad arrived from Nafpaktos when he was 17.”

“I will forever be grateful that my family chose Australia, and for the opportunities this country has given all of us.”

His mother worked in a bank, and his dad was a storeman in a warehouse. For a while, he says, they ran a coffee shop in Clayton.

It all started one day when Simon Crean came in for a coffee.

“One day, I met him. He encouraged me to join the Labor Party, and the rest is history.”

“Simon Crean was leader of the Storeman and Packers Union, the predecessor to the NUW, and my dad was a member of that union.”

Staikos began his political life in Labor Right but crossed to Labor Left shortly after the 2022 state election, one of seven MPs to switch allegiance in a move that tipped the Left into a majority within the state parliamentary caucus. Staikos, a member of Labor’s left faction, was originally in the United Workers Union, an amalgamation of the National Union of Workers and United Voice. NUW was right, and United Voice was left. “When the unions merged, we joined the left.”

Staikos married Loretta Burgess, an early childhood teacher, last December. She previously worked at Geelong Grammar and now teaches at another school. Photo: Supplied

The faith and the saints

The Saints tragic is proud that he “could bring St Kilda home.” After the government’s $30 million redevelopment of Moorabbin Oval, St Kilda returned to its spiritual home in Moorabbin.

They are not the only saints Staikos has assisted. He is keen to let Neos Kosmos know about Saint Nicholas, and the funding he secured for his local Greek church in late 2025.

“I am very proud of being able to secure funding for the St Raphael, Nicholas and Irene Greek Orthodox Church Bentleigh $100k for the refurbishment of the hall, and the pedestrian crossing cost around $1.5 million.”

“I met up with Father Chris at and he was so happy.”

Staikos is very Greek, and an advocate for the survival of the Greek language in schools and points to his support for maintaining Greek language studies at La Trobe University .

“It is the important but real challenge we all need to take on as a community, as Greek members of parliament — the maintenance and survival of the Greek language,” he says.

Staikos in this photo is being sworn in by Her Excellency, Professor the Honourable Margaret Gardner, AC. Photo: Supplied

Twelve years in government and the looming election

Twelve years in government, three premiers, and a new leader, Ben Carroll, installed only months before polling day. Neos Kosmos asked if this election is, at its core, about Labor, now unpopular, is about saving some of the furniture?

Staikos rejects the proposition.

“It’s been 12 years since we’ve been in government, and 12 years since I’ve been the member for Bentleigh,” he says.

“We will be outlining to the community all the achievements of this government achievements that will be long-lasting.”

In decades to come, he says, Victorians will walk past old level crossings and struggle to believe they were ever there; “they’ll use the Metro Tunnel and wonder how Melbourne functioned without it.”

He understands that argument has its limits when it comes to the reality of politics and perception. Jacinta Allan, who was replaced by Ben Carroll a few months ago, used to make the same case. But voters are now focused on fuel and grocery costs, the inability to buy a house or pay rent, youth crime, tobacco wars, and potholes.

Potholes on Victoria’s regional roads, in particular, have come to symbolise a broader sense that things aren’t working. Perception is hard to shift when drivers keep having accidents and blowing tyres. Tragically, a few weeks ago, a 71-year-old motorbike rider lost his life after hitting a pothole.

“The Premier has brought forward funding to fix 500,000 potholes before the end of the year,” Staikos says. “There’s no doubt these are things people want to see addressed.”

Staikos pivots back to reminding readers of Labor “achievements” such as the recruitment of “17,000 new nurses.”

“The Liberal government that we replaced tried to sack nurses. These go to values. Politics is about values, and we’re saying to the Victorian people, these are our values, our values: public health, public education, infrastructure that our great global city needs for the future.”

“The Liberal government that we replaced tried to sack nurses. These go to values. Politics is about values, and we’re saying to the Victorian people, these are our values, our values: public health, public education, infrastructure that our great global city needs for the future.” “Yes, there are problems too; there’s no doubt about that.”

The premier, Ben Carroll, is working hard to address those problems, and the election is a choice between two sides with different values.

Staikos’s mother as a child with her family. Photo: Facebook

The One Nation question

The conversation turns to One Nation and how Staikos views its appeal to voters from migrant backgrounds, including Greek Australians. Staikos was 10 when Pauline Hanson first emerged on the national political scene in 1996, and says he has vivid memories of the response among migrant communities.

“I remember Australians of migrant backgrounds were dead against the hateful things she was saying about other people. Every migrant stood in solidarity,” he says.

“It’s 30 years on, and many things have changed. Now, a generation has passed, and I’d ask everybody to remember, including my fellow Greeks, that our greatest success here is multiculturalism. We are the most successful multicultural society.”

Asked about Greek Australians who may be considering supporting One Nation, Staikos draws a comparison with the experience of the post-war migrant generation.

