Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Gilmore for all of her work regarding the Housing Australia Future Fund. She knows how important it is that this bill actually pass the parliament. She knows how important it is for every Australian that needs a safe and affordable place to call home. Indeed, passing this bill for the parliament is important for the women and children fleeing family and domestic violence. It is important for older women at risk of homelessness because 4,000 of the 30,000 social and affordable homes that this fund will build in its first five years will be going to those groups, as well as $100 million for crisis and transitional housing options for women.

It is also important for Indigenous communities that this bill pass the House—$200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvement of their housing will be available in the first five years of the fund. It's also important for the veterans who are experiencing homelessness and who are at risk of homelessness because $30 million will be available to build, house and fund special services for those veterans in the first five years. But it's critically important for the community housing providers who have already done the work to get as many homes on the ground as quickly as they can once this bill passes the parliament. And of course it's important news for future generations who will benefit from having a fund there in perpetuity to build social and affordable homes.

This $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund is the single biggest investment from a federal government in more than a decade in social and affordable housing in this country. For the first time, the Commonwealth government will have a legislative mandate to finance and support social and affordable housing right across the country. It will be there in perpetuity—not just for this government and not just the first five years of the fund but there in perpetuity, with returns going into social and affordable housing. This will change housing in Australia. It will benefit so many Australians.

We have worked tirelessly to deliver this bill because we understand the long-term reform required to turn around the housing challenges that we inherited from those opposite. But this is about people, and I want to thank the members in this place who understand that: the members of the crossbench who have joined us, the member for Bass, even, and of course now the Greens. We are getting this done together because it's important for people on the ground. It has always been about people, the people who are waiting for social and affordable homes across this country. I look forward to seeing this bill pass the parliament; working for all Australians, but particularly those doing it tough; and getting on with the job of delivering more homes for Australians that need them.

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