Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm so pleased to stand today to single out the Minister for Housing for her hard work to get the Housing Australia Future Fund to pass parliament today. The Housing Australia Future Fund is set to become the single biggest investment in social and affordable housing in over a decade. This is landmark legislation that will have a profound and lasting impact on the lives of countless Australians and represents the most significant housing reform in a generation. This progressive policy will help renters, veterans, those fleeing domestic violence and those who are doing it tough. It will deliver 30,000 homes in the next five years, and it is progressive policy that is good for Australia. On behalf of Bennelong I'd like to thank the minister, but I'd also like to thank the crossbench, particularly the member for Melbourne, for their support.

It's been clear over the last few weeks that the member for Melbourne has been a little bit more involved with this legislation to secure its passage through parliament. He has an admirable pragmatism in this parliament that many others could learn from, because blocking progressive policy doesn't deliver progressive policy. We learnt that blocking climate policy led to over a decade of climate chaos. We saw that blocking progressive housing policy didn't deliver any more housing. Likes and retweets don't reduce emissions or put roofs over people's heads; it's progressive policy that does. And in this place it's Labor governments that deliver progressive policy. We were elected to take action on climate change, address the housing crisis and help with the cost of living, and we're doing just that.

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