Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

(1) Clause 18, page 18 (after line 25), at the end of the clause, add:

(9) The proportion of grants made under subsection (1) or (3) during a financial year that are grants in relation to acute housing needs, social housing and affordable housing in regional, rural and remote areas of Australia must be equivalent to the proportion of the Australian population that live in those areas based on the most recently available census data.

This amendment is pretty simple. One in five of us live in regional Australia; at least one in five of these homes should be in regional Australia. Too many of the decisions we make in this place very much favour the capital cities, and I see in my electorate and I see in regional Australia more generally that there is a huge need for housing. Down on the south coast of my electorate, we're talking about vacancy rates of less than one per cent. We need to make sure that a share of this money is going across regional Australia—just an equitable share. That's where the need is so great and that is where people are so isolated.

When I drive home from the bottom part of my electorate, I drive past cars that I know have families in them. There are families hidden in the forest, and they're at the back of churches. It is a chronic issue. Yes, it is in the metropolitan areas as well; I know that. But we don't have the services in the regions when it comes to homelessness services. Our people are told they have to go to the capital cities if they need those services. And getting there is another thing, let alone the fact that they're leaving behind everything that they know.

So this is really about equity. I'm particularly calling out to the Nationals, who say that they're here for regional Australia. You might not like the bill in general, but I would ask you to support regional Australia with respect to this bill and make sure that we in the regions get a fair share of this investment.

See this speech in context