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

Quietly because they are in disgrace! You couldn't get a more comical topic for an MPI than the one that we have just heard today. This week is Homelessness Week. The theme for homelessness week this year is 'It's time to end homelessness'. We reintroduced last week, the week before Homelessness Week, our Housing Australia Future Fund Bill and its related housing bills into the House of Representatives. The Housing Australia Future Fund is a $10 billion commitment to provide the safe and affordable housing that Australians need. It's for victims of family and domestic violence. It's for First Nations communities. It's for veterans. Reintroducing these bills demonstrates our government's commitment to using every process available for this important legislation, which will ensure that we can build tens of thousands of new homes for Australians, because we are actually committed to this task, unlike those opposite.

The reintroduction, of course, provides the opportunity, after the speech we've just heard, for the coalition and the Greens to stop playing politics and to support our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. This isn't about politics; it's about putting roofs over people's heads. Our government is committed to making sure that Australians have a safe, affordable place to call home—those Australians that are fleeing family and domestic violence or need transitional housing, and those frontline workers that helped us so much during the pandemic, like our police and our nurses. We are committed to improving and repairing housing in remote Aboriginal communities. And, of course, $30 million is to come from this fund to support veterans that are experiencing or at risk of homelessness. In addition to this, we've already announced the new $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator to deliver thousands of new social homes across Australia.

The member for Deakin likes to make fun of the Help to Buy Scheme, yet we see that the state equivalents of this scheme, like that operating in Western Australia through Keystart, have been wildly successful in getting tens of thousands of people into a home that they would never dream of being able to become an owner of, because of the situation they find themselves in. Government support like this Help to Buy Scheme is what is enabling that to occur.

As part of last year's budget we expanded the Defence Home Ownership Assistance Scheme, with a $46.2 million investment that not only supports our serving personnel but our ex-serving personnel to get access to buying their own home as well. We committed to and are delivering $3.6 million for the Scott Palmer Services Centre in Darwin to support our veterans that find themselves homeless in the Top End, because we have an obligation to support our veterans. Too many veterans across this country are experiencing homelessness. Combating veteran homelessness is a key priority for the Albanese government. Nearly 6,000 contemporary veterans can experience homelessness in any one year. The Department of Veterans' Affairs has worked with the community housing sector, including through a partnership with the Community Housing Industry Association and ex-service organisations, to develop veteran-specific resources to assist community housing providers in supporting veterans who are experiencing homelessness. These resources also include an industry standard for providing housing services to veterans.

On census night, more than 1,500 Australian veterans were homeless. In addition to those veterans who were homeless on census night, we also know there were many who were experiencing marginal housing, that are at risk of homelessness: those who are couch surfing, staying with family or friends, in temporary accommodation or in a caravan park. Many veterans are at risk of homelessness in these circumstances. So, I say to any veterans who may be listening or watching today that if you find yourself homeless or at risk of homelessness, please contact the Department of Veterans' Affairs, on 1800838372 or Open Arms on 1800011046.

Yesterday I convened the first of a number of consultation sessions that will contribute towards the development of our new Defence and Veteran Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. Housing is a fundamental prerequisite in helping veterans who suffer from mental ill health. The risk of suicide in the Australian population is double if someone does not have access to safe and secure housing. So we know that, in trying to tackle the issues that the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide is grappling with, housing is going to be fundamental to that effort.

We also know that one of the issues that many veterans grapple with when they leave service is social connection, which is fundamental to wellbeing. It's very hard to grow social connection if you don't have secure housing in a location where you can grow those networks and build community. So I find it interesting that we have seen members of the opposition meeting with organisations like the RAAF Association in Western Australia that have proposals on the table right now for how they could support our veterans who are experiencing homelessness and would really love to have the opportunity to apply to the government to access the funds that we want to make available through the Housing Australia Future Fund and that senators from the Liberal Party are championing, like Senator Matt O'Sullivan. I'm glad to see him supporting that, but why doesn't he then vote for the legislation to enable the Housing Australia Future Fund? Instead of having silly debates like this one on the topic that has been put forward by the opposition today, they could be actually supporting the legislation that we were trying to get through the Senate and that we've now had to reintroduce into the House.

I've been very pleased to meet with Vasey RSL Care from Victoria with the member for Jagajaga, who brought to my attention the important work they are trying to do in establishing new services to support veterans experiencing homelessness. They also want to be able to come forward and apply for funds from government, but we can't enable that right now, because the Housing Australia Future Fund is being blocked by the coalition and the Greens. We are serious about trying to resolve this homelessness issue that Australia confronts. We're serious about resolving it for all Australians. We are trying to improve this situation for people who are fleeing family and domestic violence, for our remote Aboriginal communities, for our frontline workers and for our veterans.

Housing All Australians' report was handed down in May this year, called Give me shelter: leave no veteran behind. The report says:

Australia is in a housing crisis. We don't have enough social, affordable and public housing for the people who need it most, including our veterans and other key workers. This has long-term implications for Australian society as we know it today.

Doing nothing is just not an option.

Let those words ring throughout the chambers of our parliament. And RSL Australia says, 'The time for action is now.' So many housing services, whether they are veteran-specific or otherwise, who wish to support our veterans, wish to support our broader community and wish to work with government in providing better housing options and opportunities for Australians are being thwarted because of the opposition coming from the coalition and the Greens.

Instead of seeing the opportunity to get on with the job of providing this much-needed funding and support for housing in Australia, we have an opposition that is trying to politicise these issues for its own political purposes, instead of standing with women and children fleeing domestic violence, standing with our First Nations communities, standing with our frontline workers and standing with our veterans. So, in this Homelessness Week, it is time to end homelessness, and it's time for those opposite to get on with supporting the HAFF.

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