Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today, as we speak about the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023 and debate the housing plight of so many Australians, the people of Australia are waiting and have been waiting. They were waiting for years under the former government, who never acknowledge their responsibility for a sustainable housing supply for our nation. They always said it was a matter for the states. This is despite the fact that so many of the important levers in our housing supply also belong to the Commonwealth.

We are here today to bring forward a coherent housing policy for our nation, for which Labor has done a great deal of work and for which this bill is the next plank. It's a strong reason all our nation states, as well as the Northern Territory and the ACT, have been so firmly onboard with this bill. The coalition has a legacy of taking absolutely no responsibility for our nation's housing crisis. They've contributed to inadequate housing supply, increased rental prices and decreasing availability by simply being missing in action when it comes to social housing, trades and skills, and putting pressure and negotiating outcomes with the states and putting money on the table. This has resulted in many people who would never have thought they would confront homelessness finding themselves, as so many in our nation do at this point in time, in the unimaginable situation of being without a roof over their head—and this is before we even address the question of so many people in our nation having a roof over their head that is simply unsuitable for their needs: poorly maintained, too small, unaffordable, leaking. I've seen these examples not even in my work but just in day-to-day life.

It's an honour today to stand in this chamber and stand behind our government's Housing Australia Future Fund. We have been working towards this government housing package since long before we came into power. We intend to create real change—sustainable change—and support for the people in our nation who are relying on us. We can't change this overnight, but we can put the levers in place that start to deliver a better housing future for our nation.

As we know, people need a roof over their head—safe, suitable, secure and affordable housing—in order to be able to engage in the community, to work, to have meaningful relationships, to send their children to school, and to have dignity and wellbeing in everyday life. We know that homeownership rates among younger adults in our nation are in freefall. The vast majority of renters now believe they will never be able to buy their own home. This is a fact for this point in time that those opposite have sought to draw on in this debate, as if Labor's policies and this package are somehow part of the problem. But no, in this package and in other work done by the Labor government we put real solutions on the table, such as Western Australia's very successful Keystart program, where governments are able to have equity in a home in order to make that home more affordable. I look forward, under this Labor government, to that being a national program.

About a third of households are now renting. We need a government who's committed to bridging this gap, promoting rental affordability, affordable homeownership and investment in rental housing. Access to housing is something we should all agree is a basic human right. I've been part of the rental inquiries that are before the Senate Community Affairs Committee this year, and I've experienced firsthand the calls of so many people for action. We've seen firsthand that intervention is needed, especially for women and children impacted by family and domestic violence and older women at risk of homelessness. Often because of unemployment, divorce, economic insecurity and a tight rental market, they find themselves in circumstances they never imagined. Sadly, I know many women who have confronted such circumstances.

This is also apparent through the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Alliance, who made a submission to this inquiry where they noted that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women experience higher rates of family violence. We also see child removal, suicide, incarceration, and poorer outcomes in relation to mental health, employment and education, all as a result of a lack of access to suitable or affordable housing. Sadly, it is all too clear to me, from too many examples, how a lack of access to housing and housing support contributes to allegations of neglect that see children taken into care. This organisation said the current worsening rental crisis leaves our women and children without the fundamental human right of an adequate standard of housing, an adequate standard of living, or a right to housing. The first of their recommendations is for urgent and continued measures to meet the increased demand for housing for victim-survivors of domestic and family sexual violence and of other factors that contribute to homelessness across all our states and territories.

Labor understands this. We've worked on it, and the Housing Australia Future Fund is just part of helping us deliver the government's commitment of 30,000 new social and affordable rental homes in the fund's first five years. This won't be an easy task. We already have housing and construction delays in the private sector that have seen many people under pressure to pay rents in one house and an increasing mortgage on another that is not yet ready to be moved into. Again, we're seeing a delay in housing stock being returned to the rental market. As a nation, we have a really big challenge in front of us, but a challenge that we do not shy away from. It's a challenge that shows what a difference things like fee-free TAFE also make for ensuring that we have the skills we need to deliver the housing our nation needs.

Our social and affordable rental homes will include 4,000 homes for women and children impacted by family and domestic violence, or older women at risk of homelessness. The returns from this fund will also deliver the government's commitments to help address acute housing needs. This includes things like $200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvement of housing in remote Indigenous communities. I have seen firsthand the scale of neglect of this maintenance-and-improvement job left by the last government. It cannot be understated, because time and time again in housing negotiations the last coalition government turned a blind eye and said, 'This is a state responsibility.' We have in this package $100 million for crisis and transitional housing options for women and children affected by family and domestic violence, and older women at risk of homelessness, and $30 million to build housing for veterans who are experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of homelessness.

A couple of years ago when I was walking through the streets of Perth I saw a gentleman scouting for money on the streets of St Georges Terrace and I got chatting to him. He was a homeless veteran. There's so much we can do to make a difference. In this instance I just encouraged him to reach out to the Department of Veterans' Affairs or my office to get reconnected to his payments, and he did. He did it all himself.

He sent me an email of gratitude. I didn't need to be thanked for the basic thing of recognising the importance of his service and, more than that, the importance of his identity as a worthwhile person. I put aside the stigma, the discrimination and his sense of self that had deteriorated so much and I said, 'Just reconnect to the services you need.' I was really pleased with that outcome, but it did show me how much more needs to be done and how important it is to the day-to-day wellbeing of so many, including our veterans.

I'm proud to be part of a government that intends to make a fundamental difference to the people of our nation who are willing to put the time in and who have worked so hard on these reforms. It's about making a difference to housing and putting roofs over people's heads. We have done this in partnership with so many organisations who have advocated for these reforms, investments and policy changes. All of us in the Senate now have an opportunity to back this package—a package that contains what so many experts and housing organisations have called for for a great many years. Together we can reshape Australia's housing policy, setting in place a legacy where the Commonwealth understands its place in working with the states to ensure that every Australian has suitable, affordable housing that provides them a life and a benchmark for dignity.