Kate Thwaites (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing and the Minister for Homelessness. How will the Albanese Labor government's ambitious housing reform agenda in the budget address cost-of-living pressures?

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

I thank the member for Jagajaga for her question. I know that she, like many people on this side of the House, are concerned that too many Australians don't have a safe, affordable place to call home. Indeed, we are committed to addressing cost-of-living pressures with our five-point plan in the budget, and one of those, of course, is around our ambitious housing reform.

We know that far too many Australians are finding it difficult to rent a property, and far too many Australians are finding it difficult to purchase their own property. That's why we are acting immediately. That's why we're unlocking up to $575 million from our National Housing Infrastructure Facility. These funds will be available before Christmas for more social and affordable homes as quickly as we can get them off the ground. Of course, as part of our budget we struck the new National Housing Accord between the three tiers of government, investors, industry and social housing providers. And, in estimates yesterday, Treasury officials confirmed that our ambition to build one million well-located homes from 2024 is more than it would substantially have been without our policy. So it's actually important that we have done this.

It is very, very important that we have done this, as well as our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which will provide 30,000 social and affordable homes across the country. Our National Housing Supply and Affordability Council will provide advice on the National Housing Accord and also on the returns from the Housing Australia Future Fund. Our National Housing and Homelessness Plan will set out concrete actions to help achieve the accord's goals. The Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee is already also helping hundreds of Australians in regional Australia into their first home. We brought this forward by three months. Indeed, in less than six weeks we have had 686 families in regional Australia save thousands of dollars by accessing this Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee. Both the guarantee and our Help to Buy program will deliver savings on housing costs, and these programs are targeted to those most in need.

We did hear in Senate estimates yesterday, when they were talking about housing affordability and social housing, a senator from the opposition make some disparaging comments about people in social housing and social housing generally. I'd say to Australians who are growing up in social housing or who are on a social housing waiting list: we do care. We understand that Australians, all Australians, need secure and affordable housing. That is why we have such an ambitious housing agenda. We're getting on with it, and we'll continue to work with our state and territory colleagues, with local governments, with investors and with the sector to deliver.