Kylea Tink (North Sydney, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Australia is in the middle of a housing crisis, with the costs associated with finding and maintaining a home growing faster than wages. Rental vacancies are at all-time lows, with 169,000 households on public housing waiting lists and another 122,000 people experiencing homelessness. Meanwhile, projected housing supply remains low and growing numbers of individuals and families are sleeping on the street, in their cars or living in tents. I hear consistently from my community that housing challenges are literally keeping them awake at night.

It isn't just the ability to afford a home that is affecting people but the security of tenure, proximity to jobs and concerns about whether their children and elderly parents will have long-term appropriate housing. Older residents looking to downsize tell me that they're simply unable to find an affordable apartment in their community that would leave them with enough cash to live on. Perversely, this means younger families can't find the family homes they want as older Australians struggle to leave them. I hear from nurses, teachers and firefighters who are faced with the decision of whether to spend two-thirds of their income on rent or to commute over 30 kilometres each way every day. I've heard from people experiencing homelessness and the threat of homelessness, from forced couch surfing to overcrowding, insecure housing and street homelessness, the messages are the same. In every circumstance, the conversations take my breath away. At its heart, the concept of a home is so much mor than just shelter. It is security, self-expression, relationships and family. Every human being has a fundamental right to be able to live in a safe environment. The very idea of homeownership is embedded in the Australian culture, yet we're now seeing generations of Australians who, despite their best efforts and hard work, can only dream of achieving the cultural milestone of homeownership and for whom this rite of passage is a roll of the dice, increasingly dependent on family financial assistance. Australia's housing crisis, however, has been a long type in the making. It is a multidimensional and complex issue with diverse causes and broad effects. That is why a strong, ambitious, overarching framework is so sorely needed, one that gives coherence to the national initiatives delivered since the 2022 election and sets a road map for long-term housing reform. This bill does just that.

Before I speak to the specifics of the bill, I want to thank Senator Pocock and his team for leading this work. Senator Pocock is today introducing this same bill through the Senate, and I'm proud to join him in introducing it to the House of Representatives, for more than any other time in our parliament's history, we must be prepared to set politics aside and work together, party with party, House with House, to truly turn the tide. I also thank the member for Indi, who is seconding the bill, for her fearless work in fighting for improved outcomes for regional Australians. Finally, I thank Professor Hal Paulson Dr Chris Martin for their thought leadership and tireless efforts to make Australian housing policy better. Together with a broad range of expert stakeholders and drafters, they have given life to this bill, which will improve the governance and accountability of national housing policy.

For, you see, this bill sets out processes to develop, implement and maintain a national housing and homelessness plan aimed at facilitating a human rights based approach to housing. It draws inspiration from Canada's National Housing Strategy Act of 2019, which recognises housing as a fundamental human right. And it is founded on Australia's international obligations to realise the human right to adequate housing and uses the Commonwealth government's constitutional authority on external affairs to pursue this obligation. Importantly, while this bill sets out objectives and goals for the plan, it deliberately does not prescribe specific policies and programs. Rather, the government of the day would be responsible for its own plan, but the housing minister under this bill would be required to periodically report to parliament on progress and to revise and renew their plan as appropriate.

The bill also establishes the National Housing Consumer Council to ensure the perspectives of both tenants and homebuyers are provided directly to the housing minister, alongside the expert perspectives of the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council. It also establishes the National Housing and Homelessness Advocate to report independently on systemic issues and the progress of the plan. Importantly, this bill has strong support, with the proposal to legislate a national housing and homelessness plan recently backed by over a hundred individuals and organisations, including leading academics, industry experts, economists, peak bodies and advocates and both past and present politicians from across the spectrum. These individuals and organisations are working on the ground to help alleviate homelessness. They are the organisations that support domestic violence victims to find safe and secure housing. They are the academic institutions tasked with finding policy solutions to Australia's housing crisis, and they are the human rights experts. And they all support the call for a legislated national housing and homelessness plan.

In closing, I want to recognise that the current government is striving to improve housing in this country and to thank them for that. But to move forward in a consistent and constructive fashion, we must provide a collective understanding of the rules in this game, and we must put human rights at the centre of our ambitions. Earlier this year, I convened the North Sydney Community Housing Forum, a successful exercise in deliberative democracy that brought 30 ordinary people from across my community together to determine ways to improve housing affordability. The resounding message from that forum was, when it comes to housing policy, they want leadership, direction, long-term thinking and optimism. And that's what this bill does. It sets an overarching framework that I've heard my community wants. It provides a roadmap that puts human rights at the centre of all future federal housing policy, regardless of the government of the day, and it repositions homes from being seen as assets and returns them to their rightful location as homes where families grow and people age.

Today I call on the government to recognise this need and allow the bill to be brought to debate. I commend this bill to the House and cede the remainder of my time to the member for Indi.

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

Is the motion seconded?

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

I rise to second the National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill 2024. I do so with great pride to back the member for North Sydney and Senator Pocock on this extremely important legislation, which establishes that housing is a human right. That is not said often enough in this place. It's a right that all Australians, no matter their address, no matter their income, no matter their living situation, have somewhere to call home. It is absolutely fundamental to our dignity and to our physical and mental wellbeing.

As parliamentarians, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to ensure that all Australians have a place to call home, because the housing crisis gripping Australia and indeed much of the world is undermining so many people's right to an adequate standard of living. Across regional, rural and remote Australia people are struggling. Sky-high interest rates and declining rental availability are making it so hard for people to find a home. In my electorate of Indi, housing is more expensive and less accessible than at any other point in our lifetimes.

When I visit towns across my electorate I hear of people in townhouses being pushed into units. Those in units are being pushed into caravan parks, and those who were in the caravan parks are being pushed into tents alongside the rivers. Homelessness is at a level that I have not seen in the 35 years that I've lived in north-east Victoria. It's why I introduced my unlocking regional Australia housing bill in 2023, which would have ensured that a fair share of the government's investment in housing went to the regions. It's why I'm calling on this government to create a regional housing infrastructure fund to ensure that we can fund the critical enabling infrastructure that opens the land to allow houses to be built.

This government must do everything it can and use every tool at its disposal to address this crisis, and it's why I am proud to support this bill. Crucially, it will be recognised in legislation that housing is a human right and one that this parliament has an obligation to fulfil. The bill would also require the government of the day to prepare a national housing and homelessness plan to set out to the Australian people how it plans to ensure that everyone has somewhere to call home, somewhere to sleep at night, somewhere to be safe. Under this bill this plan would set out a 10-year road map to coordinate funding and program delivery across all levels of government. It would make sure that in a policy area as complex as housing it is so important for the government to set a long-term strategic vision, irrespective of who is in government—and only the Commonwealth can provide that leadership.

A similar plan in Canada, which has a federal system just like ours, is already showing results in helping to coordinate action between different levels of government. As the member for North Sydney said, it is vital that we embed this plan in legislation to ensure no government can shirk its responsibilities to plan for a housing system that works for all of us. To establish the national housing and homelessness plan in legislation would enhance its credibility. It would give us a yardstick upon which to measure the government's performance. In addition, this bill would establish a national housing consumer council to ensure that the voices of those who live in their homes, the renters, the home buyers, the retirees—the voices we never hear—are heard. The consumer council will ensure that their needs are reflected in policymaking.

This bill is common sense. We should recognise housing as a right. We should get on and do it, and we should do it now.

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

The time allocated for this debate has expired. Debate is adjourned, and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.