Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) Saturday, 1 April 2023 will mark the six month anniversary of the introduction of the Government's Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee; and

(b) the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee has helped over 2,700 Australians into home ownership;

(2) acknowledges that as well as establishing the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, the Government has started delivering on its ambitious housing agenda, including:

(a) widening the remit of the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, which has unlocked up to $575 million to be spent on delivering social and affordable housing;

(b) establishing the interim National Housing Supply and Affordability Council to provide expert advice to Government on housing supply and affordability; and

(c) striking a National Housing Accord to bring together all levels of government along with investors and the construction sector, alongside $350 million in additional federal funding to support the delivery of social and affordable housing; and

(3) further acknowledges that the Government will continue to work to improve housing outcomes for Australians by establishing the Housing Australia Future Fund, developing a new National Housing and Homelessness Plan and providing approximately $1.6 billion per year to the states and territories through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement.

As the member for Gilmore, it is my honour today to move this private member's motion that the Albanese government's efforts to ensure that more Australians have access to safe and affordable housing be recognised by this House. The Albanese Labor government understands that housing affordability and availability have been a major concern for many Australians. Those living in regional areas—like the New South Wales South Coast, where I am—have seen some of the largest drops in affordability over the last few years. It is clear to me and the people I represent that it is becoming more and more difficult to own a home on the New South Wales South Coast, especially if it is your first home. Many locals have struggled to save enough for a sufficient deposit, with prices increasing faster than they can save. It is a vicious cycle that is all too common for many first home buyers.

That's why we brought forward the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee by three months. We wanted to see more regional people getting into the property market and getting their first home, and it's working. There have been over 2,700 households across Australia that have accessed the scheme. That's thousands of people who have already been helped into their first home since October. This program provides a government guarantee of up to 15 per cent for eligible first home buyers, helping regional Australians with a deposit of as little as five per cent avoid paying lenders mortgage insurance. That is a massive incentive. I don't have to remind the House that, when you're saving for your first home, every cent counts. Helping first home buyers avoid paying lenders mortgage insurance will save them thousands and possibly bring their dreams of homeownership forward by years.

I'm pleased to share that this initiative has been a resounding success, with take-up from all eligible states and territories. On the New South Wales South Coast, since October, we've seen more than 100 households take advantage of this scheme. Many of these people would not have been able to do this without assistance. This is a massive win. I'm thrilled that, in just a few months, this scheme has been helping my community. I'm thrilled that first home buyers can realise their dreams sooner. It's not just the New South Wales South Coast, though. Across Australia, the Albanese Labor government is helping regional people get into their first homes. Over 1,100 Queenslanders, 462 Victorians, 151 Western Australians, 75 South Australians and 41 Tasmanians have also been able to purchase a new home in regional Australia with help from the federal government.

Buying a home is a huge milestone, and it can be one of the most exciting times in someone's life. It is very special to be able to call a place your own—a place where you and your family live, feel safe and build a life. Your first home may be your forever home, or it might just be your first. Either way, it's an important step for many people, and I'm happy to be a part of that. In just a few months, we've shown that we're committed to helping people from the regions access more affordable housing. But this is just one part of our ambitious housing reform agenda. We've also passed the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023, the first step in creating a $10 billion fund that will build 30,000 new social and affordable housing properties in its first five years. I encourage those in the Senate to vote in support of the Housing Australia Future Fund.

We're also progressing towards a new National Housing Accord, a shared ambition to build one million new, well-located homes over five years from 2024. We've allocated $350 million in additional federal funding to deliver 10,000 affordable homes over five years from 2024, as part of the accord. We're widening the remit of the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, making up to $575 million available to invest in social and affordable housing and implementing a National Housing and Homelessness Plan to set short-, medium- and long-term goals to improve housing outcomes across Australia. For those who are experiencing or are at risk of experiencing homelessness, we're investing $91.7 million into youth homelessness through the Reconnect program over the next three years. The Albanese government is committed to ensuring more Australians have access to safe and affordable housing. We have a plan, and it's working. The Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee was an important part of our plan, and I look forward to seeing the positive results of the scheme for years to come.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's very telling that, when discussing the achievements of this government in housing, the government refers to the Home Guarantee Scheme, which is a very proud coalition achievement. We are very complimentary that the government has taken on the coalition's Home Guarantee Scheme and is very enthusiastically spruiking it in this place, but let's be clear: that is an achievement of the former coalition government.

