Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The Treasury Laws Amendment (2021 Measures No. 3) Bill 2021 implements a measure from the 2021-22 budget to create 10,000 new places in the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation First Home Loan Deposit Scheme for single parents with dependants. It allows single parents with a household income of less than $125,000 to purchase a home or to build a new one with a deposit of just two per cent.

Encouraging people—including, of course, single parents—into home ownership is a worthy thing to do. As someone who grew up in a household with a single parent, as a youngster I was always encouraged by my mum—who was born and died in the one house that she lived in for all of her 65 years, a council house that became a housing department house—to go into home ownership and to live in my own home one day. But the truth is that she was never in a position to buy her own home, and the idea that that would be an aspiration that she would have reflects how those opposite—when I hear some of their comments—just don't get how tough so many people do it in our society.

This is not a bad thing to encourage, and we're not opposing this measure. But what we say is that if you're serious about dealing with housing affordability and about understanding that a roof over someone's head does more than just keep the rain off—it provides them with security that allows them to have a better quality of life and their kids to aspire to something better—then you actually have to do something more than just look at home ownership. You actually have to address the issue of the decline that has occurred in social housing due to a lack of investment over a long period of time. You have to acknowledge that, by investing in social housing and by increasing supply and increasing the stock of housing out there, you do something to address housing affordability, including for people buying their own home, because of supply and demand—the way that basic economics works.

This measure, its advocates say, will potentially benefit those single parents who are able to earn between $80,000 and $125,000 a year. That's a good thing, but a whole lot of single parents out there, even if they're in a position to be able to work due to the interaction that's there with the childcare system—with the disincentive to work a fourth or a fifth day, particularly if you're a single parent, and with the unaffordability of child care—simply won't be in a position to take advantage of this scheme, which is why you need to do more than just this.

That brings me to Labor's plan. Labor's plan is about creating opportunity, encouraging home ownership, encouraging a strong economy and encouraging people to aspire to a better life for themselves and their children, but it's also about recognising that we're leaving a whole lot of people behind. There have never been more people homeless than there are right now in this country. If you think about the wealth that's there in this country, we should be doing better than that. If you think about the fact that so many Australians have benefited from being able to invest in housing, why is it that governments aren't able to benefit from their position by using capital to pass that benefit on to the Australian people by having a stock which boosts the balance sheet, essentially, with an asset that the public therefore own, whilst providing a better life for people by increasing public housing stock?

Because the consequences are very real with the crisis that is there. The member for Blaxland, our shadow housing minister, and I visited, along with Jenny McAllister from the Senate and our candidate Madonna in Brisbane, DVConnect. That's one of the services that look after vulnerable women and their children who are escaping domestic and family violence. There were 10,000 women and children turned away from shelter last year. They were forced to sleep in their car, sleep in a park or go back to a circumstance in which they weren't safe. We're a better country than that. Tonight, like every other night in this country, that will happen to women and children. Imagine how those children feel when they go to school the next day. Imagine how a mother feels, with that instinct she has to look after her child, knowing that they were in a vulnerable situation. Imagine the anguish that causes them.

We need to do better than that, which is why we, if we're elected to government, will create a $10 billion housing Australia future fund. It's a sensible plan. It's a plan at no cost to the taxpayer. It's a plan which sees $10 billion of capital invested through the vehicle of the Future Fund. The money that is made from that investment is then reinvested in the creation of social and community housing, to create 20,000 extra additional social and community housing dwellings, and to create 10,000 affordable housing units. Because one of the other areas of the housing crisis is that for so many communities, including mine in the inner-west of Sydney, where we have gentrification taking place, there is a massive increase in housing affordable issues. If you're a nurse working at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, if you are a firey, a police officer, an essential worker or a cleaner, you struggle to live near where you work.

What we're seeing in Australia is that the superannuation funds, particularly industry super, are making investments. If the Prime Minister wants to see how this works, he can just go into his electorate and look at the program by Aware Super that has built affordable housing in that electorate for essential workers. This plan will deal with that. What we would also do in the first five years is allocate 4,000 of the 20,000 social housing properties to women and children fleeing domestic and family violence, and also for the section of our society that has the greatest growth in the area of homelessness, and that is older women. Older women—that segment of people who have contributed to our society—increasingly find themselves unable to have shelter at night.

