Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) safe and affordable housing is central to the security and dignity of Australians;

(b) Australia does not have enough homes and has not for a long time; and

(c) the Government has committed to an ambitious housing reform agenda which will boost the supply of all housing, including more public and social housing, more affordable housing, more homes to rent, and more homes to buy;

(2) acknowledges the $6.2 billion in new investment in the 2024-25 budget to build more homes more quickly, bringing the Government's new housing initiatives to $32 billion, which includes:

(a) additional funding for the new $9.3 billion National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness (including a doubling of Commonwealth homelessness funding to $400 million every year, matched by states and territories);

(b) directing $1 billion to Housing Australia towards crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children experiencing domestic violence;

(c) assisting nearly one million Australian households with the cost of rent by delivering $1.9 billion for the first back-to-back increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in more than 30 years; and

(d) providing up to $1.9 billion in concessional finance for community housing providers and other charities to support delivery of the 40,000 social and affordable homes under the Housing Australia Future Fund and National Housing Accord; and

(3) further acknowledges the Government's ambitious goal of building 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade.

There probably isn't a greater challenge that governments right across the country face than making sure that there are enough homes being built for the Australian people. Right across the country, there is a reduction in the number of homes that are in the pipeline for approvals for planning and construction. This is seeing huge pressures placed on the spectrum across the housing sector—and it is a spectrum. If you don't have enough homes to make homes affordable for those who want to buy a home, it's going to push more people into the rental market. More people going into the rental market without more homes being built pushes up the price of rent. That's what we've seen in my electorate over the last few years, post COVID and post the return to the usual levels of migration and population growth: we've seen huge pressures in the rental market. That has also seen, across parts of Melbourne, rent rises of 20 per cent, 30 per cent and 40 per cent. It has put huge pressure on people being able to afford their rent. It has stabilised a little bit, but people are still facing rent increases, and that is something that we are very conscious of.

Those things also push more people outside of the private rental market and into the social and affordable housing market. That means that we need to keep up with the growing list of people who need to access social and affordable homes, including people who are fleeing their homes due to domestic violence. There are young people whose home is not safe to be in. Recently, also, we had an event where we had the Housing for the Aged Action Group here in parliament and we heard from people who had experienced homelessness—especially two really inspiring women, who talked about their experiences; there was an older woman who'd faced homelessness. It was a reminder that we must do more in this place.

But there is a bit of a perfect storm at the moment, where you have the high price of producing a home; where the timeline for approvals, especially in different states and territories, can be very, very long; and where the incentives for developers to build enough homes for the private sector are really pushing against the industry. What that means right now is that we have huge targets, but there are a lot of challenges that we need to overcome in order to meet them. And this is an extremely important job.

I am heartened, though, that this Albanese Labor government understands that the federal government cannot wash away its responsibilities in the housing sector. But we have to be at the table. We have to be at the table, working with state and territory governments to ensure that we are not only investing in social housing but also working with those governments to try and increase the number of homes in the pipeline, through our housing accord—through the plan to build 1.2 million homes over the next five years.

There are going to be people who will use every single opportunity to oppose housing in their local community—people who are going to be stamping up and down, saying, 'We don't want any development; we don't want any new homes.' But what is that saying to the kids, the young people, and other people trying to get into the housing market? If, every time, you have a member of the Liberal Party or of the Greens opposed—and the Greens are famously against any sort of development—what does that say to young people who can't afford a home, who can't afford to get into the housing market? Every time we have people saying no to any form of new housing in our communities, those pressures inside the housing sector are going to get bigger.

We have invested huge amounts of money in incentivising the states and territories to move housing through the development pipeline more quickly. We've also invested huge amounts of money in social and affordable homes. There's the Housing Australia Future Fund, which those opposite, obviously, didn't support; they didn't support the construction of 30,000 social and affordable homes, and they didn't support the construction of 4,000 places that were going directly to women and children fleeing domestic violence, which is part of what the Housing Australia Future Fund does.

We need to build more homes. We need to work across governments. We need to pull every single lever that we can pull. So this is a huge challenge. We need to build 1.2 million homes over the next five years, and we need to work across governments in order to ensure that more Australians have a safe and secure house to live in.

Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we see that great Australian dream that every young Australian wants, the dream of owning their own home, slipping further and further away under the incompetence of this Labor government. And it is a sad, sad reality for young Australians today that that dream is getting more and more expensive for them to have the chance to realise. And what is the government doing? How many houses have they built? We had the Prime Minister in question time yesterday or the day before saying, across the table, 'I don't build homes, mate.' No, you might not build homes, but you should be facilitating the building of homes. The aim is 1.2 million homes, yet none have been built. It's all very well to have this fanciful dream of 1.2 million homes, but if your practical policies do not lead to those 1.2 million homes being built then, especially for young Australians, those who are struggling with rents at the moment, that reality of ever, ever being able to move into your own home just disappears further and further from you.

That is why we want the government to look at what we successfully did when we were in government. We actually got homes being built in a number of ways. Those opposite can frown—look at the facts. We actually did—we had more homes built under us, especially in the last three to four years, than had been built decades before, because we had policies which actually meant that people were incentivised to build and build and build and build and build. Yet, what has happened since the Albanese Labor government got in? They changed those policy settings. They said: 'Oh, we've got to consult. We've got to dream up new policy approaches. We've got to bring the states on board.' And what's the reality? Not one single home has been built.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 10:51 to 11:06

As I was saying, in 2021 we had record levels of first home buyers, we had higher numbers of home builds, we had higher approvals and we had significantly lower rents. So the sad reality is that the government's approach is not working. All of those key indices are down and are getting worse.

What is exacerbating this problem is not only their failed housing policy, which is not working; in 2023 we saw 547,000 people come to this country. So, under the government's policies, we haven't seen one home being built, yet we've seen record levels of people coming into this country. So the imbalance is completely and utterly wrong. I must say that, when I look locally in my electorate, we're starting to see those pressures play out. I'm seeing people write to me saying that rents are becoming unaffordable. I'm seeing local builders saying to me they cannot get the development approvals quickly enough to get the homes built. And we're seeing the timber providers of the homes in Australia—AKD in my electorate provides over 20 per cent of that timber—saying that the demand is not there for that timber at the moment.

So everywhere there seems to be failure when it comes to getting our housing policy right. The Australian people need to know that housing will be a key plank of our policies at the next election, and we will be doing everything we can to make sure that young people can realise their dream of owning their first home and that rents start to come down so that they don't have to face these unsustainable increases that we're seeing under this government.

People's ability to have a roof over their head is essential to their wellbeing, and none of these policies that have been outlined in this motion are working. We need to go back to the policies that were working, that were seeing record levels of first home buyers entering the market, not the lowest levels we've seen in years. That is what the approach that we will take will be— (Time expired)

Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have to say I'm absolutely shocked and surprised at the previous speaker's self-congratulatory tone. I spent much of the last decade working in the homelessness and housing sector, and I can tell you that, from the position of the people on the ground and in the sector, you were not doing a fantastic job. We could not find housing, particularly on the social and affordable housing end, and homelessness was going up. You wouldn't speak to us. It was an absolute disaster.

We had Catherine House in Adelaide, which was a 52-bed property, and those beds were constantly full. We had a waiting list of 20 to 30 people at any time, and this was only for women who were unaccompanied—adult women who didn't have children with them. Those were the specific criteria we were talking about. All of the other services—the ones that dealt with women and children, the ones that dealt with men, the ones that dealt with families—had similar situations: queues out the door, phone calls from desperate people all the time, wanting to come in. We had to say to them: 'I'm sorry. We're full. We'll put you on the waitlist. You're rough sleeping, but we will put you on the waitlist and, when a bed comes up, then we can get you in.' We could only get a bed open for a new person to come in when we'd managed to move someone out, when we'd managed to find them a house or a home. Trying to access houses and homes—that was the bed blocker that was keeping people on the streets under those opposite in the last decade, which they seem to think was all absolutely fantastic. That was an absolute eye-opener for me, as somebody who's actually been in the sector and talked to the people experiencing homelessness, heard their stories and heard their desperation.

Housing was always the rate-limiter. We would have somebody come in and we would spend an average of 43 days working with them, resolving the issues that had brought them into homelessness, resolving the issues that had arisen since they had been homeless—health issues, legal issues and, always, financial issues, because, if you've got money, you've got more options. There were all those sorts of things. Then we would have to find them a property. Not all houses are the same and not all houses suit everybody. If you want to reunite with your children, then you obviously need a multibed property. If you have a pet, a dog, then you'll need something with a backyard. Some people are happy to share homes. Others, particularly those exiting domestic violence, do not want to share; they want to be able to shut the door at night and know that they have complete control over who is in their environment. So we needed a whole range of properties, a whole range of housing, suitable for different people's situations.

