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

I want to thank our member for Bennelong, our terrific member, for his support for our housing plan. Of course, I joined him just a few weeks ago to go and visit new affordable homes for key workers in his electorate at Macquarie Park, which will include more than 1,000 new social and affordable homes when it is completed. It was terrific to see some of those tenants in those homes.

The member for Bennelong knows how important our $32 billion Homes for Australia plan is because he knows that people are under pressure and some people are doing it particularly tough. That's why we brought down the budget that we did—a budget that focuses on support with the cost of living, puts downward pressure on inflation and sets us up for a future made in Australia. That's why we're giving every taxpayer a tax cut on 1 July—all 13 million of them. But it's also why our budget included more than $6 billion in new housing initiatives, and that's what our $32 billion Homes for Australia plan is all about. It's about fixing the mess that we inherited from those opposite when it comes to housing.

We know the long-term answer to housing affordability is supply, supply, supply. That's why we're working with the sector, the states and the territories to meet our ambitious national housing target of 1.2 million homes from 1 July by the end of the decade. One of the ways we're doing this, of course, is through the Housing Australia Future Fund—something those opposite voted against. Of course, they teamed up with the Greens over here to delay it by more than six months.

This is the single biggest investment in social and affordable housing in more than a decade. It recently closed its first tender round, and the response has been overwhelming. As we heard yesterday, hundreds of applications to build tens of thousands of new homes was received. This response shows why our government fought so hard for the Housing Australia Future Fund. It will also support the construction sector, with more than $90 million committed in the recent budget to make sure that we have the tradies we need to build more homes for Australians.

Of course, these were the homes that were delayed by those opposite. They seem to think over there that we don't need new homes. The member for Deakin, over there, admitted they don't have a target for building homes. Indeed, he seems to think they have enough homes. His quote was, 'The number of homes in Australia is actually pretty good.' Maybe that's why the Leader of the Opposition didn't have one new dollar for one new home in his budget in reply. Those opposite are full of negativity. We're going to get on and build the homes that Australia needs, including through our Housing Australia Future Fund.

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