Nick Sherry (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law) Share this | Hansard source

That was a very effective contribution. I think Senator Cameron outlined very succinctly the issues facing this chamber and the country. Senator Ludlam is here. I have, as I have indicated, been responding to questions in this committee stage. I want to outline to him a response to an issue that he raised yesterday. I think this is now the only question that we have not responded to and I want to take this opportunity in the early stage of the committee debate today to respond.

Senator Ludlam asked for information about the degree to which the government is considering resilient housing measures and adaptability to these sorts of events and what kinds of benchmarks we would be setting for the developers and builders. Bearing in mind that the package has not been passed yet and obviously there are some discussions going on with the states and territories—hopefully, the package will be passed and those discussions have got down to the detail but there is no conclusion yet—the government will be encouraging social housing projects that incorporate innovative ideas in both the design and construction elements. This will include construction techniques and use of materials that will make housing more resilient over time.

The government, as I have indicated, is and will be working with the states and territories on establishing a competitive selection process to seek proposals for the majority of funding available through the Social Housing Initiative. This will include the establishment of key criteria against which these proposals will be assessed. The government will be engaging expert advice from the building sector to establish the key criteria, and consideration will be given to how these criteria can be developed to promote resilient housing without significantly impacting on building costs.