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

I move:

That the amendment be considered immediately.

This is a great victory for Australians who need a place to call home. This is a victory in the people's house that will mean more houses for people. Today is a win for boosting housing supply. It's a win for improving housing affordability across the nation. It's a good day for anyone who wants to see more homes built and more jobs in construction. It is an important day also for our veterans because this fund will build more housing for veterans at risk of homelessness. It's an important day for Indigenous Australians because part of this fund will deliver support to fix up housing in remote communities. It's also an important day for all those who are concerned about women and children escaping domestic violence, because 4,000 of these 30,000 homes will be reserved for women and children escaping domestic violence.

Last month our government brought together every state and territory government in the National Cabinet to deliver the most significant set of housing reforms in a generation. We're already seeing that action take place here in the ACT just this week. Next week I'll be with one of the premiers, outlining exactly how this process will occur to improve housing supply and to therefore improve housing affordability, because that is the key to housing affordability and to people getting access to homes. We need more supply; it's as simple as that.

And today we have brought together the crossbench to pass the biggest investment in social and affordable housing in more than a decade. I thank the members of the House of Representatives and the members of the Senate who have voted for this reform. I congratulate the Minister for Housing, who has done such an extraordinary job over a long period of time—and has sat in a lot of small meetings!—as well as advocated very strongly and consistently for why this is important.

This is an example of government policy arising from hard work in opposition to develop policy to see it then implemented in government. I announced this as part of my second budget reply speech back in 2021. When we did that in 2021, I well remember one of our daily newspapers saying, 'Why is it that the Leader of the Opposition is concentrating on housing? Housing isn't a big issue.' Well, you bet it is, and now that's recognised across the board. I certainly made no apologies back then for putting housing at the centre of my agenda in that speech—child care in the first one, housing in the second, aged care in the third. In amongst all of that, as well, was the Rewiring the Nation program. These are significant policies that we took to the Australian people in an election and received a mandate for.

In spite of that mandate and in spite of the broad support from the crossbench in this House and the crossbench in the Senate—we got there eventually—the Liberal and National parties are still saying no. They're saying no to everything, as they always do; there's just one sound. Those opposite did everything they could to stand in the way, and now they are left behind, sidelined as the complete irrelevance to this parliament that they are. They refuse to negotiate. They refuse to ever recognise a mandate. They refuse to have any plan for the future.

We know that they don't particularly like people who live in public housing, and now we also know that they don't want more people to live in public housing. Whenever they've been in government, what you see is less social housing at the end of their term than you did at the beginning. That's what we saw in New South Wales over 12 years, with houses in places like Millers Point and other parts of the community sold off, flogged off. They don't want people who aren't really wealthy living with harbour views. An example is the Sirius building in Sydney, which was purpose-built for people with disabilities to age in place. When I've crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge with international guests over the years, I've pointed towards that building and said, 'That says something about Australia.' It says that we're an egalitarian country, with purpose-built public housing there on the harbour, in the brutalist fashion, as it was. It's not to everyone's liking, that architecture, but I tell you what: I went to school with people who grew up in that housing, and those people enjoyed that quality of life. It gave them dignity and the security of a roof over their head.

What this bill will do is provide more roofs over more heads—30,000 of them in the first five years. Importantly, by establishing the Housing Australia Future Fund, just like the future funds that have been established by past governments and just like the reason why individuals invest their superannuation, to provide for their retirement, what this will do is provide some security in perpetuity. By establishing a $10 billion fund, which can be added to in the future, what we're doing is providing that secure certainty of future growth in social housing for year after year after year. Importantly, the agreement that at least $500 million will be spent additionally every year is on top of the funding that's agreed through the Commonwealth State Housing Agreement. We have extended the agreement by $1.7 billion for this current financial year. In addition to that, we've put $2 billion into the Social Housing Accelerator. That is an agreement with the states to increase supply—to look at planning laws to make sure they have more supply—and right across the country the states are responding to that. There's the work that the Malinauskas government is doing in South Australia, the changed planning laws that have been foreshadowed by the new Minns government in New South Wales, the work that Daniel Andrews has done in Victoria, the work that Jeremy Rockliff is doing in Tasmania and the work of the Palaszczuk government in Queensland. Here in the ACT there was the announcement this week about eligibility to have increased density of homes by allowing an additional dwelling to be built in appropriate places where there is infrastructure. The new Cook government in WA is building on the good work of the McGowan government. I've been in electorates like Cowan and Pearce, which are growth areas where they are building the infrastructure and the rail lines as well as the community facilities at the same time as houses are being built in those communities. It's best practice when governments are making sure that community infrastructure keeps up with housing supply.

This is an important day. It is a day that completes more of the plans that we took to the election through budget replies, so issues that we campaigned on year after year. We campaigned on cheaper child care, which came in, of course, on 1 July. The Rewiring the Nation program is rolling out, with projects like the Marinus Link between Tasmania and Victoria. Renewable zones are being connected up in New South Wales and Victoria. We made that announcement in the Pilbara, in Western Australia, just a few weeks ago. We campaigned on aged-care reforms, and the minister gave an outstanding response about the practical difference that these reforms are making to older Australians, who deserve to have dignity in their later years as a result of the reforms that we put in place and that we announced. The National Reconstruction Fund will have its first board meeting on Monday. It's a $15 billion fund to support existing industries to transform and support new industries as well. My government is determined to implement the agenda that we took to the election, and that is what we are doing, policy by policy, one by one, and this is another policy that we took to the election that will be legislated before we leave here today.

Other governments have said that they would support recognition of Indigenous Australians. John Howard took it to the 2007 election. When the Leader of the Opposition recently re-announced that he wanted a second referendum, he pointed out that they had taken that commitment to previous elections. If only they had won in 2016 and 2019, something might have happened with those commitments. Well, we actually believe that, when you go to an election and say you'll do something, you should do it, and on 14 October we will give Australians the opportunity to vote yes to recognise Indigenous Australians in our founding document, our Constitution.

This is a very good day. It is a good day for the parliament. It shows that this parliament is functioning, this parliament is able to get things done, this government is prepared to sit down and negotiate with anyone who is concerned about better policy and delivery. At the end of the day, all of us are here for a relatively short period of time in the history of this nation. It is our responsibility to make a difference each and every day, and our Minister for Housing has certainly done that in a short period of time. I pay tribute as well to the member for Blaxland for the work that he did in developing this policy agenda when in opposition. I commend this amendment that has been brought before the House, and I say it is indeed a very good day. It is a very good day for the parliament, but, most importantly, it is a good day for all those out there who understand that we need to boost housing supply and that people, no matter how difficult their circumstance, deserve a government that is determined to make sure they have the security of a roof over their head.

Question agreed to.

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