Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing. How is the Albanese Labor government's broad agenda, including the Housing Australia Future Fund, helping more Australians to find a safe, affordable place to call home?

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

I want to thank the member for Hawke for his support for the Housing Australia Future Fund. I know that he understands just how important it is that this fund pass the parliament this week so we can get on with building the homes that so many Australians need. Indeed, this fund will be life-changing for so many Australians. It will create, as I said yesterday, an ongoing pipeline of funding to help build social and affordable homes right across the country not just during this government, not just in five years, but in perpetuity so that we can have a steady flow and pipeline of social and affordable homes into the future.

It is supported by our ambitious housing agenda, including: our $3 billion new homes bonus for the 1.2 million homes target from 1 July 2024; our $500 million housing support program; our $2 billion social housing accelerator; our National Housing Accord and the additional 10,000 affordable homes that will come from that accord; our boost to Commonwealth rent assistance; our additional $2 billion in financing for more social and affordable homes; our new incentives to boost the supply of rentals, including the build-to-rent changes that we made in the budget; our leadership on progressing renters' rights; our $1.7 billion one-year extension to the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement; and our extension to the Home Guarantee Scheme, with the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee and the 67,000 people in Australia that are in their first home sooner because of this government.

We have heard from the experts about how these measures will help. But the most important feedback is, of course, from the people whose lives have been changed by safe and secure housing. That's people like Laurie, who I have mentioned in this place before. Laurie had been homeless for more than two years before she had access to social housing. She told me that, without the constant stress of every day having to find somewhere to sleep, she now has the time and energy to go back to school. It is about people like Sean and Lisa. Sean had been needing surgery but the doctors couldn't operate because he had nowhere secure to be discharged from hospital to. Lisa has told me that Sean now has had that operation because he finally has a place to call home and so he could get that surgery.

Access to housing will change lives for so many Australians. The social and affordable housing that the Albanese government is already building will change lives. It will mean essential workers like Elise, a midwife in Western Sydney that I met, can access affordable housing close to where they work. It will mean social housing recipients like Diane and John, who I met in Melbourne, can remain part of a community that they love. This is what our government is doing, working each and every day to make sure that more Australians can have a safe, affordable place to call home.