“This is what I will say to any fellow Greek Australian looking to vote for One Nation: had Pauline Hanson been a political figure in the 1950s and 1960s, she would have opposed our families coming to this country. She would have opposed our churches, language teaching, and more.”

Staikos argues that while the communities targeted by political rhetoric may change over time, the underlying prejudice does not. “Bigots don’t change; only their targets change,” he says. “In 1996 it was Asians. Now it’s Muslims. We’ve got to be smart and remember that.”

Labor will not do a deal with One Nation in his seat of Bentleigh, Staikos says emphatically. Still, it is not the southern seat of Bentleigh that worries Labor or Coalition. Neos Kosmos discussions with some insiders, suggest that more Greens-vulnerable inner-north seats may quietly welcome One Nation preferences.

The minister lets that pass to the keeper, and underscores, that “there will be no deal with One Nation”.

“The only people who are going to do a deal with One Nation are the Liberal Party.”

“Liberal MPs turn up to citizenship ceremonies for photo opportunities, then refuse to condemn One Nation’s hateful rhetoric the next day.” The discussion turns to One Nation’s growing electoral support and the debate over how the major parties should respond to it. Recent polling has shown increased support for One Nation, while some figures on the conservative side of politics have raised the prospect of greater cooperation with the party.

Against that backdrop, Neos Kosmos asked Staikos whether he believes One Nation is becoming part of the political mainstream.

“Pauline Hanson is not a mainstream politician,” he says. “She’s a grievance politician with no actual solutions. The people of Victoria want a government that is stable, strong and secure.”

Staikos with his father and mother in the late 1980s. Photo: Facebook

Suburban Rail Loop black hole

On the Suburban Rail Loop the Parliamentary Budget Office projects a $16 billion blowout across the first two stages yet, Staikos is still supportive. Carroll has trimmer back around $2 billion from its scope.

“I’m still committed,” he says.

“Tunnelling has started — tunnel boring machines are in the ground, and they’re tunnelling. The only people talking about stopping the project are the Liberal Party, and I can tell you, as a former minister, that pausing it now would cost over $12 billion.” He adds, with a flash of dry humour, that once the machines are in the ground there’s no going back: “They only go forwards.”

Housing under pressure

Staikos pushed back against Neos Kosmos’s suggestion that the government’s housing-construction targets have stalled. Asked whether he still holds to the 10-year housing goal, he cites what he says is the “overall build rate of 55,000 homes last year.”

He adds that this is “ahead of both New South Wales and Queensland.” He says 15,000 new social housing dwellings are in train, “many already delivered.”

He does not dispute the social housing waitlist close to 60,000 but says that over “$8 billion has been spent on social housing since 2020,” after years of “underinvestment before it.” Social housing stock, he said, is eight per cent higher than in 2020 and will rise to 10 per cent by 2028, alongside the renewal of ageing stock.

Asked about innovation, and whether Victoria is looking overseas at public-private housing models such as those in Harlem, NYC, he points instead to modular construction closer to home.

He says that homes built off-site at a Geelong factory “are completed in three months, then trucked in and connected to services and landscaping.”

As Minister for Precincts, he’s also overseeing new developments with Development Victoria, singling out Arden in North Melbourne as one he expects to say more about soon. He says he’s working with the federal government on options for first-home buyers.

Migration has become an increasingly contested political issue, with Labor, the Coalition and One Nation proposing different approaches to reducing net overseas migration.

Journalist and author George Megalogenis has warned of the economic consequences of substantial cuts. During an ABC National Forum discussion with One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce, he argued that One Nation’s proposal to drive net migration into negative territory would “tank” the economy.

Asked what lower migration levels could mean for Victoria’s housing and population assumptions, Staikos says it is “a matter for the federal government”.

Instead, he points to a meeting he chaired last week with the construction industry to discuss ways to increase supply. He said it included measures to protect buyers purchasing apartments off the plan, after what he describes as a pattern of first-home buyers receiving defect-riddled builds.

Elder abuse in migrant communities

As Minister for Seniors, Staikos is especially focused on elder abuse, particularly within migrant communities, where it “often goes unspoken” or is difficult to identify, he says, due to cultural norms.

“It is about making sure the community can identify where it is occurring,” he adds.

For him, GPs are on the front line and could be better equipped to notice warning signs. The government is preparing a new campaign on recognising elder abuse which he says is “a very hidden form of abuse that families are often reluctant to name, let alone report.” The campaign will include, he says, GPs, local and appropriate community and welfare organisations and multicultural media.

Asked whether he’s confident heading into November, he doesn’t hesitate: “Victorians will opt for a stable Labor government — one that isn’t perfect but has built 121 new schools and 12 new hospitals, against a Coalition that would be the most unstable government in this state’s history.”

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Staikos: “Bigots don’t change – only their targets change”