Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese government has a broad agenda for safe and affordable housing. It's focused on providing security and dignity for all Australians, and I'm proud to be part of a government that knows a secure home will give more Australians the foundation for a better future. Our comprehensive strategy will create thousands of social and affordable homes across Australia. The housing sector is a complex one, so one strategy is not enough. The Minister for Housing is implementing a raft of strategies to address the housing and homelessness issues across the spectrum. Our strategy aims to increase housing supply sooner but also to provide a pipeline of secure funding for housing developments into the future, because this is an ongoing problem.

We know that homelessness numbers jumped between the 2016 and 2021 censuses. We also know housing, both rental and for purchase, is increasingly unaffordable for many Australians, so the responses need to be urgent. But they also need to be effective and evidence based. Ultimately the one thing that ends homelessness is housing. What ends the rental rises is more rental supply—basic demand-supply economics. The Albanese government has a plan that incorporates a number of strategies to address housing and homelessness across the spectrum: more houses, more homes. We recently announced an additional $2 billion in funding, bringing the Albanese government's investment in housing and homelessness to more than $9.5 billion in this financial year. This additional $2 billion needs to be spent or committed by the states and territories within two years and result in a net gain in social housing properties. This is real dollars, driving real change, building more homes.

But that's not all. This commitment builds on the actions we've already taken immediately to address Australia's serious housing shortages: $575 million in funding unlocked in the National Housing Infrastructure Facility and a widening of its remit, with houses already under construction across the country; and the Housing Accord we announced in last year's budget, which includes federal funding to deliver 10,000 affordable homes over five years from 2024. The Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee is already helping thousands of Australians into homeownership. We're delivering new action to help Australian renters, expand opportunities for homeownership and bolster frontline homelessness services. We're delivering a $67.5 million boost to homelessness to states and territories over the next year, and this funding will assist frontline homelessness services across the country through the $1.7 billion National Housing and Homelessness Agreement currently being renegotiated.

In my career working in the homelessness sector I saw firsthand the inaction by the former Liberal-National government. Their inaction has left Australians with significant challenges across the country. I recently went back to Catherine House, an organisation I led prior to coming to this place, and saw their plans to rebuild and expand. Catherine House, in Adelaide, is a women's homelessness service that provides crisis accommodation and support services for women experiencing homelessness across South Australia. They have plans to expand their homelessness service so they accommodate women currently, right now, sleeping rough on the streets of Adelaide, homeless in the middle of this cold, cold winter. Their plans for Catherine House will directly result in expanded crisis accommodation but also in social housing. I saw their plans, which are ready to go—shovel-ready. All they need is the Housing Australia Future Fund legislation. They need certainty of funding.

And that's not just for this development. Social and community housing providers need to be able to plan for the future, for developments next year and the year after, and that is what the Housing Australia Future Fund does. So I'm appealing to the Liberals and the Greens to stop their posturing and do what is right for the Australian people. The HAFF is backed by homelessness services, community housing providers, Shelter Australia, the building industry, developers—the people who actually know how the sector works and what works for homelessness. What makes a difference for homelessness is social housing. When I talk to the sector, they tell me that what they need is certainty of funding going into the future. They are ready to go, shovel-ready; they are waiting for the Housing Australia Future Fund; and they are watching us—watching what happens here in this place and watching those opposite block solutions. So again I say to those opposite: stop standing in the way of more housing.

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