What governments have to do is come up with some of their own policies. You can't just dine out on the policies you inherited from the former coalition government. Let's be frank: the government's housing policies and housing plan—if you can describe it as a plan—are in absolute tatters. The housing agenda in Australia is not being led from this building; it's not being led from anywhere. What we see under a Labor federal government is that first home buys are down, new home builds are down, rents are up and the housing stock in Australia is not growing at the pace at which it needs to. And what do we see from the government? We see nothing. We see discussions about meetings, and meetings for more meetings, and we see a bold series of media releases talking about 30,000 social and affordable homes being built over five years. That's less than what was delivered in the last five years. We see the Rudd-esque announcement in the budget about a million well-located homes, presumably being delivered by the private sector with no assistance from the government. By the way, to the government: we built more than a million homes in the last five years. What we see from the government is these ambitions and numbers thrown out there in this farcical way, and, even if they meet them, they would be delivering less than what has been delivered in the immediate past. What do we not hear from the government? We don't hear anyone in the government talking about first home buyers. First home buyers have been completely forgotten by this government. That would partly explain why their numbers keep reducing.

The former coalition government took first home buyers from around 100,000 a year to 180,000 in the last full financial year that the government was in place, which shows that if you have a laser-like focus on first home buyers you can move the dial. But instead, now, we have a minister and a government that refuse to talk about first home buyers. They keep talking about the 30,000 social and affordable homes that they'll deliver over five years from 1 July 2024—that is, for the first 18 months of their government, nothing will happen. We're now 10 months into this government, and how many homes has the government delivered? How many out of the 30,000 social and affordable homes has the government delivered? Zero—zero homes in 10 months. After a while the Australian people will say: 'Hold on. These media releases don't mean much, and these lofty numbers that you throw out at budget time don't mean much if they don't mean homes on the ground, if they don't mean homes that first home buyers can purchase and if they don't mean new homes to reduce the impact on rents'—and let's not forget about the 30 per cent of people who rent.

Instead, what we have now is the government in a quagmire in the Senate with their Housing Australia Future Fund. It's an additional $10 billion of Commonwealth borrowings which, before even $1 can come out of that fund, will cost Australian taxpayers approximately $400 million a year. So the first $400 million just covers the interest on the debt. Then, if there's something leftover—which is a big 'if', particularly when you look at the Future Fund, which shrunk last year—then that can potentially go into housing projects. There's no certainty for the industry. It's no wonder that they're having difficulties getting that through the Senate—because it is such a half-baked plan.

The Reserve Bank at the moment is saying to the government, very loudly, 'Stop spending', because, for every extra billion that the government spends, the Reserve Bank has got to take a billion out. That's why millions of mortgage holders are under more stress now, under Labor, than they need to be, and it's why millions of Australian homeowners will be under even more mortgage stress—because Labor cannot control their borrowing and spending.

Dan Repacholi (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my friend from Gilmore for bringing this motion forward. As any great economist will tell you, there are three foundational needs for any human: food, water and shelter. I'm proud to say that this government is providing what Australians need. We're addressing the housing crisis that those opposite created. We're helping to make sure that Aussies will be able to have a roof over their heads, whether they're a person in regional Australia looking to buy their first home, through our Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, or they're making the most of the increased social and affordable housing that is becoming available because of our work in widening the remit of the National Housing Infrastructure Facility. On top of this, even more people will find it easier to gain one of their most basic human rights, shelter, in the form of housing, after this government established the Interim National Housing Supply and Affordability Council and struck the National Housing Accord, which will bring together all levels of government, along with investors and the construction sector. These are practical measures which just make sense, and they will have serious impacts on making housing in this country more affordable and more accessible for all.

