Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Social Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Moore for the question and for her ongoing interest in the Social Housing Initiative and in our housing agenda. Access to safe, secure and affordable housing is crucial in ensuring that Australians have a foundation upon which to participate in their community.

I am proud, as a Labor minister, to inform the Senate that more than 20,000 dwellings have been delivered across the federal government's housing programs to date. I am also happy to inform the Senate that the government's $5.6 billion Social Housing Initiative is on track and delivering much-needed homes to vulnerable Australians. Under this program, 14,400 social housing dwellings have been completed, with a further 5,000 homes currently under construction. We expect to be able to deliver 19,600 new dwellings under the stimulus as a result of the cost effectiveness of the delivery of the program. This is because the average cost per dwelling under the Social Housing Initiative is around $270,000, about 10 per cent lower than the $300,000 expected average. Of course, that is just the new construction that is being undertaken in the stimulus. Already 84,000 existing social housing dwellings have undergone repairs and maintenance, of which 16,800 would have been uninhabitable without the work being undertaken. The Social Housing Initiative also helped to support around 15,000 jobs across Australia during the global financial crisis, something which this Labor government is extremely proud about, and the 700,000 that Senator Carr talked about earlier. But that is not all the government is doing. It is not just the Social Housing Initiative in terms of housing. Also, more than 1,800 social dwellings have been built through the national partnership agreement on social housing, 3,800 homes have been built under the National Rental Affordability Scheme, which provides a 20 per cent rental discount for people who are most in need, and A Place to Call Home has delivered 289 homes to date and is on track to deliver 651 homes. (Time expired)