Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering more affordable housing, and what are the risks?

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

I thank our terrific member for Chisholm for that question. She knows, of course, that Australia doesn't have enough homes and we haven't had enough homes for a long time. Indeed, the Albanese Labor government understands that too many Australians are facing serious housing challenges, which is why we have our $32 billion Homes for Australia plan.

Part of that plan, as I've said here many times, is the Housing Australia Future Fund. We all remember the Housing Australia Future Fund and what happened in this parliament. It got delayed by the Liberals and the Greens teaming up together. It has done its first tender round, as I said earlier in the week, and those tenders will be announced later on in this year. They have been delayed by at least six months because of the unholy alliance between the Liberals and the Greens in the Senate again.

Another part of our Homes for Australia plan is Help to Buy. The Help to Buy bill will be in the Senate again next week. And, again, we've got the unholy alliance of the Liberals, who are supposed to be the party of homeownership but clearly aren't, and the Greens, over here, who are supposed to support shared-equity schemes. Indeed, shared-equity schemes were part of the Greens' pre-election policy. This shared-equity scheme—the Liberals and the Greens are teaming up again to block it in the Senate.

Another important part of our Homes for Australia policy is our build-to-rent changes. These are changes that the Property Council of Australia has said will build around 160,000 rentals, 10 per cent of them being affordable rentals for people that need homes. That's part of our Homes for Australia plan.

But what have we seen today? Again, we've seen the unholy alliance of the Liberal Party and the Greens political party teaming up again, in the Senate, to block affordable homes. They're against more social and affordable homes, they're against more affordable rental homes, and they're against shared-equity schemes to get people into homeownership—both the Liberals and the Greens. Today they voted for higher rents and more homelessness. That's what the Liberal Party and the Greens have done today in the Senate: voted for higher rents and more homelessness. I hope they're proud of themselves for continually teaming up with the Liberal Party in the Senate to block homes—homes of every sort. We're not just talking about private homes here; we're talking about social and affordable homes being delayed. We're talking about homeownership being delayed for people that otherwise wouldn't be able to own a home, and we're talking about affordable rentals.

They should be ashamed of themselves in the Greens political party. They say they care about housing and homelessness, yet they keep teaming up with the obstructionist Liberals in the Senate, playing games with people's lives. This is about homes for people that need them. (Time expired)