Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Walsh for her question. The Albanese government wants every Australian to have the security of having a roof over their head. We know that too many Australians are being hit by growing rents and too many Australians are struggling to buy a home. It's unacceptable that it's getting more and more expensive to have a safe and secure home. Sadly as we found out today, as Senator Walsh alluded to in her question, far too many Australians are facing homelessness. As reported today, on census night nearly 123,000 Australians were homeless. This is unacceptable. We have also seen figures today that show in the five years to 2021 under the former government's watch the number of homeless people grew each night by 6,000.

This is why we need to improve access to affordable and safe homes for all Australians. We were elected with a plan to clean up the mess that was left behind and to help tackle the cost of accessing a home. Fundamental to our plan is increasing the supply of new housing. Australians do not have enough supply of new housing. The $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund will be the largest boost to social and affordable homes in a decade. The 30,000 homes the fund will deliver are one part of the Albanese government's ambitious housing agenda, which also includes broadening the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, the Housing Accord, the $1.6 billion National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, the interim National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, a new National Housing and Homelessness Plan, the Help to Buy Scheme and the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee. The government is going to continue to push and argue in this chamber to have the passage of that important piece of legislation so that we can put in place the fund that will provide an ongoing source of investment into the social and affordable housing sector.