Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the week of 1 to 7 August 2022 is National Homelessness Week, with the theme of 'To end homelessness we need a plan';

(b) National Homelessness Week aims to raise awareness of the impact of homelessness in Australia via national and local community events, including providing information on the importance of housing as a solution and educating communities on how they can make a difference;

(c) sadly, there were 116,427 people homeless on census night in 2016; and

(d) access to secure and affordable housing has significant social, economic and personal benefits; and

(2) acknowledges that the Government has committed to a reform agenda to address the challenges of homelessness including:

(a) establishing a $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund which will:

(i) build 30,000 social and affordable housing properties in its first five years;

(ii) provide $200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvements of housing in remote Indigenous communities;

(iii) fund $100 million for crisis and transitional housing options for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence and older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness; and

(iv) build more housing and fund specialist services for veterans who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk homelessness;

(b) introducing the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council to ensure the Commonwealth plays a leadership role in increasing housing supply and improving housing affordability; and

(c) developing a new national housing and homelessness plan with the support and assistance of key stakeholders.

This is an important motion, and I want to start my remarks by thanking the member for Boothby for agreeing to second this motion. The member for Boothby has spent decades on the front lines in not-for-profits looking after the needs of her community, and I know she will continue to do that and will make a huge contribution in this role and in this place, while always holding the experiences that she had on the front lines to guide her policy contributions on issues such as this.

It is astonishing that in Australia we still have thousands and thousands of Australians living without a secure and safe source of housing. In this National Homelessness Week, the theme is 'To end homelessness we need a plan', and a plan is exactly what this government has got. It is a plan that will continue to be built and developed and worked on during our time in government. It is significant that, for the first time in almost a decade, the federal government is willing to invest in social and affordable housing. Unfortunately, the political trend in Australia is that—

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