This Albanese-led Labor government leaves no-one behind. We actually care about the people, and these policies show that we're serious about addressing the housing crisis and getting people into their own home sooner. But the work doesn't stop there. We know there is more to be done and we are more than ready for the task. Unlike those opposite, we aren't about announcements with no follow-up and we don't create policy just to attract cute little positive media stories. We're about following up on amazing policies that are already underway and already making real-world impact, such as establishing the Housing Australia Future Fund and developing the National Housing and Homelessness Plan. We're providing approximately $1.6 billion per year to the states and territories through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement. We're also investing $91.7 million in the Reconnect program over the next three years to address youth homelessness.

I'm particular proud of, and excited by, the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee. This is directly aimed at helping Australians in electorates like mine, the Hunter. House prices in my electorate have boomed in recent years. I completely understand people wanting to live in the Hunter. It's the gateway to paradise! Without a doubt, it's the best place to live in Australia—and the world—but, for people looking to buy a house in the Hunter for the first time, the issue is that it's becoming completely unaffordable. When I was growing up, the great Australian dream was to one day own your own house. But, sadly, this is so far out of reach that young people in Australia today cannot practically consider homeownership because in many cases it's not even close to being affordable. This is a sad reality of modern Australia, and it is the sad reality for many in my electorate.

Because of this government, 2,700 Australians have been helped towards realising this great Australian dream and owning their own home. This government is making the great Australian dream of owning your own home a reality again. And this policy gets even better: all of these 2,700 Australian homeowners are in regional Australia. Many of these are in my electorate—147 of them, to be precise.

This is what happens when a government is elected who cares about people, a government who takes real action on the issues that affect the everyday people of Australia. This is an issue that should have been addressed a long time ago, because the expectation and aspiration to own our own home is not an unreasonable desire to have. Now, with a government that cares, listens and acts, in a period of not even six months since the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee was passed in this parliament, 2,700 people have been helped to reach this desire of owning their own home. If this is the impact of this policy in less than six months, imagine how many first home buyers will be able to enter the market throughout the remainder of our term in government and hopefully well into the future.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Secure and affordable housing is fundamental to the wellbeing of Australians. Homeownership continues to be a widely held aspiration in Australia, as it affords owners with security of housing tenure and long-term social and economic benefits. Now, while the government has lots of impressive-sounding headlines, the reality is that little is actually being done.

Let's start with Labor's Housing Australia Future Fund, which will be capitalised with $10 billion of additional Commonwealth government borrowing and conveniently categorised as off-budget spending. With the 10-year government bond rate approaching four per cent and rising, the $10 billion borrowing will cost the Commonwealth approximately $400 million per year in interest servicing costs on this debt. And this increased borrowing will add to the already severe inflationary pressures in the economy, leading to higher interest rates—exactly what we don't need right now. To make it even worse, not one dollar of the $10 billion in new debt will be spent on housing. It is essentially a bet on the stock market.

Despite the rhetoric of those opposite, the coalition had the highly successful Home Guarantee Scheme, which it established in 2020, and the former coalition government's Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee. These guarantees were limited to the build or purchase of new homes. This increased the supply of housing into new areas, along with encouraging new home buyers into the regions. Labor's policy applies to all homes, including existing dwellings, which will simply put more pressure on regional housing markets that already don't have enough supply. All this will do is pile on more demand for housing in the regions. Without increasing housing supply in regional areas, the government's scheme fails to reduce housing affordability pressures.

The Treasurer and the minister announced with great fanfare the Housing Accord last year. While this sounds impressive and has got their big standard numbers to deliver, the interesting part is always about the details. We all know superannuation funds have the responsibility to deliver value for money on investments in their members' best interests. This leads to the real question that the government hasn't answered and won't answer: in a time of rising inflation, a time when the costs of building houses are going up every day, how does it make financial sense for a superannuation fund to invest in housing that by definition will deliver a low return? So the capital has to go into the low-cost housing. There's no way they can meet their obligation with rising costs and a low return on that capital. Again, this is another impressive-sounding headline from this government that doesn't stack up when you look at the detail and that won't deliver for Australians.

