Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There's only so much you can listen to of the nonsense of those opposite when they literally had a policy that they would not build a single home when they were in government. They were not interested. They said that social housing provision was the responsibility of the states. That's what the previous minister said—that it was the responsibility of the states. Under the Abbott-Morrison-Turnbull coalitions, they said that they weren't going to build social housing.

We took a different approach. As soon as we came into government, we established the Housing Australia Future Fund. True to form, when they were in government, they had a policy not to build social homes, and, when they were in opposition, they took that same policy and voted against the establishment of the Housing Australia Future Fund. They came in here and twisted themselves into a thousand different knots and pieces and put themselves into this absolute twizzle. The truth is that they voted against the construction of social housing homes in this place.

Round 1 of the Housing Australia Future Fund applications has closed, and, lo and behold, community housing providers right around the country have lined up to apply for funding and for the funding model that has been very carefully produced by the Minister for Housing. There is an oversubscription to the Housing Australia Future Fund, which I think is a fantastic endorsement of a carefully-thought-out policy that is going to, over the long-term, provide a consistent stream of funds and investment into social housing. That is just the first thing that this government has done since coming into government around the provision of housing, and it's all about ensuring that the federal government is at the table, working together with our states and territories to ensure that housing is a priority for this government.

Those opposite like to come in here and say, 'There's no new money in this budget.' I commend them on their laziness and their ignorance, because if you actually opened up the budget papers you would read that there is billions of dollars of new investments to go on top of the billions of dollars of investments that have already been made since coming into government. The first one that I want to mention is the $1 billion under the National Housing Infrastructure Facility for the creation of new housing for young people as well as women and children escaping violence. That's not nothing, in my book. A billion dollars for women and children escaping violence is not nothing. Those opposite should reflect on whether they say that that is nothing, because it is not. Nor is investing in the provision of housing for young people.

I've spent a lot of time with housing providers recently. I had the absolute honour on Youth Homelessness Matters Day to launch the April edition of Parity,which is a publication put on by those in the housing sector. It was at the Melbourne City Mission in South Melbourne, in my electorate. It is a publication by the Victorian Council to Homeless Persons. On that day, we heard from young people who had been in and out of the housing sector and in and out of the social housing sector. One of the things that is essential is that for young people to have a home it can't just be any home. It needs to be one that is appropriate for young people; it needs to be one where, for people under the age of 18, there are levels of supervision and support. It needs to have all the wraparound services to ensure that schooling and education and health needs of a young person can be met.

One of the things this money will do is go directly towards those young people who have the needs and requirements of a young person so that they can get back on their feet, so that they can get their lives back in order and so that, whatever their circumstances were when they found themselves homeless, those young people know it is not their fault, but that they are often a victim of circumstances. This funding going towards those young people is something I am extremely proud of. I'm also extremely proud of the funding going towards the too many people turned away from crisis accommodation and domestic violence shelters.

There is new money. There is an ongoing pipeline of work that I am truly proud of. We will continue to invest in affordable housing and we'll continue to work hard to get more people and more Australians into safe and secure homes.

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