Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight on a very serious issue. Today, the O'Farrell government dropped a bomb on the inner city of Sydney. They announced with no consultation and no warning that they will sell almost 300 properties in Millers Point in Sydney; 300 homes that have been public housing, some for generations. There are families that have lived in Millers Point for one or two or three generations.

People often ask what is the difference between a house and home. The difference between a house and a home is the family, the people who live there. You could just as easily ask the same question about a suburb. What is the difference between a suburb and a community? The difference between a suburb and a community is the people who live there, who have put their roots down there, who have sent their children to school there, who know each other and their neighbours and who help each other. That is what Millers Point is. It is a community with a long history and it is a community that has supported and cared for each other throughout that long history.

We are talking about an area that has a history as long as the European settlement of Sydney. For that time, there have been working class people living there—stevedores, people who worked on the docks, people who worked on the Hungry Mile, people who saw the depression, people who saw the plague and people who have seen Sydney change and grow through the generations. Those people are part of the heart and soul of our city.

We have seen cities around the world where working class people cannot afford to live in the centre of the city. Sydney will become such a city if the O'Farrell government proceeds with this decision. This is a devastating decision and a deep shock to the tenants, who have lived there all their lives and, in some cases, are the second or third generation of people to have done so. With no consultation, they have been told today that they will have to move from homes that have been theirs all their lives.

I condemn the O'Farrell government for making this decision, but I have to say that I also hold the Abbott government responsible for this. This is a government that refuses—

Government Member:

A government member interjecting—

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The guy who is sitting at the table, I do not know his name, says, 'Oh yeah, I'm sure it's our fault!' Your government will not sign the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, which expires on 30 June. What do you think that that uncertainty does to homelessness services? What do you think it does to their clients? This is a federal government that will not support, and will not announce whether it will support, another round of funding for the National Affordable Housing Agreement. How can states plan, build and fund their public housing, when they cannot hear from the federal government what sort of funds will be available for them in the future? We have seen, over this last week, the softening-up exercise start, with criticisms about social housing and criticisms about the National Rental Affordability Scheme—which are two excellent programs.

The National Rental Affordability Scheme has already built 14,000 homes in Australia, and another 24,000 are in the pipeline. It is a program, incidentally, that the states contribute a quarter of the funding to, with states selecting the projects that go ahead, in cooperation with the Commonwealth government. We have seen the softening up now when it comes to social housing. The previous federal Liberal government did nothing for social housing, and now we have a state Liberal government, who, when in opposition, opposed the stimulus package. They had Liberals out there campaigning against new social housing being built in their electorates. True to form, we have the O'Farrell government now selling 300 family homes from a community in the centre of Sydney and we have the Abbott government, who will not lift a finger to stop it or to fund affordable housing in the future. We have seen the softening-up exercise. The National Rental Affordability Scheme is going to go, the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness will not be re-signed, and the National Affordable Housing Agreement is going to go too, because this is a federal government that has no respect for public housing tenants. And it is working with a state government that has no respect for public housing tenants and no respect for the families and the communities that they have built in Millers Point in inner-city Sydney.

I am devastated and disgusted to see this action from the O'Farrell government today. I think it is a betrayal of the people of inner-city Sydney. They may as well have dropped a bomb on the centre of Sydney for the damage they will do to the community that has been there for generations.