Jo Briskey (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm really pleased to have the opportunity to rise in support of the direction our government is taking to tackle this housing crisis. The opportunity to lay down roots and have a place to call home is so incredibly important to me, the community I represent and to this government. After nearly a decade of neglect under the former coalition government, where housing affordability worsened, social housing stock declined and renters were forgotten, Labor is delivering the most significant investment in housing in a generation. I'm so incredibly proud to be a member of this government and to be able to contribute to this incredible investment. After those years of neglect, Labor came into this place and got to work. We created the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund and developed 30,000 new social and affordable homes—housing for people experiencing homelessness, women and children escaping violence, frontline workers and older Australians at risk of housing stress.

This is despite the fact that we had the coalition and the Greens teaming up to block the Housing Australia Future Fund, but we got on with it. We pursued it, and I do appreciate the member for Macnamara's colloquial term of 'being a team of builders, not blockers'. Across Australia, our government is working hard to improve access to housing right across the board, because this issue is not localised to one area or one section of the population. We are supporting state and local governments to build social and affordable homes, so nurses and teachers can live in the communities they work in and not have to travel hours to support the people they care for. We're helping renters by improving supply through investing in build-to-rent properties and consecutively increasing Commonwealth Rent Assistance. We're helping first-home buyers to get a leg-up and be supported into their first home through our Home Guarantee Scheme, supporting them with five per cent of the deposit. And we're delivering $54 million to manufacture homes more quickly.

During the campaign, in my own electorate of Maribyrnong, I was joined by the powerhouse of our housing policy, the Minister for Housing, Clare O'Neil. We visited one of the Housing Australia Future Fund's projects, in Kensington. We saw the real-world impact our strategy is having, and it was exciting to watch the project go from strength to strength, delivering more homes in my area close to where people live and close to transport.

Those who are familiar with my electorate will know we are proud to have social and community homes right across the area, which ensures that people from all backgrounds have access to good schools, infrastructure and community support. And our policies have strengthened that commitment. In Maribyrnong, since we came to power in 2022, our policies have supported 700 locals to purchase their first home, with 280 locals given opportunities to go into new social and community housing and over 5,000 residents receiving increased Commonwealth Rent Assistance. And we are delivering 1,950 new homes through our build-to-rent program.

I also want to take this opportunity to call out the investment in innovation, particularly prefab and modular homes, because Modscape in my electorate, at Essendon Fields, is at the forefront of that innovation, delivering faster construction of needed homes. I got to witness that in action and saw how it was working together—how fast construction is in building social and affordable homes that are being sent up to north Queensland.

Labor is acting where the coalition failed and where the Greens played political games, because we believe that housing is a right, not a privilege. Everyone deserves a roof over their head, a place to call home and a stake in our country's future.

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