This government's focus has been on providing all of those different types of housing, across Australia—for key workers, for veterans, for women and children escaping domestic violence, social housing, affordable housing, different types of housing. This is very welcome. We have had a shortage of housing. It hasn't just arisen in the last two years, as those opposite seem to think. It has actually been—let's be honest—decades coming. There are a whole range of reasons why that has happened, including Airbnbs taking properties out of the market and into the hotel/motel market. We have a lower density of people living per house at the moment. Post COVID, a lot of people prefer not to share. They're working from home and they need an extra bedroom. So now about 140,000 extra properties need to be found, purely because of that lower density of people per house.

So this government is working on a whole range of strategies. Our big block, of course, is trying to get these strategies through the Senate. We have a range of different strategies, because it is not going to be a one-size-fits-all in terms of getting these properties built. But every single piece of legislation that we have taken to the Senate has been delayed by those opposite and the Greens political party, both of whom say that housing is a priority for them—and yet they delay and delay. Next time they're out in their electorate, when they're actually talking to young people or families who can't find a house, I'd like them to explain how long they have delayed. We know it takes a while to build a house, but the faster you get building, the faster the house will be completed.

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

I thank the member for Macnamara for his motion and for the opportunity to speak about the ongoing housing crisis in regional, rural and remote Australia. Across Australia, homes are more expensive and take longer to pay off than at any point in my lifetime. Consecutive interest rate rises and the cost of living are making it incredibly hard for those with a mortgage to make ends meet.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:14 to 11:25

It's no better for renters. With vacancy rates below one per cent in north-east Victoria, those without a home have little chance of finding one. Even if people can find a home to rent, many can't afford them, with rents in the north-east increasing by more than 10 per cent in the past year and almost 30 per cent since 2021. That's not Melbourne. That's not Sydney. That's regional Victoria. What's happening in my electorate is happening right across Australia. People in three-bedroom homes are being pushed into units, people in units are being pushed into caravan parks, and people in caravan parks are being pushed into tents along the rivers. Homelessness is at a level I've not seen in my decades of living in north-east Victoria.

It wasn't always like this. A home used to be affordable for the average worker. We provided decent and secure social housing for those doing it tough. It was a system where it didn't take a lifetime to pay off a mortgage and where your access to the bank of mum and dad didn't determine your chances of buying a home. Unfortunately, decades of policy dysfunction mean there are no quick-fix solutions. Despite the need for coordinated funding across all levels of government, I worry that this government is too focused on the major cities. The opposition, meanwhile, is more focused on raiding Australians' superannuation savings than putting forward credible alternative policies on regional housing.

At its core, this is an issue of supply. I know this because I listen to housing experts, I talk to local governments and I see what's happening in the towns right across my electorate of Indi. I'm not in this place to play political games. I'm here to find solutions that benefit the people who elected me as their independent representative. What I hear time and time again is that we need to build more homes—not just any homes but more affordable homes, homes close to where people live, work and play. We need to build homes that are energy efficient and that work to lower household bills every day. And we desperately need more social and affordable housing, with thousands of people on social housing waitlists in my region of north-east Victoria.

I know that regional Australia has the tools to build its way out of this housing crisis. Local governments and utility providers are ready to build new housing, but a lack of funding for critical enabling infrastructure is holding them back. Without more funding for improved sewerage, water connections and utilities connections, towns simply can't build the houses to meet the demand. That's why I welcomed the government's Housing Support Program, which will fund the critical enabling infrastructure I'm calling for, but I'm worried that regional Australia won't see its fair share of this funding, with $1 billion out of the $1.5 billion program going directly to state and territory governments. We have no visibility of how this money will be spent and no guarantee that local governments in electorates like mine will benefit.

We also need more funding overall. My proposal for a regional housing infrastructure fund shows that the regions alone require up to $2 billion, but the government has only invested $1.5 billion right across the entire nation. A regional housing infrastructure fund would guarantee that regional communities get a fair share of government housing funding. My commonsense policy is backed by the serious players in regional housing. It was backed comprehensively at the National Regional Housing Summit back in February.

