Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition has already made their position clear in relation to the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023, and that is that we're not supporting it for the reasons that have been articulated on many occasions. But I am particularly keen to understand from the government exactly where the Housing Affordability Future Fund and associated bills actually are in terms of the financial commitments and the other commitments that have been made by the government in order for them to be able to seek the support of the necessary number of people in this chamber for the passage of these bills. Clearly, they have been able to do that, otherwise we wouldn't be standing here today.

We started off during the election with a $10 billion fund that was supposed to generate $500 million per year to go towards certain housing. We're not exactly sure about what that housing is because there doesn't appear to be any definition in the bill about what particular types of housing products actually are. Subsequent to the election commitment of a $10 billion off-balance-sheet, financially engineered, weird fund, we've seen a $2 billion commitment to the states and territories that was made some time ago in relation to housing, and this week we saw that the government has agreed to an additional $1 billion package in order to secure the Greens' support for this. So we now have a $13 billion housing fund. As we stand here today, we haven't even passed this legislation through this place. We have seen a 30 per cent blowout in the cost of this fund, and the legislation has not even been voted on yet.

What I am very keen to understand from the Minister is: is $13 billion all that has been committed to the passage of this piece of legislation, or have there been other deals done that we are unaware of? The reason I'm asking that is that I noticed yesterday and the day before, when the Greens made their statements publicly about their intent to now support this particular bill, that the Greens shadow housing spokesperson representative—or whatever they call them in the Greens—Mr Chandler-Mather made some comments in relation to some commitments he was seeking in relation to rent-capping. The first question I'd like to ask the Minister is: has the government made any commitments in relation to supporting rent-capping in order to get the support of the Australian Greens for the passage of this particular piece of legislation through this place?