The coalition had a strong record, with support for homeownership along with funding for social and affordable housing. We supported more than 21,000 social and affordable homes through the establishment of the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation. This was a landmark coalition achievement, and, since its creation, it has delivered $2.9 billion in low-cost loans to community housing providers to support 15,000 social and affordable dwellings, saving $470 million in interest payments to be reinvested in affordable housing. We also unlocked 6,900 social and affordable and market dwellings through the coalition's $1 billion infrastructure facility to make housing supply more responsive to demand.

We supported more than 60,000 first home buyers and single-parent families into homeownership through the Home Guarantee Scheme with a deposit of as little as five per cent and two per cent, respectively. Of these 60,000 guarantees issued, 52 per cent were taken up by women—well above the market average of 41 per cent of women entering into homeownership. One in five guarantees went to essential workers, almost 35 per cent of which were nurses and 34 per cent of which were teachers. Eighty-five per cent of the family home guarantees were used by single mums.

These are real results that have made a difference to thousands of people. From what I can see, the Labor government is congratulating itself for setting up more bureaucracy to advise on more plans, more advisory councils and more accords without actually delivering more houses for those who need them.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I hope it is the case that everybody in this House does believe that every Australian deserves a safe and affordable place to call home. And, if indeed that is the case, I would expect that everyone in this place would vote to support the national housing policies that we've put forward and that we know will make a real difference to people's lives.

Under the previous coalition government we saw the result of neglect of and underinvestment in housing. That's led to a housing affordability crisis in this country. There are a lot of crises that happened on the watch of those opposite, and this one is particularly appalling. Australians, particularly those in regional areas, were struggling to save a sufficient deposit for their first home, and the cost of living was becoming increasingly high. We're taking action to address a lot of the issues that we have inherited.

We brought forward our Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee by three months. That has meant that we have helped more than 2,700 households since its launch in October. Our government guarantee for up to 15 per cent of eligible first home buyers has enabled regional Australians to avoid paying lenders mortgage insurance and to get into their own home sooner. This targeted support is helping regional Australians into homeownership sooner and is assisting with the cost of living. But we're doing so much more than that.

It was really wonderful to be able to connect the Treasurer with the Ashburton, Ashwood and Chadstone partnership group in my electorate of Chisolm. This is a remarkable group comprising public tenant associations, service providers of neighbourhood houses, council representatives and state and federal MPs as well. What this group does is bring people together to have genuine conversations about what people in public and social housing really need. As I said, it was wonderful to be able to connect this group with the Treasurer because, for us as a Labor government, it's important that we listen to the experiences of people in our communities to inform our policies and make sure that the dignity of housing is something that can be offered to every single Australian.

Last month the interim National Housing Supply and Affordability Council met for the first time. The House of Representatives has passed the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council Bill, which will help establish a permanent statutory council later this year. Again, it is really important that we have these kinds of groups set up to advise government and to ensure that we are doing everything we can to deliver housing for every single Australian, because we actually believe that that is a fundamental principle—that everyone in this country has a roof over their head, regardless of how much money they earn.

We're progressing a new national housing accord. This is a shared ambition to build one million new, well-located homes over five years from 2024. This initiative will be supported by $350 million in additional federal funding to deliver 10,000 affordable homes over five years from 2024, which is really exciting. We're widening the remit of the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, making up to $575 million available to invest in social and affordable housing, and developing a new National Housing and Homelessness Plan. We're committed to reducing the cost of buying a home through the help-to-buy program.

There is no doubt that people are really experiencing a lot of pressure when it comes to purchasing a home and even securing a rental. We really understand the importance of taking meaningful action to address these issues. We need to support our country's homelessness services to address these challenges too. I meet with advocates from various different service groups all the time, and supporting them is something I'm really committed to, particularly as we see the increase of need in our communities who access these services.