We cannot forget about regional Australia when it comes to solving the housing crisis. Regional towns and cities are ready to build the housing of the 21st century, housing that is affordable, energy efficient, well located and ready to receive those workers who want to live and work in regional Australia. My policy is clear, and I'm prepared to work with anyone in this parliament to benefit the people of Indi and communities like them right across regional, rural and remote Australia.

Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my colleague the member for Macnamara for moving this motion that allows us to speak on the sheer breadth and depth of the Albanese Labor government's housing agenda. This is an important issue, one that plays on the minds of families doing it tough across the country. Australia has faced a housing shortage for far too long, and we have been putting measures to address this before this place almost from day one. We have funded these measures to match the size of their ambition. This motion recognises the urgent need for comprehensive housing reform and to see housing stock grow in pockets across the country. It's a motion that also acknowledges the Albanese Labor government's commitment to a $6.2 billion investment in the 2024-25 budget to accelerate housing construction. This significant investment is part of a broader $32 billion initiative aimed at boosting the supply of all types of housing, including public and social housing, affordable housing, and homes for rent and purchase. The new $9.3 billion National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness is a cornerstone of this plan, supporting the delivery of 40,000 social and affordable homes under the Housing Australia Future Fund and the National Housing Accord. Our government is providing up to $1.9 billion in concessional finance for community housing providers and other organisations operating in that space.

Our government's goal to build 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade is both necessary and achievable. The Housing Australia Future Fund, with its $10 billion investment, is poised to make a significant impact. The National Housing Accord, which includes federal funding to deliver 10,000 affordable homes, matched by states and territories, is another key aspect of our strategy. This collaboration with state and territory governments, combined with investments in infrastructure such as roads, sewerage and community facilities, will ensure the successful delivery of these homes. By working together across all levels of government, we can overcome the barriers to housing construction and ensure that new homes are built where they are needed most. Moreover, the government's initiatives extend beyond just building homes. These investments are crucial to ensuring that new housing developments are sustainable and provide a high quality of life for residents.

Our housing strategy also recognises the importance of supporting the construction industry. The industry has faced significant challenges in recent years, including supply chain issues and labour shortages. To address these challenges, the government is working to improve the supply of skilled construction workers through access to fee-free TAFE and targeted skilled migration. By investing in the workforce, we can ensure that the construction industry has the capacity to build in line with both the targets we have set and the funding we have allocated towards doing so.

The South Australian government, in partnership with the Albanese Labor government, has demonstrated strong leadership in addressing the housing crisis. Through the Better Housing Future plan, the South Australian government has committed to spending $2.6 billion over the next four years to accelerate the delivery of homes. This includes boosting the release of land for residential development, expediting the planning process and tackling infrastructure challenges that limit development. One of the key initiatives is the affordable housing initiative, which aims to deliver 1,000 new, affordable homes across Adelaide by 2026. This initiative ensures that homes are exclusively available for eligible low-to-middle-income households to purchase. By increasing the affordable housing price point for greater Adelaide and supporting pathways for homeownership, the South Australian government is making significant strides in addressing housing affordability. The Malinauskas Labor government is also investing $1.5 billion in water and sewer infrastructure to remove critical barriers to the construction—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:33 to 11:44

This includes an unprecedented $1.2 billion over the next four years to expand the water and sewer network to greenfield development sites in Adelaide's northern growth front, which is expected to unlock a potential 40,000 new allotments. The changes include streamlining the code amendment process and resulting land division, which will significantly reduce the timeframe to turn an empty block of land into a housing development. These moves are, in large part, thanks to the good work of my predecessor, the former member for Spence, Nick Champion, who is now the South Australian Minister for Housing and Urban Development and Minister for Planning.

These efforts complement the Albanese Labor government's housing reform agenda, an agenda that is generationally significant. By investing in social and affordable housing, supporting renters and promoting homeownership, we are addressing the housing crisis head on. I thank the House.

Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A house is not just bricks and mortar. It's a stable, secure, safe place that supports our wellbeing and informs our self-worth. A home provides stability for individuals, couples and families to stay in one location, to pursue education and employment opportunities and to form attachments in their community. A good home is the foundation of a good life and, in the middle of a housing crisis, we can and should do much more to build more homes and to make renting a home more secure and affordable.

