Matt Thistlethwaite (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was fortunate a couple of months ago to visit the Matthew Talbot Hostel in Sydney. The hostel, and its work, is well known in the community for supporting and providing assistance to those who find themselves in the unfortunate circumstance of homelessness and living on the streets in Sydney. It is a wonderful organisation. It does fantastic work in assisting people who have fallen on hard times and who find themselves homeless. But I was struck by the conversation I had with one of the youth workers who was working at Matthew Talbot that day. I pushed him on the point of providing access to public housing for people who find themselves homeless, and his comment stuck with me. He said that at this point in time access to public housing has never been more opportune and that from the perspective of Matthew Talbot Hostel there have been no problems in getting people into public housing. There are always a host of other issues, such as mental illness, associated with providing people with homes, but I was struck by his comment that the stock of public housing has been increasing. That is a simple fact and correlates with this government's massive investment in public housing in the wake of the global financial crisis, increasing the housing stock to ensure that more is available for people who are accessing public housing not only in New South Wales but throughout the country.

Senator Payne makes comment about the housing shortage in New South Wales. She is right: there is a housing shortage when it comes to the mid to upper levels of housing in New South Wales. There is one reason for that—that is, the O'Farrell government has made a complete mess of the planning system in New South Wales. Talk to any developer in New South Wales at the moment and they will tell you that the system has been shut down by the planning minister, Brad Hazzard, in New South Wales. There is a complete shutdown of the system. What are they doing? They are undertaking a review. They have been doing this review since they came to government. For the last 12 months they have been undertaking a review of the housing system. If you talk to the people who are attempting to build and supply the housing stock they will tell you it is in complete shutdown. There is no incentive at all to invest in housing in that mid to upper range of housing in the housing market. So here we have a contrast: housing is being provided through the public system as a result of our investment in public housing, but the private sector incentive has been removed because the O'Farrell government has made a complete joke of the planning system. People are waiting to find out.