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

I thank the member for Boothby for her important question. She of course in her previous role before coming to this place dealt with this issue on a day-to-day basis, and I thank her for all of the work she has done in that community. She does support the Housing Australia Future Fund because she understands the challenges Australians are facing. They are dealing with rising interest rates and they are dealing with rising rents, which is why we moved immediately last year to unlock $575 million to get more social and affordable housing on the ground quickly. It's also why at the very first opportunity we brought the Housing Australia Future Fund and other related bills into the parliament, which is why we want to get these bills debated. We want to make sure we're getting these homes on the ground as quickly as we can for the people that need them most. We know that on census night in 2021 almost 123,000 Australians were homeless—

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