So this is a practical plan. It's a practical plan that, whilst at no cost to the taxpayer and no cost to debt—debt has been added to massively by this government—would directly support 21,500 full-time jobs across the construction industry and the broader economy per year over five years nationwide. Of course, like other infrastructure programs where there is Commonwealth involvement, one out of 10 of the direct workers on those sites will be apprentices or trainees. This will use government procurement policy to drive the sorts of changes that should occur throughout our economy. We'll also use a portion of the investment returns to fund acute housing needs in perpetuity, and that will make a difference as well, in terms of the crisis, transitional and long-term social housing that we need.

In the first five years, we'll also be able to deliver $200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvement of housing in remote Indigenous communities. We actually know that it's a tragedy that, in this country, we have some of the worst housing circumstances in the world. I've travelled to some of these communities. I was with the shadow minister in Mutitjulu, right near Uluru, just a few weeks ago. So, there you have Uluru, one of the world's most recognisable natural sites. It's a very spiritual place, which touches you when you see it. And just down the road you have communities like Mutitjulu that are really struggling—really struggling—and where you have massive overcrowding, with all the health consequences from that. There are community leaders looking for employment, looking for a future, for their people. But if you don't have a decent home it's pretty hard to get up in the morning and get dressed for work or think about your education and training. It has an impact on your health. It has an impact on everything—which is why we see housing as being absolutely essential.

One of the other areas of homelessness that's growing is shown by the extraordinary figure that, tonight, in Sydney, one out of 10 of those homeless people will be a veteran—a man or woman who's served our country, put their life on the line, worn our uniform. We can do better. We'll allocate $30 million to fund housing and specialist services for veterans who are either experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.

We announced this in my budget reply, and I've got to say that the Housing Australia Future Fund has been pretty well received. Bill Crews, who we visited at the Exodus Foundation, said this: 'Their program is really wonderful because there are so many people who need cheap, affordable public housing.' We've seen it from other organisations. Jack de Groot from St Vincent de Paul said: 'We really welcome this announcement of the Housing Australia Future Fund. We have a crisis. We need an investment. I think this future fund is about a partnership between federal and state governments, as well as community sector organisations.' We had similar from Anglicare Australia, from Kasy Chambers.

But it wasn't just them. The Real Estate Institute of Australia's Adrian Kelly said:

If a Future Fund style model sustainably finances the gap for community housing providers without top up from the public purse, then that is a sensible thing and puts the sector in good stead …

Julia Cambage from the Australian Institute of Architects welcomed it, saying:

The Institute particularly welcomes the focus on constructing new social and affordable housing for the most vulnerable and most in-need sectors of our community.

The Australian Alliance to End Homelessness welcomed it. ACOSS welcomed it. Mission Australia welcomed it, as did Wentworth Community Housing and Housing Trust. Master Builders' Denita Wawn said this:

Last year when the country was in the grip of the pandemic and the economy was locked down, Master Builders in conjunction with the CFMEU, called for a $10 billion social housing stimulus fund …

The Opposition Leader and the Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness have listened. We applaud the Opposition's $10 billion social and affordable housing fund.

National Shelter, an organisation that the current minister hasn't even bothered to meet with—they can't get a meeting—welcomed it, saying:

Investment at that scale will be the largest ongoing investment we've seen and will make a massive dent in social housing backlogs.

So, if you look at all of those organisations, across the business sector, the construction sector and homelessness organisations, they all understand that this measure is needed.

Why is it that those in this government don't pick it up, introduce legislation and do it? We'll vote for it. We'll give them the credit—they can say, as on some other things, that they thought of it! No doubt, they would! It'd be a bit like JobKeeper and wage subsidies! So get on board. Do something about it. Do the right thing, because people should not be left behind in a country as wealthy as ours. (Time expired)

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