As Victoria heads to the polls and NSW gears up for a March election, the contrasting records of the respective governments on public housing make for interesting reading.

In both states, the financial crisis-era stimulus packages saw thousands of new public housing dwellings built, funded by the Rudd government, particularly in NSW, where several thousand social housing dwellings were approved under the then-Labor government in the first half of 2010. Once the stimulus packages ended, however, both states cut back on new housing, until the Baillieu and O'Farrell governments again increased funding for public housing in their states. However, successive Victorian governments, including Daniel Andrews', have run a distant second to NSW since then.