Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The guy who is sitting at the table, I do not know his name, says, 'Oh yeah, I'm sure it's our fault!' Your government will not sign the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness, which expires on 30 June. What do you think that that uncertainty does to homelessness services? What do you think it does to their clients? This is a federal government that will not support, and will not announce whether it will support, another round of funding for the National Affordable Housing Agreement. How can states plan, build and fund their public housing, when they cannot hear from the federal government what sort of funds will be available for them in the future? We have seen, over this last week, the softening-up exercise start, with criticisms about social housing and criticisms about the National Rental Affordability Scheme—which are two excellent programs.

The National Rental Affordability Scheme has already built 14,000 homes in Australia, and another 24,000 are in the pipeline. It is a program, incidentally, that the states contribute a quarter of the funding to, with states selecting the projects that go ahead, in cooperation with the Commonwealth government. We have seen the softening up now when it comes to social housing. The previous federal Liberal government did nothing for social housing, and now we have a state Liberal government, who, when in opposition, opposed the stimulus package. They had Liberals out there campaigning against new social housing being built in their electorates. True to form, we have the O'Farrell government now selling 300 family homes from a community in the centre of Sydney and we have the Abbott government, who will not lift a finger to stop it or to fund affordable housing in the future. We have seen the softening-up exercise. The National Rental Affordability Scheme is going to go, the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness will not be re-signed, and the National Affordable Housing Agreement is going to go too, because this is a federal government that has no respect for public housing tenants. And it is working with a state government that has no respect for public housing tenants and no respect for the families and the communities that they have built in Millers Point in inner-city Sydney.

I am devastated and disgusted to see this action from the O'Farrell government today. I think it is a betrayal of the people of inner-city Sydney. They may as well have dropped a bomb on the centre of Sydney for the damage they will do to the community that has been there for generations.

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