Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to take us back to some of the matters that were raised earlier in the housing portfolio. I am interested in getting some further information, if the minister can provide it, on exactly how the funds for the housing package will be distributed—in particular, the obligations of the coordinators and the people who will be looking after these large transfers of funds to the states. What will be the reporting obligations not only for energy and water efficiency, which we know are in the schedule, but also for the location issues—proximity to public transport, to services, to access to employment and so on? We know that the government has an eye on these issues, but it is very unclear how it will be reporting and benchmarking them, whether these reports will even be made public and on what sort of basis they will be provided to the minister or the parliament.

I would also be interested to know whether the Commonwealth has an intended balance of funding between regional and metropolitan housing for the public housing spend and whether there is any intention, at a Commonwealth departmental level, to target the housing to areas of greatest need or whether this responsibility is being devolved to the states. Does the Commonwealth government have a proportion or target in mind by which the community housing sector, as opposed to state housing commissions or public housing departments, will be managing these properties?

One of the issues that was raised late last year in the debates around the National Rental Affordability Scheme and that was raised again yesterday in the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs was the issue of charitable tax status for community housing organisations that are seeking to be part of the management structure of these housing projects. It was put to the committee and was not really satisfactorily dealt with by the answers that we received, albeit at short notice, from the department that a solution was in train and that something would fall out of the Henry review. It was put to the committee by the housing organisations who spoke to us in the committee that that would be too late—that the tax issue, as it remains unresolved to date, is already putting a chill over the community housing organisations that are seeking to be a very important part of the management of these housing projects. My understanding is that the Commonwealth sees them as an important part of the management of these housing projects. We are interested in what measures the government has in place. We will be very disappointed if the answer that comes back is that you are waiting for something to arise out of the Henry review, because we certainly heard evidence that that would be too late. If the minister could provide us with any information on these matters, that would be greatly appreciated. We would be very interested to know how you intend to benchmark the reporting obligations of the states and the various housing providers and whether they are meeting benchmarks on energy, water efficiency and the location issues.