Through establishing a Housing Australia Future Fund, developing our new National Housing and Homelessness Plan and providing approximately $1.6 billion per year to the states and territories through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, we're doing everything we can to ensure that every Australian has a safe and affordable place to call home and is well connected to their community.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The housing situation in my electorate of Indi, in north-east Victoria, just gets worse and worse, day by day. In north-east Victoria, 40.6 per cent of renters are experiencing housing stress. A recent report by Community Housing Industry Association Victoria found that north-east Victoria had the highest rental increases in all of regional Victoria. They have risen by around $36 a week on average since interest rates started rising in May, ranking us as the ninth-worst region in the state.

The convergence of rising rental prices, a decline in the supply of affordable housing and a rise in living costs like groceries, petrol and power means renters are being faced with desperate situations. Celia Adams, CEO of BeyondHousing, an organisation that provides pathways to affordable housing in Wangaratta and Wodonga says:

We are seeing people choosing to stay in a rental home they can no longer afford, or that may be overcrowded, unsuitable for their needs or most worryingly, unsafe.

This is because there is nowhere for people to go. In Wangaratta, the second-biggest town in my electorate, vacancy rates are at just 0.1 per cent. Celia says that people are moving away from their friends, families and established support networks—they're leaving their communities—to try and find affordable housing. Her services are seeing a 37 per cent increase in private rental support services right now. Sadly, in the worst-case scenario, people are living without a stable roof over their heads at all. According to 2021 census data released just last week, homelessness in Wangaratta has increased 67 per cent since 2016.

The government, to their credit, have recognised that the pathway out of this crisis is an ongoing commitment to more long-term social housing, with a plan to build 30,000 new social housing properties over five years. I supported the government's housing package and worked with the government to ensure that the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council must consider regional, rural and remote Australia when it is advising the government on the distribution of the Housing Australia Future Fund. I also moved amendments to ensure the legislation explicitly states that the fund can direct money towards critical enabling infrastructure.

With the government's housing package now in doubt in the Senate, we still need a solution to this housing crisis. It's not going to go away. Whether the housing legislative package is passed or not, there is no way that the government are going to fulfil their election promise of thousands of new homes if they don't specifically invest in critical enabling infrastructure. We must provide support for the infrastructure to open up the land to build the houses on—infrastructure like a functioning sewerage system or drainage system that communities like Wangaratta and Benalla desperately need to fix, but the local councils simply don't have the money to do so on their own. That's why I've been calling on the government to set up a dedicated regional housing infrastructure investment fund. This fund would unlock private investment in new houses by building the basic infrastructure needed for new developments, including social infrastructure, like parks and community centres. It would also provide local government assistance to fast-track planning approvals and reduce red tape.

With rises in rent we've never seen before in regional Australia we must think creatively and contextually about what we need to open up housing stock at all levels. We need medium-density housing. We need social housing. We need clever housing. The peak housing body in Australia, the Housing Industry Association, agrees with me. Only last week it warned that failure to increase supply, to address supply chain problems and to slash red tape poses the greatest threat to cheaper rents and the government's pledge to build one million homes. Like me, the Housing Industry Association are wholly supportive of more social housing, but they say that supply of housing in the private sector is crucial to ensuring enough social housing too.

The government's policies are nowhere near good enough for regional Australia. Fund a regional housing infrastructure fund. Fund it now and open this up. Without this investment, your ambitions and goals of affordable housing for all Australians will not and simply cannot be realised.

Tania Lawrence (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I begin by celebrating the fact that, contrary to the member for Indi's disparaging comments about the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, we have secured 2,700 homes in six months. It's an absolutely fantastic outcome. It demonstrates the power of federal government investment in affordable homes and being able to provide access and a guarantee to young people looking to continue living in the regions or to move to those regions.

While my electorate is not quite as regional as the member for Gilmore's, the outer reaches of Hasluck are some 55 to 60 kilometres from Perth's CBD and are in what can only be described as farming country. Having grown up in regional towns, predominantly York, which is only about a 20-minute drive from the border of my electorate, I completely appreciate the need to support younger people and young families, first home buyers, who desire to stay in their own home town and raise their family or perhaps to stay at a job that they love but still have the capacity to buy their own first home.

