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

I thank Senator Bilyk for the question. This is a government that is very proud of the work we have done on nation building, and we are very proud of the work we have done with the social housing package. There have been 15,700 homes completed—homes that will go to people in need, to Australians who need affordable housing and support during the bad times in their lives.

We are also proud of the jobs that the Nation Building Program has supported. The package has supported 200,000 jobs. These are jobs that would have been lost, and families would have experienced unemploy­ment and its terrible effects. We know the OECD has said that without the stimulus package pushing the economy, unemploy­ment would have been two per cent higher. I remind the Senate, that 750,000 new jobs have been created since we came into government in 2007 and we have an unemployment rate of 5.1 per cent, which is around half that of the United States and half that of most European countries.

Under the social housing package, there are still houses being rolled out as we speak, which we will continue to support.