Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing and Homelessness. How is the Albanese Labor government working to deliver more homes for more Australians as part of its plans to help with 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 Macarthur for this important question. He knows, like all of us on this side of the House and some of the others on the crossbench, that too many Australians are having a tough time, particularly those, of course, who are renting or have a mortgage. That's why we're working hard to make sure we do deliver more homes for Australians that need them most right across the country. Indeed, we were elected with an ambitious housing agenda and the past few weeks have seen some more significant progress and steps forward. This month, we delivered an historic investment through Housing Australia of more than $500 million in federal government support for 1,370 new rental homes across Melbourne. That's 1,370 new homes through Housing Australia. This groundbreaking commitment came just one day after the start of the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. Of course, our fund is the single biggest investment in social and affordable housing in more than a decade, and, importantly, it's there in perpetuity, with funding each and every year ongoing for more social and affordable rental homes right across the country in our cities and in our regions. It means 30,000 rental homes in the first five years of that fund.

We've also been supporting regional Australians who have been benefiting from our Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee, which turned one last month. More than 10,000 people in regional Australia have taken advantage of the support since we introduced it early. They're amongst the more than 73,000 Australians right across Australia that we've helped into their first home under the Albanese Labor government. In fact, one in three of all first home buyers took advantage of the government's Home Guarantee Scheme in the past financial year. We are working hard, but there is more to do.

Of course, we do have housing challenges, but these started pre pandemic. We have fewer homes per thousand people than the OECD average, and we know it will take time to turn this around. But we're committed to doing that. We do have, as I said, a broad, ambitious policy, and it has been assessed by independent analysis, which says our policy will save renters billions through the National Cabinet decision, with a new target to build 1.2 million well-located homes over five years from 1 July 2024. We have immediate action with our $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator. We've already had very significant announcements from the Prime Minister and the Premier of New South Wales about the number of homes that this will build in New South Wales. We've also had announcements about 600 new homes that were built in Queensland because of that Social Housing Accelerator. This comes on top of our boost to Commonwealth Rent Assistance, our changes to build-to-rent and billions in more financing for more social and affordable homes right around the country. We're working hard, but there's more to do. (Time expired)