We see this also with the growth in opportunities for renewable energies that will predominantly be benefiting those in the regions. The lovely town of Collie has been the home of coalmining for decades. Now the Western Australian government, under the McGowan leadership, is transitioning Western Australia away from coal. That is not the end of the town; it's the beginning of an entirely new future. Jobs will come now from renewable energies, green hydrogen and developing tourism. Tourism has been completely unappreciated because of the coalmining that has been there for so long. We now have an opportunity for a lot more people to move to that region. Their capacity to access affordable homes is limited. Programs like the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee make it accessible to all.

There are also a great many people deciding to make metropolitan parts of my electorate of Hasluck home. Around 55 per cent of the people in Hasluck have a mortgage, which is over 20 per cent higher than the national average. These are younger people, first-generation migrants to Australia, people chasing the Australian dream and those simply moving in because it's a beautiful place in which to live. The Albanese Labor government has been active in this space, as we heard already, with the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, the Help to Buy Scheme, the National Housing Accord and—with the support, hopefully, of all those opposite—the Housing Future Fund.

In a complex society we all bear the shared responsibility for ensuring that everyone lives with dignity and security. With the leadership of the federal government and agreement with the states we can indeed meet this challenge, because no-one needs a mansion on the riverfront, but everyone needs sufficient shelter. For everyone to have sufficient shelter in the shadow of an often unaffordable housing market there needs to be sufficient funding. The government's current policies need to be seen as a great beginning and they need to be supported by the parliament.

Of course, 'sufficient shelter' means different things at different times of life and has different meanings depending on the circumstances. During the campaign I met families who were in a difficult situation because the number of rooms within their home didn't reflect the size of their family. And it went both ways: I had some people who were terrified about trying to find a smaller home because of the lack of available small homes with one or two bedrooms, and, equally, there were those with growing families who were desperately concerned that moving out of their one- or two-bedroom flat would be difficult, if not impossible, because of the increasing rents—let alone being able to actually purchase a home that fitted the size of their family.

So this government are now making it easier for people to downsize, and we're make it easier for people to remove themselves from circumstances such as domestic violence. We're beginning to actually address the systemic needs, which means investing in homelessness services and housing supply. The Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023 enables grants and loans in relation to acute housing needs, social housing or affordable housing, and we look forward to that bill being passed, because the future benefits of establishing this are unlimited in scope. It is a legacy program, not unlike Medicare or superannuation, which could, over time, become an integral and supportive part of Australia's housing landscape. We have a major, ambitious program ahead of us, but we need the parliament to act in this area, because any delay is an absolute injustice to all those who deserve and require the basics of shelter and affordable housing.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion—particularly, on the government's purported Housing Australia Future Fund, which, after so many months, has still failed to pass into legislation. During the election campaign, the biggest issue in my electorate of Hughes was the cost of living, followed closely by housing affordability. This was a priority and a concern for young people who are currently unable to get into private ownership and many of whom are also unable to get into the private rental market. It was also a concern for the many parents and grandparents in my electorate who are concerned about their children's and their grandchildren's ability to house themselves in the future.

In my first speech in this place, I spoke of my commitment to addressing housing affordability. While the people of the electorate of Hughes provide me with the privilege of serving in this place, I will be committed to addressing housing affordability as a top priority. My policy framework around this issue has arisen from my personal ideology as well as from lessons learnt from a 25-year legal career spent in planning, property and environmental law, working both for and in the private and local government sectors. Ideologically, my commitment to liberalism and civilised capitalism is about unleashing the power of the individual and their enterprise while always providing a safety net for those who, despite their best efforts, are unable to cope. That is what we must do in the housing space.

