Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Clark for today's MPI on housing. Whilst I may not agree with every single statement he has made in his contribution, I do thank him for his ongoing commitment to these issues. Indeed, the member for Clark's involvement was quite integral to a range of measures that the government took in 2019 with respect to housing in Tasmania, whether it was the Hobart City Deal or forgiving Tasmania's historic housing debt, which is delivering so much for his state. So I certainly thank him for his long-term interest in these issues, notwithstanding the fact that I don't agree with all that he has said today.

If we look back at where we were 12 months ago, things were obviously very dire with the pandemic hitting, and a range of measures—such as the moratorium on evictions, the JobKeeper program, JobSeeker and, of course, in my domain, HomeBuilder—by the Morrison government, in conjunction with the states and territories, sought to address and alleviate many of the issues that the member for Clark has spoken about today. That range of measures has ensured that, during a tumultuous economic period in Australia and also throughout the world, we've been able to maintain stability in the housing market and we've been able to maintain stability for people in the private rental market. Notwithstanding many of the decades-long issues with social and affordable housing, we've still been able to make some headway in the right direction in conjunction with the states and territories.

I think it's worthwhile reflecting on what we have been able to achieve in that 12-month period, when, quite frankly, many people in this place and around our country questioned what sort of certainty there would be for people. What the member for Clark and I agree on—and I suspect everyone in this House does too—is that having a secure roof over your head is a foundational building block for so many aspects of success and happiness in your life. That's why the government is so committed not only to first home buyers, which I talk quite often about in question time with respect to HomeBuilder, but also to everybody on the housing spectrum, whether we're talking about people in private ownership, private rental, subsidised rental, social and affordable housing or, down the housing spectrum, those who are suffering, or at risk of suffering, homelessness.

In the context of some of the specific issues that the member for Clark raised with respect to Tasmania and around his seat in Hobart, I think it is worthwhile reflecting on what the government does do. The member for Clark recognises that the states and territories have primary responsibility for these matters. But the federal government has a big role in funding, supporting and assisting states and territories to deliver the programs for which they are constitutionally responsible and for which they have day-to-day responsibility. The member for Clark referred to Commonwealth rent assistance and his request to increase it. It's around $5½ billion a year now. That has risen quite substantially in recent years. One of the reasons it's risen is that, as tenants transfer from public housing stock into the community housing sector, they become eligible for Commonwealth rent assistance. We are encouraging, in some respects, the transfer of individuals who wouldn't otherwise be eligible for CRA. That's why we are spending $5½ billion.

In question time, both the Prime Minister and I referred to the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, which commenced in 2009. I still think it is fair to say that, to this day, there are inadequate lines of oversight in the agreement, from a Commonwealth perspective, about what exactly that money is spent on by the states and territories. But it has $129 million of guaranteed homelessness funding. As part of renegotiating the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, when the Prime Minister was Treasurer and I was his assistant minister, one of the key things that we did, as the Prime Minister outlined in question time today, was to provide funding certainty. We also indexed the payments so that they grew in real terms and were able to take fluctuations of not only CPI but also population growth.

All of those things work in combination to support the states and territories, which, again, have primary responsibility. The member for Clark rightly points out that the supply of housing is essentially the main game when it comes to every single cohort along the housing spectrum, whether it's the supply of housing through the private market, through public housing in the states and territories or through community housing providers. One of the things that the government has done in recent years, which members in the House are aware of, is establish the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation. This was the first time that the federal government established a body to primarily support community housing providers throughout our country. It's been a remarkable success in the time that it has been in place. The two primary aspects of the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation are its bond aggregator and the method it uses to channel government-bond-rate debt to Commonwealth housing providers, who sit on large portfolios of assets but are unable to deploy and obtain finance at the levels they can through NHFIC. That has led to more than $1.8 billion going to community housing providers. Let's remember that community housing providers not only manage their own stock of social and affordable housing; in many instances they are contracted to manage stock that's owned by state and territory governments. What that $1.8 billion has done is deliver over 2,700 new affordable homes and support the existing housing stock of those community housing providers—6,500 homes. So we're talking nearly 10,000 dwellings that are being supported simply through the mechanism of the bond aggregator which was established by this government—the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation is a creation of the Morrison government. We've also approved more than $227 million to support 4,500 homes through the National Housing Infrastructure Facility.

We have also been a government that is remarkably focused on first-home buyers. It's pleasing that, in the midst of a pandemic, Australia has moved to first-home buyers being at the highest proportion in over a decade. It's a time when first-home buyers are displaying the confidence to take that huge step of purchasing their first home. We are unashamedly, and we are unquestionably, a government that is focused on supporting people who have the aspiration to purchase a new home. And the way we've done that, in the midst of a pandemic, is through a range of measures. One is the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme. The member for Clark referred to a range of schemes, including the Shared Equity Scheme and others. The First Home Loan Deposit Scheme displays many of those characteristics. In essence, it allows first-home buyers to purchase a new home with a deposit of as little as five per cent. Those who have constituents emailing and calling them, as I do, would know that banks requiring a 20 per cent deposit is very prohibitive.

Then, of course, there's HomeBuilder, which previously provided a $25,000 grant and now provides a $15,000 grant for people purchasing a new home. It was put in place to ensure that the million employees in the residential construction industry were able to remain employed, but it is also supporting people in purchasing a new home. Importantly, when we come to the biggest single issue of housing in Australia—supply—HomeBuilder has ensured that the supply of new housing is actually higher now than it was before the pandemic, which, again, is quite a remarkable feat.

So there's a lot of work to be done. States and territories need to work on planning and zoning, making sure that the new supply is in, and making sure the money that's being provided by the federal government is spent well in supporting the people that the member for Clark has spoken about. In that, he and I can agree. (Time expired)

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