Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Veterans' Affairs. What work is the Albanese Labor government undertaking to improve access to housing for veterans, and what is standing in the way?

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Spence for his question because it was a pleasure to join him in launching the next stage of delivering on a Veterans' and Families' Hub in his electorate to service the northern suburbs of Adelaide. The member for Spence has been engaging with his veteran community.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for New England is warned.

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans’ Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

He did consultations and, as part of those consultations, he discovered that veterans would like to see greater assistance on being able to access housing and homelessness supports. South Australia is blessed to have the Andrew Russell Veteran Living centre. Having a hub in the northern suburbs of Adelaide will facilitate better access to veterans' housing.

But not everybody is so fortunate. In fact, every year, about 6,000 contemporary veterans are at risk of homelessness. In March we learnt from the census data in 2021 that there are over 1,500 individuals that have served our nation that were homeless on census night. Veterans are three times more likely to experience homelessness than the broader population. Knowing that, in addition to what they already have in South Australia, we committed at the last election to fund the Scott Palmer centre in Darwin in the member for Solomon's electorate to support the veterans in the Northern Territory. We know that it is important to do more. Indeed, we need to maximise the opportunity of the Housing Australia Future Fund and that is exactly what we want to do as a government.

But the member for Spence asked an important question—that is, 'What is standing in the way?' Let me tell you what is standing in the way. In fact, I could even tell you who is standing in the way. It is the Leader of the Opposition, it is the leader of the Greens political party, it is the leader of the National Party and it is the member for Griffith. Those members of the Nationals, the Liberal Party and the Greens in the Senate are personally standing in the way of allowing us to invest $10 billion in a Housing Australia Future Fund to enable us to spend $30 million on housing to support our homeless veterans and on services to support veterans that are at risk of homelessness.

The Leave No Veteran Behind report of last month said 'Doing nothing is just not an option'. In fact, the Tasmanian Liberal veterans' minister said, 'The Tasmanian government welcomes the commitment of the Australian government to housing our vulnerable veterans.' RSL Australia said, 'The time for action is now.' I know that Liberal Senator O'Sullivan in Western Australia met with the RAAF association, who want to also bring on housing supports for our veterans, but they can't access any funding for that because the Liberals, the National Party and the Greens are politicising this issue. They are politicising a fund and standing in the way of supporting veterans that are homeless. This is on your heads. (Time expired)