Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

One of the most heartbreaking phone calls you can have as a member of parliament is from a woman fleeing a domestic violence situation—someone leaving their home with literally nothing more than the clothes on their back and their children, calling your electorate office and asking for assistance to get into emergency housing. Unfortunately, the prospect of that person getting into housing quickly is quite dim. If you look at the public housing waiting list in New South Wales, you'll see that the ordinary waiting list to get into public housing is anywhere between eight and 10 years. For emergency accommodation it's two years. We can certainly assist someone in getting into a homeless shelter, or the department will put them up in hotel accommodation, but that will last only a couple of weeks and then they're at the whim of the private rental market. We know that if a person is leaving a violent relationship they may have relied on their partner for financial support. If they're trying to look after a couple of kids, it's a difficult circumstance for anyone to be in, and the private rental market offers no assistance whatsoever.

Rents have been increasing at a dramatic rate in most cities and towns across the country. They increased by 13.8 per cent between June 2021 and June 2022. The number of Australians facing housing stress—and that is defined as a household with more than 30 per cent of household income devoted to paying either rent or a mortgage—has increased dramatically in recent years. For owners, the prospects are just as bleak. Many Australians now have significant mortgages that they've had to take out to get into the homeownership market in Australia. Of course, we know that interest rates, determined independently by the RBA, have been increasing in recent times and are forecast to increase further. The government knows and understands that this is putting enormous pressure on household budgets and on relationships and families across the country.

Housing is a fundamental human right. In a wealthy nation like Australia, all Australian citizens can expect access to a reasonable, affordable roof over their heads. Australians want governments that are willing to ensure that they have policies in place to provide that basic necessity of life, and that is the purpose of this bill. This is an investment in ensuring that the Australian government has the policy settings in place to provide all Australians with access to reasonable and affordable housing.

Unfortunately, the approach of coalition governments has been that they shouldn't intervene in housing markets, that we should be able to let the market rip and that that would produce efficient and fair outcomes. We all know that that is not the case. The market has not resolved the housing affordability issue in Australia, and anyone who thinks that the market can is living in a dream.

In fact, many coalition state governments—and I'm speaking, of course, of the one in New South Wales—have gone the opposite way. They've actually sold off public housing, particularly in areas around Sydney, so that the stock of public housing in Sydney is actually being reduced and people are being evicted from properties, which in many cases they have lived in for many, many years, and finding themselves either homeless or at the whims of the private rental market. That is unfair.

At a federal level, the former Liberal government cancelled a lot of projects that were put in place by the Rudd and Gillard governments to provide housing assistance for Australians. The National Rental Affordability Scheme was cancelled. The project that the Rudd government launched to build more public housing as a stimulus project and as part of the recovery from the global financial crisis—a project that that provided jobs and roofs over heads for people on low incomes—was, of course, cancelled. Many of the affordable housing measures that were put in place by the former Labor government were cancelled as well. The former government went back to that old coalition philosophy of letting the market rip, and as a result Australia now faces a housing affordability crisis.

This government will not stand by and allow a situation where Australians increasingly cannot afford a roof over their heads, where they struggle with rental stress or housing stress and, unfortunately, where growing numbers of Australians are couch-surfing, living in cars or living on the streets. We want to reduce the rate of homelessness. We want to make housing more affordable. We want to increase housing supply to ensure that we can achieve those goals, and this bill represents the government actively promoting policies to ensure that we have an increase in the stock of housing supply into the future.

The Housing Australia Future Fund will provide a $10 billion investment in housing construction into the future. The fund will be established and will operate in a similar manner to other sovereign funds administered by the Commonwealth. The investment returns will be invested in building additional housing stock—both public housing and affordable housing. The government is also committed to ensuring that we're building more housing specifically for veterans who've served our nation. Returns from the fund will provide a $30 million investment over five years to build housing and fund services for veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. That initiative will provide sustainable funding to increase the housing supply and improve services for veterans.

These initiatives are still in their early design stage, but they're a priority for our government, and we're in consultation with key stakeholders to implement them as soon as possible. We're working hard to address that issue of homelessness. We also need to ensure that there are stronger linkages between providers, services, and Australians and new resources for veterans and for housing providers that are tailored to the experience of veterans' homelessness. I had the great fortune of launching this week Working with Veterans: A Toolkit for Community Housing Organisations. It is a joint initiative between the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Community Housing Industry Association. Those new resources will strengthen referral pathways between providers, DVA, Open Arms and other ex-service organisations to help set an industry standard for providing housing service to veterans. As the peak body representing 170 not-for-profit community housing providers, CHIA's knowledge and connection to providers across Australia will ensure that that toolkit is up to date, relevant and linked to industry.

We know that too many veterans, unfortunately, are turning to DVA, Open Arms and government for support. It's hoped that these new resources will help address some of those trends. They complement efforts in this package to build housing and fund services for veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. We know that, once someone becomes homeless, unfortunately, many other doors close. Finding a job becomes much harder. Financial strain increases. Getting access to basic essentials such as food, water, and health care becomes a struggle, and it can become a vicious cycle.

We need to make sure that we're providing more support not only for veterans who find themselves in these situations but for Australians more broadly. And that is what this bill is all about. It represents the Albanese Labor government's commitment to ensure that this government does all it can to provide that fundamental, basic human right that Australians need and deserve and should expect from government—a reasonably priced roof over their heads for themselves and their families. That is, importantly, what this particular bill will help us build into the future.

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