At a federal government level, we need to facilitate an environment where we, as a country, deliver broader housing choices and a system that provides greater security of tenure.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12:18 to 12:31

At federal government level, we need to facilitate an environment where we as a country deliver broader housing choice and a system that provides great security of tenure, such as longer term leases, for our most vulnerable, many of whom are Australia's children and our returned veterans, and I commend the member for Indi who also spoke on this issue today. The greater the number of Australians that own their own home the greater the ability of governments to facilitate social and emergency housing. It is a housing continuum. Having spent my former career working in and around the housing sector, I can see that the housing fund that is being put forward by this government, even with the best of intentions, simply will not deliver the housing that has been anticipated. It is simply a housing fund. It is not in any way a bill that's going to address the underlying issues of housing affordability within our country. It fails at very basic levels. For example, there is a failure to define key terms in the bill such as 'social housing', 'affordable housing' and 'acute housing'.

The bill also omits a major part of the housing affordability problem: it leaves out private home ownership and ways that the federal government can influence, empower and incentivise private homeownership. On the housing continuum, as more Australians own their own home, they move out of the private rental market, which, in turn, frees up supply for others to move into this space, allowing more resources to be directed to social and emergency housing. Australia's rate of homeownership has been declining since the baby boomer generation bought their homes. At the moment, homeownership rates among Australians under the age of 40 are at levels not seen since 1947. Being able to afford a home is becoming harder and harder—almost impossible—for most young Australians. Leaving private home ownership out of its housing policy means that the Labor government has failed to understand the way that the housing sector in this country works and ways that the federal government can incentivise state and local government to provide more affordable housing.

It is disappointing that the Labor government has been intellectually lazy and, by these bills and the policy it's put forward, demonstrated its failure to understand the drivers behind housing in Australia, its failure to understand how the various state planning systems feed into the national system and its failure to empower local government to deliver at a local level. For all of these reasons, I cannot support this motion, and I say that the Labor government has not done nearly the work that it should have done in relation to affordable housing in this country.

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

An increasing number of Australians are spinning their wheels in search of a home. Others have fallen behind and are now in the throes of homelessness or are at risk. I never thought that in 2023 in a wealthy country like Australia we would even be having this debate about one of the most basic necessities in life, which is to have a roof over your head. That roof over your head provides the security which is foundational to prosperity. No-one can prosper without a roof over their head.

This, of course, has not happened overnight; it has evolved over the last 10 years due to sustained policy failure under those opposite.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 12 : 35 to 12 : 47

As I was saying before, what we're seeing in 2023 in Australia—a wealthy nation—is nothing short of a travesty. We shouldn't be having a discussion around whether people can or should be able to afford a roof over their heads. It is a human right, to be honest, and really it's the product of sustained policy failure over the last decade by those opposite. We have a country that is now riven by inequality and intergenerational injustice, which has led to an entire cohort of young Australians now being essentially locked out of the housing market. It shouldn't have to be this way.

This inequality, as you know, is always unequal. Housing unaffordability is now leading to homelessness not only in youth but also in women; veterans; older people over the age of 55, particularly women; and Indigenous Australians. This was reflected in the latest homelessness data from the 2021 census. This data was both damning and enlightening. On any given night, there are 122,000 homeless people, which is an increase of 6,000 since the last census in 2016. Women accounted for the overwhelming majority of this; 81 per cent of people experiencing homelessness were women. Young people aged 12 to 24 accounted for one in five of these people, and 14 per cent—that's more than one in 10—were actually children aged less than 12. The highest rate of homelessness was amongst 19- to 24-year-olds. Our youth and the future of our country are now the group experiencing the highest rate of homelessness in Australia. What a blight on our society. Sixteen per cent were over the age of 55. Women, children, youth, older people and First Peoples—that's a very large group in our society.

A problem of this magnitude demands national leadership as well as coordination, and we've certainly rolled up our sleeves on this side of the House. We have delivered, just in the last few days, a $67.5 million boost to homelessness funding for the states and territories, which will flow through over the next year. We're also developing a new national housing and homelessness plan, which is due to begin in 2024-25, and we're establishing a statutory authority called the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council. This interim body has already met and is working towards developing a strategy. Hope alone is not going to fix this. You need a strategy, and this is what we're delivering for Australians.

