Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Housing shouldn't be about politics; it's about people—people who need a roof over their heads, people who need the comfort of shelter and all that it can provide. Centacare Evolve is a housing provider in Tasmania. They have a campaign for Homelessness Week, with artist David Adams, called Portraits of Centacare Evolve Housing, of tenants, that's Homes for All. It articulates some of the real stories of real people. Di says, 'Having a home means everything to me. I feel safe, cherished and so very grateful. I'm almost 80 years old and I feel 25. A home has done that for me.' Brian says, 'A home means a lot to me. I love the peace and quiet and a place to call my own.' I encourage all members to get onto the Centacare Evolve Facebook page and have a look at this wonderful campaign.

What the government has been doing already is a $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator. We have Commonwealth rent assistance going up by 15 per cent—a record in 30 years. We have another $2 billion in financing through the National Housing Finance and Investments Corporation. We have new incentives with build to rent. We're expanding eligibility for the Home Guarantee Scheme. We have a $67.5 million boost to homelessness funding. We have $1.7 billion going to a national housing and homelessness agreement with the states. We have a $10 billion fund before the parliament, right now, that will no doubt go through this chamber with the support of this side and most of the crossbench—clearly, perhaps, at this stage, not the Greens and certainly not the opposition—which will then go to the Senate. It will be up to the senators to decide whether they pass this Housing Australia Future Fund.

This is a Housing Australia Future Fund that has been called for by just about every single housing and homelessness agency in the country—National Shelter, Mission Australia, Homelessness Australia, Community Housing Industry Association, Everybody's Home. We even have the Liberal housing minister in Tasmania calling for the passage of this legislation. We had the Liberal member for Bass, Ms Bridget Archer, calling for the passage of this legislation, because she understands, in her electorate up there in Launceston, in northern Tasmania, how dire and diabolical the situation for homelessness is in northern Tasmania. So we are doing a lot. We are being stymied by the Greens and the coalition. We can't expect much from those opposite, but the Greens we expect more from. We expect them to get behind people who need a roof over their head.

The housing spokesperson for the Greens has belled the cat with his article in that magazine, where he has said, in writing, that he regards the Greens' opposition to the HAFF as a great doorknocking campaign opportunity to mobilise their base. It's not about the people who need a roof over their head; it's about the Greens increasing their vote in the inner cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. It's a disgraceful proposition. They are holding vulnerable people—women and children escaping domestic violence, veterans, people who need a roof over their head—hostage to this letterboxing campaign by the Greens. I urge them to get behind this legislation when it goes before the Senate. And we have the housing shadow minister—who was a hopeless housing minister. He never met with homelessness groups when he was minister. He was a housing and homelessness minister who refused to meet with the homeless. He said that the homelessness situation wasn't his job, that it was up to the states. That's a position we reject.

We are in Homelessness Week right now. We have 122,500 Australians tonight who won't have somewhere to sleep other than maybe couch surfing with a mate, sleeping in a car or sleeping under a bridge somewhere. It's not good enough and we are desperate to attend to this. We have plans before the parliament. We know the shadow minister's not interested. We are. We have Tasmanian figures. We have 4½ thousand people on our housing waiting list, which we want to bring down. Six thousand homes will be built in Tasmania over the next five years, if the HAFF goes ahead, and 30,000 homes across the country over the next five years. It will be a perpetual fund that will build homes, each and every year, into perpetuity.

What this MPI is really all about is a dog whistle to mortgage holders. What we know is that interest rates and inflation started going up under those opposite, and they refused to do anything about it in their last budget. They had the chance to bring down the pressure on inflation and interest rates. They didn't do it. Only this government is posting budget surpluses and can provide the careful economic management that's needed to increase supply in this country.

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