Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hunter very much for that question. He's another great regional member on this side of the House. We understand that people are under pressure and that some people are doing it tough. Our No. 1 priority, which is exercising us every day, is delivering cost-of-living relief through tax cuts, energy bill relief and pay rises. We know that one of the keys to addressing the cost of living is bringing down the cost of owning or renting a home, and that means building more houses and increasing supply.

When I meet with councils in communities around the country—and I acknowledge the South-East Queensland councils that I met with earlier today—one of the things that they tell me is a big barrier to getting more houses built is getting local planning right and constructing the infrastructure needed to support new homes. That's why we have put $1.5 billion on the table to unlock the housing supply pipeline over the next two years.

The Prime Minister recently announced $50 million to help local and state governments get local planning rights to fund projects like a new strategy for Blacktown City Council to build more well-located housing around train stations, planning to build more homes around Bundaberg Hospital to ensure healthcare workers have affordable places to live close to where they work, funding to bring back a planning degree in South Australia to ensure that we actually have the workforce to give planning approvals and investing in the planning and servicing works needed to bring more housing online in six wheat belt areas across Western Australia. I know that bringing on new housing means getting the local planning right upfront. That's because we know that good planning matters, from planning new homes to, of course, planning to submit your local council nomination forms on time.

Just last Friday, the next round of the Housing Support Program closed for applications. There is $450 million available to local, state and territory governments for that enabling infrastructure. We'll fund new investment to build the roads and connect the power, water and sewerage to support residential construction. We'll also provide funding for community infrastructure like parks and public spaces to support those new homes. We don't want to just approve homes sitting on the books; we want sods turned on those homes right now. That $450 million will make a significant difference.

Of course, in the budget we also provided $1 billion across states and territories to deliver new infrastructure to support housing supply and to deliver more social housing via the priority works stream. States and territories will submit their implementation plans to me by next month. We are committed to building more homes across this country, and we are committed to building the infrastructure to enable those new homes in our cities, our suburbs and our regions.

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