Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

My question to the minister is: what is this government doing to ensure that older Australian women—the fastest growing cohort of homeless people—aren't forced into homelessness because of housing affordability issues and, in particular, the enormous rise in rental costs across this country but also in my electorate of Dunkley?

I have been contacted by many, many locals who are concerned because they can't get into the housing market, or their children can't, but they're absolutely petrified because they are currently in rental accommodation, have been asked to leave—because landlords want to sell those properties because of the extreme rise in value of houses across the country and in my electorate as well—and they can't find anywhere else to rent that they can afford. These constituents are predominantly single parents. A huge proportion of them are women who have fled violent or controlling relationships, or whose marriages have broken down and in the divorce the matrimonial house has been sold, and they are left with children. They are not able to buy back into the housing market and are relying on renting.

Is the minister concerned that the rental assistance provided by his government and his department isn't going to be able to assist these people and people like them to be able to live in safe and secure accommodation? Given that Anglicare Australia's recently released Rental Affordability Snapshot reveals that in the last 12 months there has been a massive drop in the number of affordable places for working families to read is the minister working on anything to address this struggling cohort of often hardworking but socioeconomically deprived Australians who can't find a place to live that they can afford? A year ago, 22 per cent of rental properties were affordable for two parents both working full-time on the minimum wage with two young kids. Now, it's only 14 per cent of those types of families who can afford a rental property. How is a single parent supposed to be able to afford to rent let alone buy a home?

Overall, housing affordability across Australia has declined with the proportion of income required to meet loan repayments increasing to 34.7 per cent, according to the latest Real Estate Institute of Australia quarterly Housing Affordability Report. We know there is no simple or single solution to improving housing affordability, but why is it that this minister and this government have ignored one of the biggest answers that we have: an investment in social and affordable housing? There are more people on social housing waiting lists than ever before. The wait lists continue to grow. There are people in my electorate contact me who are on the disability support pension, single parents, who are on 20-year waiting lists for social and public housing. There is less public housing today that there was 10 years ago. The percentage of social housing as a proportion of all national housing stock also continues to decline.

Why won't the minister and this government follow Labor's policy to create a $10 billion off-budget housing Australia future fund? It will build social and affordable housing now and into the future, and it's good for the people in our community who just want safe and secure housing for themselves, for their children and for their retirement, and its good for the economy. Given the statistics show that the program for the early release of super has hit low-income women particularly hard, and there are so many now who don't have superannuation because they have withdrawn all of it or all of it bar $1,000, what is the minister and this government going to do to make sure that those women aren't retiring into poverty and homelessness like so many others?

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