David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, the government introduced legislation into the other place to establish the Housing Australia Future Fund, the HAFF. That fund aims to add 30,000 new homes to the supply of social and affordable housing stock over the next five years. But over the next three years, the National Rental Affordability Scheme, which was capped at 38,000 social and affordable homes, will be wound up. Unmet social and affordable housing needs stand at 650,000 homes, and by 2041 it is forecast that almost one million Australian households will be in housing stress.

This is clearly a massive issue that we're facing. While the HAFF is very welcome, I'm deeply, deeply concerned about the measures currently being proposed. Whilst a big improvement on what was there previously, they don't go anywhere near far enough. And this concern has been echoed by housing peak bodies around the country.

The crisis we are currently facing in housing is about to get a whole lot worse. At the same time as NRAS is winding up, one-fifth of home loans, or around 800,000 households, are about to fall off a fixed rate mortgage cliff. Permanent migration is increasing from 160,000 to 195,000, and international students are returning. These aren't bad things, but they are a confluence of extreme pressures on an already deeply stressed housing ecosystem. Rental vacancy rates are at historic lows, while rental price increases are at historic highs. We need to do better. We can do better. I hope that, when the legislation comes to this place, we act together to do just that.