Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It's an amazing opportunity that the opposition have presented here today in their matter of public importance they raise. They raise the issue of a plan for housing. And they are right: having a plan for housing in this country is vitally important. In fact, our government understands how important it is to make sure that Australians have access to safe and affordable housing. In fact, we understand that it's central to the dignity and the security of all Australians.

We have had to bring in, as part of our commitments at the last election, legislation to establish the Housing Australia Future Fund—a $10 billion investment in safe and secure housing for the most needy Australians. And yet—have you heard?—despite the fact it is a matter of public importance to the opposition that we need to have a plan for housing in this country, over in the other place the 'noalition' of the Liberals, Nationals and Greens are opposed to the Housing Australia Future Fund. It is a $10 billion fund that will deliver 30,000 new social and affordable homes over only five years. That's exactly what we need to see in Australia.

I take the opportunity—I suspect I'll take it a few times over my speaking time—to call on those in the other chamber to look back and see what they've done just in the last 24 hours. They had the opportunity to support the establishment of that fund. But, instead, this 'noalition' of Liberals, Nationals and Greens decided to gang up in the Senate and remove from the Senate the opportunity to even vote on that legislation this week. They are further deferring, further putting off, the opportunity to establish the fund, to start earning interest on the fund, to start generating the revenue in the fund that would deliver $200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvement of housing in remote Indigenous communities and deliver $100 million for crisis and transitional housing options for women and children impacted by family and domestic violence and for older women that are at risk of homelessness. And they are denying the opportunity for $30 million to build housing and fund specialist services for veterans who are experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. I make this point because there are nearly 6,000 contemporary veterans that can experience homelessness in any one year here in Australia. That is a national tragedy. It's one that, indeed, the opposition have spoken about. It is one they acknowledge we should be doing something about, to fix it. In fact, it might even be one of the things they're suggesting is a failure in housing policy. Yet, when presented with an opportunity to actually fix this problem, they oppose it going through this parliament.

It's curious, and I will tell you all why. In last year's budget reply, the Leader of the Opposition said:

The job of an opposition is not to oppose for the sake of it. We don't disagree with everything in this budget, and policy must be judged on its merits. If it's good for you, we will support it. If it's bad for you, we will stand against it. So we commend several good measures in Tuesday's budget: the extension of the childcare subsidy to more Australian families; the commitment to reduce the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payment, to lower the cost of medicines; the support for housing for our veterans …

At the last budget reply, the Leader of the Opposition stood at that dispatch box and told this chamber, this parliament and the Australian people that that opposition—the Liberal Party and the National Party—would support the funding for housing for veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. This is the funding that would be flowing through the Housing Australia Future Fund and this is the funding that would support the programs that are being proposed by organisations—for example, the Royal Australian Air Force Association of Western Australia, Vasey RSL Care in Victoria and the Tasmanian RSL—which all have proposals that this government could consider for funding that would come through the Housing Australia Future Fund. Some of those proposals are based on the very successful and already existing Andrew Russell Veteran Living centre in South Australia, a model for the Scott Palmer Centre, which we are funding as a government and we committed to at the last election, to be built in Darwin. This is also a great example of how we are already moving in this space, but we need to have further funding to support these additional programs. There are organisations waiting in the wings, complaining, and I know they are calling Liberal and National senators and telling them they should be supporting this legislation to establish the fund. We also have the Queensland RSL doing the work they do with the Salvos to support veterans experiencing homelessness as well.

We want to be able to support good proposals coming from good organisations. We can't even assess potential proposals because there's no stream of funding because this opposition, in noalition with the Greens, are not supporting it. I want to make a point about that. When it comes to the approach that has been taken here by this noalition of Liberals, Nationals and Greens, we have been hearing this consistent whine in this chamber. Anyone who pays attention on the social media certainly reads the whine that comes out of the Greens about this housing proposal.

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