Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Indi for her question but also for the great conversations and advocacy she's had from regional Australia, particularly in her electorate, when it comes to affordable housing and making sure more of her constituents can have a safe, affordable place to call home, because we understand that we need more Australians to have a safe, affordable place to call home, because it's central to security and dignity for all Australians. But, of course, what we had was a decade of very little action by the former Liberal-National government, and it's left us with significant challenges right across the country.

Whether it be in Wangaratta in the member for Indi's electorate or in Burnie in my own state, people are struggling to find a home that suits their needs and that they can afford. I hear it all the time: strong employment growth has not been matched with housing supply. We have businesses and local governments that have jobs to fill. However, attracting workers is frustrating because there is nowhere for them to live. It's actually a very serious issue.

So tomorrow I will be introducing the legislation that the member asked about, which is the single largest investment in new social and affordable homes in more than a decade: the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. Indeed, the returns from this fund will be there in perpetuity to invest in social and affordable housing right across the country. We anticipate there'll be 30,000 social and affordable homes in the first five years of that fund. Importantly for the member for Indi, Housing Australia, the new entity that will be created by the legislation that we introduce tomorrow, will ensure that this funding stream is equitably and fairly distributed across all states and territories but also in inner-city, outer-suburban, regional and rural Australia. We need to make sure that the funding goes where it's most needed, but we also need to make sure that they're the right homes in the right places.

The legislation that I introduce will also have the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, to be independent and provide independent advice to all tiers of government on options to increase housing supply right across the country. We want to make sure that that advice is independent, because we need to make sure that we have the right policies and the right levers are pulled by the right tiers of government to get more homes on the ground much more quickly.

The member raised the National Housing Infrastructure Facility and its investments. We unlocked up to $575 million that was not being utilised, and just last week I was in Burnie to see an example of how the Commonwealth funding, with the state funding and the community housing provider, will provide 180 new homes just in north-west Tasmania. We, of course, have brought forward our Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee also, and we now have over 1,700 Australians who have their own homes because we brought it forward. I want to assure the member we will be making sure that homes are in the right places right across the country and making sure that more Australians have a safe, affordable place to call home. (Time expired)

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