Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Secure and safe housing is absolutely essential and fundamental to strong communities, individuals and families for their aspirations and success. Having worked at a community housing provider, working with people experiencing homelessness, I understand that we do need a good mix of social and affordable housing in our communities. That's why the Morrison government is working on these particular issues in supporting community housing providers. Community housing providers could be managing public housing for the states, which is their job, or they could be building more affordable housing. We're supporting these community housing providers through the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation bond aggregator. I think community housing providers could be playing an even greater role in the supply of social and affordable housing across our country. The fact is that we're backing them, and also through Commonwealth rent assistance.

I also think that, through the financial support we're giving, community housing providers could be looking into and providing a more effective product when it comes to supporting older women who are experiencing homelessness. This often happens because women haven't accumulated superannuation. They find themselves alone in older age, and they may be couch surfing. There does need to be more work done by community housing providers, particularly in this space. But the bond aggregator is working. I have seen it work in my community of Lindsay. I joined the Minister for Housing in 2019, just after I was elected. It was really great, coming out of a community housing provider, where I saw this work being done on the ground—to actually see it, as a member of parliament. I joined the minister at Evolve Housing. Evolve was one of eight community housing providers who were granted a first issuance of the bond aggregator, which enabled up to 300 new rental dwellings. One of the best parts about this was how it's impacted people's real lives—seeing a woman who had escaped domestic violence for the first time in a long time being able to feel safe and to have a place that she could call home. I've seen that in a number of ways. I saw it in my work in community housing, particularly when it came to women being able to renew their lives, to feel safe and to get on with their lives.

One of the other things I found, working in community housing, particularly in this space, was that women who had experienced intergenerational welfare or who were escaping domestic violence sometimes weren't able to get into the housing market. I established a program to support and mentor women in the community in social housing on economic and housing independence. It is amazing how lives can change when somebody has housing independence. I fully support programs like that being done by community housing providers. As I said, public housing is predominantly a state issue, but the important role we play is supporting community housing providers to build more affordable housing and social housing in areas that are most in need.

The other thing we're doing, in addition to the provision of support for affordable housing, is supporting first home buyers into their home and getting them into the market. That's a tremendous thing that we have done with the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme. I saw that firsthand when I went with the Minister for Housing to a property in Lindsay to officially open the extended places for applicants, and we visited a house under construction in Mulgoa, where it was great to see there were 40 local tradies—and this was during the pandemic—working on the site. In this scheme we are not only supporting first home buyers into the home but also supporting local jobs. I really support that too.

So there are a number of things the Morrison government is doing in the housing market, right across the housing spectrum: from supporting social and affordable housing to people getting their first home and beyond.

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