Nicolette Boele (Bradfield, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Shelter is a human right, yet in Australia we have as many homeless people as there are voters in the electorate of Bradfield, more than 122,000, and it's trending in the wrong direction. This government says that it understands what's needed—increase supply, inject more money into social and affordable housing, fix property related tax settings and improve vocational training and skills to ensure that we have the workers to build the homes. Those are good initiatives, but house prices keep rising, supply does not meet demand, dreams of homeownership grow ever more distant for new entrants and homelessness grows.

When it comes to supply, state, territory and local governments need to regulate for a larger proportion of what's built to be affordable, and, through the National Housing Accord, the federal government has not just the power but also the responsibility to make it so. The Commonwealth provides state, territory and local governments with $3.5 billion in payments to support the delivery of new homes towards its 1.2 million new-homes target. The Albanese government needs to flex its muscle in the equation. The Housing Australia Future Fund is a commendable initiative to support social and affordable housing, but it must be bigger. The $500 million it disburses in grants annually in the context of the Australian property market is not going to scratch the surface of this crisis. We need to find new ways to provide affordable shelter for everyone who wants or needs it.

When working with superannuation funds during my time in finance, I learned from a number of creative approaches to financing affordable housing. These examples come from the United States of America, the UK and the Netherlands. I'm also pleased to report that we have a few examples of creative solutions right here in Australia. Assemble, a housing developer and manager, majority owned by two of Australia's largest superannuation funds, HESTA and AustralianSuper, aims to originate, deliver and manage well-designed and appropriate homes for renters and homebuyers nationally, making more housing available where it is needed. Assemble provides investment opportunities which will generate stable, long-term returns by investing in housing at scale. After all, what better investment is there than property in Australia?

So what does it look like? Their novel approach to the purchase pathway is known as 'build to rent to own'. Here, the rent and purchase price of the home is fixed for five years, enabling residents to live in those homes while they're saving to buy them without the housing market racing away from them. There's no obligation to buy, but the purchase price is fixed for five years if they choose to do. Assemble has completed three such projects in Melbourne, with more under construction. The projects receive funding from the Housing Australia Future Fund. They're delivered in partnership with social and community housing providers. They create supply on the doorstep of critical public transport links and near major hospitals and schools.

I want to be clear about one thing. I'm not advocating and will never advocate for people's individual super savings being raided. Our superannuation is world class and it should be used solely for the purpose for which it was created—to ensure that people have a dignified retirement. Rather, I'm suggesting that the $5 trillion in Australia's institutionally managed super funds, funds which are invested on behalf of their members, be available for investment in creative solutions to our complex problems while still making strong risk-adjusted returns for members. Projects like Assemble's build-to-rent-to-buy development are a win-win-win-win. They're a win for institutional super funds, which means a win for their members, a win for those struggling to get into safe and secure housing, a win for communities that desperately need front-line workers—teachers, nurses and paramedics—and a win more broadly for a society struggling to ease demand on a choked-up housing system.

So why doesn't it happen more often? Why isn't this the default style of funding for people on smallish wages in all parts of our country? These are the kinds of innovative and creative solutions that we desperately need to address our housing crisis. I will be exploring and advocating for these types of solutions and others during my time in this place. There are so many ways that we can fix this problem if we have the energy and the courage for new avenues.

See this speech in context