We are basically reversing a wasted decade by what we hope to be a decade of common purpose. I think that this parliament is the parliament that's going to deliver that because there is unity in what we're doing. I think it is a cruel irony that those opposite are now writing to our current housing minister, pleading with her to improve housing affordability in their own electorates. This begs the question: what on earth did they do for the last 10 years? They feathered their nest with press releases rather than actual plans. We are also investing $91.7 million in the Reconnect program to help combat youth homelessness. This program provides wraparound services to support our youth, including mental health services, counselling, education and skills training to help them stabilise their lives and improve their relationships with the families that they have often left.

The census figures are a call to arms demanding that this parliament push through the legislation for our Housing Australia Future Fund—a $10 billion allocation that will be dedicated to social and affordable housing. It will help the mum I met yesterday at my mobile office who has two autistic children and is a nurse. She's done everything right in life. She's acquired a skill, she pays her taxes, she is a key worker in an admirable profession and yet she cannot afford to enter the housing market. Social and affordable homes, like the ones that we would like to build, will help this mother, along with the veterans who have fallen through the cracks, our First Peoples and that increasing cohort of women and children who are fleeing domestic violence.

On this side of the House, we want to get on with this. We are rolling up our sleeves and doing this because the scale of the problem and its magnitude demands action, and that is what we are fulfilling for the Australian people.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

N () (): I rise to speak about the recent housing initiatives introduced by the new government, particularly in the context of regional Australia and specifically in areas such as my electorate of Cowper on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. In my coastal region we've seen rents increase by as much as 50 per cent, and the price of the average three-bedroom family home has increased by over 70 per cent during that period. The issues of homelessness, rental stress and mortgage stress are ever increasing, particularly in the coastal regions, where we haven't seen a market correction like there's been in metro and peri-urban areas. The flow-on effects of city dwellers continuing to be priced out of the metro market, the ever-increasing interest rates and the greater ability to work remotely in a post-COVID era have regions like mine at breaking point.

In October last year, in response to these pressures, I called on the new government to create a national housing summit between all levels of government in order to discuss a fit-for-purpose solution. I describe the issue of housing in Australia as the slowest-moving train wreck that I've seen. I note the previous speaker's comment that it was 'the last decade'. I recall a certain prime minister, the Hon. Bob Hawke, talking about 'no child will be in poverty', and that's going back four decades. So to lay the blame for the housing crisis at the feet of the opposition is simply unfair. This is something that we need to work on together for practical solutions. We have a supply and demand issue, and we need solutions to get that supply out there quickly, and that requires a multigovernment approach. Local councils and state and federal governments need to work together to remove the red tape.

I should note that, when it comes to local government and state government, the contributions made by developers to state and local governments can often make up 60 per cent of the cost of building a house—60 per cent. So local government and state governments have a responsibility as well to look at those contributions and attempt to free up some of that red tape and some of that cost, to enable developers and builders to build cheaper buildings and not just rely on the federal government, whether it's Labor or the coalition, to hand out billions and billions of dollars when they're raking in these contributions at a local and state level.

In the six months the federal government have been in, there have been a couple of state based roundtable discussions, notably in longstanding Labor states only. With pricing and affordability in New South Wales notably exceeding other states, the question really is begged: Why? Why hasn't there been one in New South Wales? Maybe now there's a New South Wales Labor government in power, they might sit down with them. I hope so. This should be a bipartisan approach, and hopefully there will be a solution in New South Wales.

The government have introduced a number of additional programs and bills in recent months under the guise of addressing these issues. They might tell you they have been successful. I'm sorry to burst their bubble, but, for the coastal and regional areas, that is simply not the case. There are claims that over 2,700 Australians have been put into homeownership in the regions through the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee grant, but the vast majority of these are in fact in peri-urban areas. With continued limits on land releases in regions such as mine, there has been very minimal positive impact from the first six months of the scheme.

I would urge this government to adopt real and practical solutions around the supply and distribution of funds today—yesterday. Once again, we're seeing irresponsible fiscal management and the regions being treated as second-class citizens under Labor, and I ask them to change that fact.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member. The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.