Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Our government believes that every Australian deserves the security of a roof over their head. It's something that's essential to people's quality of life. We know that a home to call your own, whether or not you own it, is about more than just a place to sleep. It gives you confidence, a sense of stability, a feeling of connection to your community. I know that because I've lived it. My journey to this place and to the high office that I hold in part began with the council housing I lived in, where my mother was born in 1936. My family were the first inhabitants and had moved in some years earlier when they were built. The Sydney City Council changed hands, conservatives got control and tried to sell our home where my mum was born and where she died after 65 years in the one home. I got involved in a campaign there in Camperdown with local residents; I was still at school. We collected a petition, we had a rent strike and we organised to defend what was our home. Then on Pyrmont Bridge Road, in Camperdown, it was the only housing of any sort anywhere near that area. Opposite was the children's hospital. On one corner was the Weston's biscuit factory. On the other corner was Grace Bros storage. At the back was McNulty's, a foundry. It was an industrial and health district. Just around the corner—and people who read this in Hansard will have to ask someone older what this is!—was something called Kodak. That is why I support this legislation. Without public housing, without that security and that sense of community which was there, I wouldn't be here.

I announced that our government would create the Housing Australia Future Fund in my budget reply in May 2021, when opposition leaders actually came out with policies and positive agendas. So more than a year before the election we outlined this policy. Our plan to build 30,000 social and affordable homes was an important part of our campaign for government. It was at the heart of the positive change that Australians voted for. The government has a clear mandate to establish the Housing Australia Future Fund. Just as importantly, the nation has a clear need for it. Not only will this legislation create the fund; it will also create an important reform, the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, which I announced on that night as well.

How do we work with state and territory governments, with local government, to open up the supply of housing to deal with land release and land issues? How do we make sure, when we do that, that infrastructure comes before, not after? That happens all too often as our suburbs spread, and we don't give thought to the need for schools and health facilities and recreational facilities in all those communities. In the northern suburbs of Perth, in the Pearce electorate, where I was just last week with the member for Pearce, there is a great example of a railway station being built with a pool as part of the facilities, with offices and housing around, before the community are living around there—best practice by the McGowan government. I want to see that replicated around the country.

This piece of legislation shouldn't be seen in isolation. It's about how our cities function and how our regions function. It's about how this will work with the National Housing Accord we've come up with, working with the Master Builders Association, working with others. It's about, as well, the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement that will be negotiated between the Commonwealth and the states and territories.

I've seen some figures plucked out of the air for how many houses should be built, as if there's not a Commonwealth state housing agreement, as if states and territories aren't doing anything either by themselves or, in future, with the cooperation of a federal government. It works, as well, with the National Housing and Homelessness Plan that the government will be putting in place, with the $100 million we've put in place for emergency housing.

I say to the whole of this parliament—the crossbenchers as well as those opposite in the aptly titled opposition: you should think through the implications behind opposing this legislation because it's beyond my comprehension how you can do that. There is a national need for more affordable housing. There's a need to help frontline workers live closer to where they work. There's a clear and urgent national need for more safe housing for women and children fleeing violent homes. This policy of quarantining 4,000 of these homes works with the 500 additional community service workers we've announced as well, as well as for emergency housing. Why that would be opposed is beyond my comprehension.

Tonight, like every night, women's crisis services across Australia will have to tell women, and perhaps women with children, fleeing partners who are violent that they simply cannot accommodate them. They'll be forced to sleep in their car or, worse, go back to a dangerous situation. When we've seen tragedy hit and women lose their lives I've sometimes heard the statement made, 'Why didn't they leave that relationship?' Because quite often they had nowhere to go, and that is a hard truth.

Passing this legislation will provide 4,000 homes built for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence and for older women on low incomes at risk of homelessness. It will provide a $100 million investment in crisis and transitional housing. It will provide $30 million to build housing and fund specialist services for veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It has been reported that a survey done in Sydney showed that one in 10 people sleeping rough on the streets of Sydney have worn the uniform of our great nation. They deserve better than that. We need to do better than that.

We also have to do better for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in remote communities, who currently endure some of the worst housing standards in the world. Passing this legislation will deliver $200 million to repair, improve and maintain housing in remote Indigenous communities.

This is the opportunity that the Housing Australia Future Fund represents—more affordable housing for frontline workers, more housing stock for the nation, more safe accommodation for women fleeing family violence, more support for veterans at risk of homelessness and more investment in remote communities. But let's be clear that, in order for that to happen, this legislation has to pass the House of Representatives and has to pass the Senate. The parliament isn't a debating society. It's not a consequence-free environment, and people need to be held to account. You're determined to vote against this and somehow say that this is a defeat for the government. It's not; it's a defeat for people who need a secure roof over their head.

I've heard people say—and I've seen some figures bandied around—'Why not commit $5 billion a year rather than $500 million a year?' I say: 'Why stop there? Why not $50 billion, $500 billion or $1 trillion?' Because it's just a fantasy.

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