Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness. How is the Albanese Labor government helping older Australians with housing, including through the $32 billion Homes for Australia Plan? What could jeopardise future support?

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

I thank the member for Fraser for that question. The member for Fraser's been a terrific supporter of our Homes for Australia Plan because he understands that too many Australians don't have a safe place to stay, including many older Australians who are doing it tough. Of course, we heard about the Homes for Australia Plan and the $6 billion in new housing initiatives that were in the last budget. These will directly help many Australians, including older Australians, who are currently waiting on our social housing waiting list.

Our Homes for Australia Plan is now $32 billion in new housing initiatives—that's since we came to office. It includes, in the Homes for Australia Plan, $1.9 billion to boost Commonwealth rent assistance. As we heard from the Minister for Social Services, this is the first back-to-back increase in the Commonwealth rent assistance in more than 30 years. Maximum rates of Commonwealth rent assistance will now be 40 per cent higher than when we came to office in May 2022—direct assistance helping Australians that need it most. This back-to-back boost will help around one million Australians, and, as we've heard, around 200,000 of them are older Australians who are doing it tough.

Our Homes for Australia Plan also includes our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. We know what a difference this fund will make because we already know that people in the social homes that we have already built are making a real difference. It will impact older Australians, particularly women like Emma, whom I met in Melbourne recently. Emma told me that, after living in so many different places, she's now happy in her new social housing. She said, 'All I can do is say to everybody, anyone who sees any of this, is "thank you".' It's people like Tanya, who I met in Sydney. Tanya told me that being somewhere safe and beautiful brought her so much joy after years of insecure housing. But this is in jeopardy.

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

The member for Deakin is now warned.

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

But I'm concerned for people like Emma, Tanya and Glenda and Nanna Pam, who I talked about yesterday. I'm concerned because we've got the member for Hume, the shadow Treasurer, out there saying, 'Billions of unnecessary spending will be cut.' That includes things like the indexation to pensions and other payments. What I'm concerned about is: does it include the Housing Australia Future Fund, the fund that you voted against? The response to this fund has been huge, and we will be making announcements and we'll be getting houses underway later this year. It'll be on them. They're full of negativity. We're going to get on and build the homes that Australia needs.