Australia is in the middle of an unprecedented housing crisis. This problem has been decades in the making. It reflects a lack of effective planning, and policy failure by both major parties. As a result, young people are being shut out of the market by rapidly rising house prices, which have outstripped wages growth for more than a decade. The private rental market in Australia has a persistent, structural shortage of affordable housing. Growing numbers of vulnerable Australians, including people on low incomes and older, single women, are facing severe housing stress and even homelessness.

The No. 1 problem is housing supply. Australia has amongst the lowest number of homes, as a proportion of population, in the developed world. The federal government has set a target of 1.2 million new homes by 2030, but, on its current trajectory, we are not going to reach that goal. The government has to take more accountability for ensuring that it meets the target for new homes. This could include doing more to convince investors to allocate capital to residential starts, amidst rising input costs and labour shortages; providing incentives and regulations to make sure that we can make better use of our existing housing stock; and providing Commonwealth incentives to states and councils to rezone land.

The government's housing reform agenda and its commitment to provide more dwellings is commendable, but it's going to take too many years to achieve. With the rental crisis worsening, vulnerable Australians are under severe stress. In the short term, we have to do more to help people who are struggling to pay their rent. The recent increases in the Commonwealth rent assistance were welcome, but, with an average increase of $10 a week per household, they fall well short of the average rent increases, which have been well over $50 per week over the last year. In line with the recommendation from more than 60 expert groups and welfare groups, the Commonwealth's rent assistance has to be increased so that it more closely reflects the rents that people are actually paying, while the government works more quickly towards the long-term solution of building more affordable housing.

In the middle of the cost-of-living and housing affordability crises, we have to do more. We have to do much more to help vulnerable people struggling to pay their rent—and they include women fleeing domestic violence, and older, single women, who are at much greater risk of housing insecurity than are men.

A growing number of women are retiring into poverty and are then at risk of homelessness. Women are retiring with less superannuation than men, due to their history of a lifetime of part-time work, time out of the workforce to raise children and the gender pay gap. This means that many older women are experiencing severe housing insecurity due to an increasingly unaffordable private rental market. In retirement, the spending needs of single older women are modest. Increasing the Commonwealth rental assistance payment could be the difference for them between a good retirement and homelessness.

A good home is the foundation for a good life. This unprecedented housing crisis means that we have to do more to help people who are struggling to pay their rent. We have to ensure that every Australian, including the young and the vulnerable, can have a good life.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The shortage of housing across our nation, which we know is contributing to housing unaffordability, soaring rents and homelessness, is a very real concern to members of this government. I'd like to congratulate the member for Macnamara for moving this motion about a matter of such grave national importance and for highlighting this issue.

It is critical that we build more homes all across the nation. That's why the Albanese Labor government has an ambitious goal of building 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade through our Homes for Australia plan. The 2024-25 budget includes $6.2 billion in new investment to build more homes and support Australians, bringing our government's new housing initiatives to the fore in ensuring that we build those homes. As I said, this includes the single biggest investment in social and affordable housing in more than a decade, with the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund now established and already generating returns. It's an ambitious target, because it just has to be.

Of course, to build this many houses, we need to work with all levels of government to ensure the necessary workforce and materials supply chains are in place. That's why we're working to improve the supply of skilled construction workers through access to fee-free TAFE and targeted skilled migration. We have added an additional 320,000 fee-free TAFE places, and there is a further $80 million in this budget for priorities such as construction.

This is obviously a matter of great concern in my home state of South Australia, and I know that the housing minister, Minister Collins, is working in partnership with the housing minister in South Australia, Nick Champion, who's the Minister for Housing and Urban Development. They're working in partnership to provide more South Australians with a place to call home. This Labor government's Social Housing Accelerator will contribute $135 million to housing projects in South Australia, with community housing providers to provide an additional $60 million. As part of this first tranche of projects, this partnership is set to deliver 369 new and improved social homes across community and public housing projects, providing homes for approximately 606 South Australians.

On 23 May, I was delighted to attend a sod-turning and smoking ceremony for the Uniting on Second project with Minister Champion to mark the start of UnitingSA's latest affordable housing development in Bowden, in my electorate. The $30-plus million project will include 70 new affordable homes and 36 properties that will be available at affordable rents, while 34 will be affordable sales, providing a much needed boost to this market. This is in addition to a number of other affordable housing projects underway in my electorate of Adelaide, such as the Wirra Mikangka project, with 50 dwellings to be funded and at least 50 people to be housed. This project will enable a further 71 affordable and 30 market rental outcomes to be delivered across two apartment building towers. Housing Choices SA are in charge of that one—with partnerships.

