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

I move:

That the amendment be agreed to.

I said, when I first introduced these bills into parliament, that it marked a turning point for housing policy in this country, ending a wasted decade of a national housing policy in Australia under the former government that failed to address Australia's housing affordability challenges. Today we take another step forward in turning around our housing challenges. Today we move from what could be to what will be: 30,000 new homes through the Housing Australia Future Fund comprising 20,000 homes to provide social housing, 4,000 of which will be allocated to women and children leaving domestic and family violence and to older women on low incomes who are at risk of homelessness, and 10,000 affordable homes for frontline workers, like police, nurses and cleaners, who kept us safe during the pandemic.

There is also new funding to deliver the government's commitments to address acute housing needs: $200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvement of housing in Indigenous communities; $100 million for crisis and transitional housing options for women and children impacted by family and domestic violence and older women at risk of homelessness; and $30 million to build housing for veterans who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of homelessness. We will ensure that each state and territory and rural and regional Australia as well as our cities get their fair share of this critical housing. All of this will be in the first five years alone of the fund.

The legislation passing the parliament today will also create the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council and Housing Australia. This housing legislation is a critical part of the government's broad and ambitious housing agenda. There will be a $3 billion new homes bonus; $500 million for a housing support program to help meet our National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million well located homes from 1 July 2024; the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator to deliver thousands of new social homes across Australia; funding for the 10,000 affordable homes over five years from 2024 as part of the National Housing Accord; an increase of 15 per cent in the maximum rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance, the largest increase in more than 30 years; the additional $2 billion in financing for more social and affordable rental housing; new incentives to boost the supply of rental housing by changing arrangements for investments in build-to-rent accommodation; and the $1.7 billion one-year extension to the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement with states and territories, with the states and territories committing to a better deal for renters and supporting the national rollout of the help-to-buy program, which will reduce the cost of buying a home.

As I keep saying, this agenda is ambitious because it has to be. I want to thank the members and senators who worked constructively with the government to pass this critical legislation. I also want to thank the housing experts, the community housing organisations and the ordinary members of the community who have supported and backed this legislation. I know our friends in the media can be preoccupied with the back and forth that leads to legislation like this passing the parliament, but today I'm not thinking about what got us to this point. I'm thinking of the people whose lives will be changed because of this bill: the vulnerable Australians who have been left to languish on housing waiting lists for far too long and the key workers, the heroes of the pandemic, who've been locked out of a home in the communities that they were meant to serve.

I'm thinking again of Lauree, who I met on the north-west coast of Tasmania. She told me the new home she had meant she could finally go back to school and get the education she always wanted. Today is for Australians like Lauree. This is what drives our government and keeps us working every day for Australians. Today we make good on the promise we made to Australians to establish the Housing Australia Future Fund and we move from promises to action. This is our government's priority: more homes for Australians like Lauree; building, not blocking; delivery, not delays; and practical action, not protests. This is what our government is focused on. From today, the Housing Australia Future Fund becomes a reality, an enduring promise from an Australian government that more Australians should have a safe, affordable place to call home. I commend these bills to the House.

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