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

I want to thank the member for Macnamara for that important question and say it was great to be with him in his electorate to meet tenants of an affordable rental property in his electorate that was made possible through federal government money, and what a great success it is—and it shows that it can be done. As I was getting up to answer this question, we heard from those opposite, 'Why aren't you building the houses?' We aren't building the houses from the Housing Australia Future Fund yet because, of course, people are delaying it in the Senate, because people over there voted against it.

But we have heard the pleas from workers on the front line—people who deal day in, day out with people who have no safe, affordable place to call home. As Everybody's Home pointed out, even 'full-time breadwinners are now living in tents'. The news is full of stories of people who are finding it tough—families sleeping in cars, young people having to choose between paying the rent or buying food.

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