Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) | Hansard source

I thank the Member for Newcastle for her interest in this matter and for the work she's been doing in her local community. I know that she knows that more housing is desperately needed, particularly social housing, in her community. Of course, we do have a broad housing agenda as a new Labor government. It is very broad, and it's also ambitious, but it's achievable.

The three bills central to our agenda were blocked by the Senate in the last parliamentary sitting: our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Funds Bill, our Supply and Affordability Council Bill and our bill to create Housing Australia. These three bills were blocked in the Senate by, of course, the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens coming together to block these bills that will deliver more housing for Australians that need it most. This is an opportunity for people to get out and about in their electorates and talk to people, particularly those who have been in public and social housing recently. We're talking about 30,000 new social homes in the first five years of the fund, of which 4,000 are for women and children fleeing family and domestic violence and for older women over 55.

During the break, I had the opportunity to go to Burnie, to meet with some new residents who'd been in this new social housing, one of them for one week and the other for two weeks. I particularly want to talk about Lorilee. Lorilee had been homeless for two years before getting into her new home just two weeks ago. She said to me, 'I have spent all of my time and my energy, each and every day for the last two years, just finding somewhere safe to sleep. And I have spent every bit of energy in trying to work out what I am going to eat, because I have no home.' Lorilee has been put into one of these new homes, I'm pleased to say. I asked her what she'll do now. She said, 'I'm going back to school.' She's a 40-year-old woman who's so proud of her new home. And that's what this means. These are homes for people who desperately need them. These are homes that we want to build.

When I talk to the community housing provider Housing Choices, they want to build more of these homes. When the Prime Minister and I spoke to community housing provider BlueCHP, who had also put people into new social homes, they want to build more of these homes. They are saying the Housing Australia Future Fund is critical to getting more of these types of homes on the ground. So I say to the Liberals, Nationals and Greens: go out and talk to some of the people who are currently sitting on public housing waiting lists about what it will mean to them. You are blocking homes when we want to build homes. Why are you standing in the way of getting more homes on the ground, for Australians who need them the most, when we have so many housing challenges today?

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