Uniting on Hawker is another project, with 24 dwellings to be funded and up to 36 people to be housed. A further 26 dwellings are to be delivered, including 14 affordable rentals, six market sales and six public houses. It will include townhouses specifically for older women. The project has been done by UnitingSA Brompton.

Then we have 143 Devonport; that's again in my electorate. It will be a five-storey apartment building, with 21 dwellings to be funded that will house up to 29 people. This is being built in Prospect by Community Housing Ltd for domestic and family violence survivors and older women. Then we have another development at 164 Churchill Road, with 20 dwellings funded and up to 29 people housed. It's a five-storey apartment building being built in Prospect by Community Housing Ltd for domestic and family violence survivors and, again, specifically for older women.

More Social Housing Accelerator projects are still under consideration and will be announced in due course. We said that we would move quickly to address the nation's housing issue, and we are. (Time expired)

Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This Labor government is all talk and no action. They're spouting and spinning about what a great two years it's been under Labor, but it hasn't been a great two years, and Australians know it. It's been a train wreck. We've seen 12 interest rate rises and watched on as Australia's housing crisis just got worse and worse. The latest inflation data shows that housing costs are up by 12 per cent. That means a family with a $750,000 mortgage, which is the average, is paying an extra $35,000 a year. That's a lot of money.

Renters are also experiencing their highest increase since 2009. Gold Coasters have been hit hardest by this rental crisis. Only last week the Gold Coast was ranked as the worst affected by price hikes in Queensland. A fresh analysis shows weekly rent on the Gold Coast has increased by about $363 across houses and units combined, from June 2020 to June 2024. In my electorate of Moncrieff, it's been reported that rent is 47 per cent of the average income. Meanwhile, the median unit price is also out of reach, with households to fork out more than 30 per cent of their income.

Housing has become unaffordable for the average Australian worker under this government's watch. Despite the government's spin about building more homes, the figures show us that new build approvals are on the decline across the country. The ABS data reveals that the total number of building approvals for residential dwellings fell by 0.3 per cent to 13,078. So I ask the government: where are all these promised new houses coming from?

State and federal Labor governments continue to sit idly by whilst young families are being forced out onto the street. Young families are pitching tents in the park. This is happening in my electorate on the Gold Coast. Single mothers and their children are being forced to live in caravan parks. Young people are sleeping rough in cars or couch surfing.

Whilst there are many incredible crisis accommodation programs, they can only do so much to support the increase in homelessness. Youth foyers are one of the many support services available for young people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. I've visited a number of youth foyers in my capacity as shadow minister for youth. I've seen firsthand how they are changing the lives of young people who have nowhere else to go. But, like many other housing support services, they cannot help every person who reaches out.

Australians want real action on housing. My own community, after 10 long years under Palaszczuk government neglect, has resorted to doing our own fundraising for Gold Coasters doing it tough through the Vinnies CEO Sleepout. We raised over $600,000 in June to establish a 60-unit apartment building in Nerang. I thank those members in Moncrieff, in my federal division or council, for helping me fundraise $8,500 towards that.

I ask those opposite: Do you have an actual plan that will deliver more housing for families? Is your plan to target negative gearing and punish homeowners with an outcome of depleting the rental pool even further? Any move to abolish negative gearing would be a blow to Aussie battlers and would have an adverse impact on household savings and housing affordability. Its abolition would lead to serious negative flow-on effects in housing affordability for renters and for homeowners. To even consider this as an option, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis caused by this government and a housing crisis caused by this government, is absolute madness.

In contrast, there is only one party that actually delivers real housing solutions. I stand by our record. There were record levels of homebuyers under the coalition. There were higher numbers of home builds under the coalition. There were higher numbers of approvals under the coalition, and there were significantly lower rents. Think back two years.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:59 to 12:06

During our last three years in government, the coalition's housing policy supported more than 300,000 Australians to buy a home. We saw the highest level of first home buyers in 15 years. We also supported the establishment of more than 21,000 social and affordable homes through the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation. Should we be successful at the next election, the coalition has committed to implementing a two-year ban on foreign investors and temporary residents purchasing existing new homes in Australia. We'll also reduce the permanent Migration Program by 25 per cent, and this will help free up housing for our own Australians before we increase migration.

Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

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