Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

A house is not just bricks and mortar. It's a stable, secure, safe place that supports our wellbeing and informs our self-worth. A home provides stability for individuals, couples and families to stay in one location, to pursue education and employment opportunities and to form attachments in their community. A good home is the foundation of a good life and, in the middle of a housing crisis, we can and should do much more to build more homes and to make renting a home more secure and affordable.

Australia is in the middle of an unprecedented housing crisis. This problem has been decades in the making. It reflects a lack of effective planning, and policy failure by both major parties. As a result, young people are being shut out of the market by rapidly rising house prices, which have outstripped wages growth for more than a decade. The private rental market in Australia has a persistent, structural shortage of affordable housing. Growing numbers of vulnerable Australians, including people on low incomes and older, single women, are facing severe housing stress and even homelessness.

The No. 1 problem is housing supply. Australia has amongst the lowest number of homes, as a proportion of population, in the developed world. The federal government has set a target of 1.2 million new homes by 2030, but, on its current trajectory, we are not going to reach that goal. The government has to take more accountability for ensuring that it meets the target for new homes. This could include doing more to convince investors to allocate capital to residential starts, amidst rising input costs and labour shortages; providing incentives and regulations to make sure that we can make better use of our existing housing stock; and providing Commonwealth incentives to states and councils to rezone land.

The government's housing reform agenda and its commitment to provide more dwellings is commendable, but it's going to take too many years to achieve. With the rental crisis worsening, vulnerable Australians are under severe stress. In the short term, we have to do more to help people who are struggling to pay their rent. The recent increases in the Commonwealth rent assistance were welcome, but, with an average increase of $10 a week per household, they fall well short of the average rent increases, which have been well over $50 per week over the last year. In line with the recommendation from more than 60 expert groups and welfare groups, the Commonwealth's rent assistance has to be increased so that it more closely reflects the rents that people are actually paying, while the government works more quickly towards the long-term solution of building more affordable housing.

In the middle of the cost-of-living and housing affordability crises, we have to do more. We have to do much more to help vulnerable people struggling to pay their rent—and they include women fleeing domestic violence, and older, single women, who are at much greater risk of housing insecurity than are men.

A growing number of women are retiring into poverty and are then at risk of homelessness. Women are retiring with less superannuation than men, due to their history of a lifetime of part-time work, time out of the workforce to raise children and the gender pay gap. This means that many older women are experiencing severe housing insecurity due to an increasingly unaffordable private rental market. In retirement, the spending needs of single older women are modest. Increasing the Commonwealth rental assistance payment could be the difference for them between a good retirement and homelessness.

A good home is the foundation for a good life. This unprecedented housing crisis means that we have to do more to help people who are struggling to pay their rent. We have to ensure that every Australian, including the young and the vulnerable, can have a good life.

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