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

And he happens to be from the bush as well. Each of the states and territories wants to use this additional funding—on top of the $1.6 billion that we allocated for the one-year extension of the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement and on top of the additional $2 billion that's been provided for community housing—to ensure that we deal with the issue of pressure, particularly on our major capital cities on the East Coast. That is something that we have had serious discussion on, and when we meet again next time around there will be a focus as part of planning, which the states and territories have agreed on, to ensure that zoning is appropriate, to make sure that we can get more houses built and that they can be built in appropriate places. One of the drivers of that is the increased need to have more housing in regional communities.

I'm happy to work with the member for Indi on an ongoing basis, as I'm sure the housing minister is, the infrastructure minister, who is responsible for cities and regional development policy, is and the local government minister is. A lot of this is about working with the three levels of government.

We know that many of these communities are suffering from a failure to fill the labour markets that are available because there is enormous growth in these communities.

So, I thank the member for her question, which is similar to the question raised by the member for Kennedy yesterday, and I look forward to working with her on an ongoing basis to make sure that it is delivered. (Time expired)

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