Nicolette Boele (Bradfield, Independent) | Hansard source

I support the government's efforts to make housing more affordable, but I stress that far more needs to be done to address our housing crisis. Let's look at one important piece of the puzzle for affordable housing. The government aims to deliver 55,000 social and affordable homes, and I welcome that. But this commitment doesn't mean anything if those homes aren't actually affordable for the people who need them. The question here is the meaning of 'affordable', because at the moment governments can't seem to agree. Let's run through some of the inconsistent definitions that we're dealing with today.

To the Housing Australia Future Fund, the federal government's main housing investment body, 'affordable' means 74.9 per cent or less of market rent. To the Department of Social Services, 'affordable' means 75 to 80 per cent of market rent. To the New South Wales government, it means less than 30 per cent of gross income, and, to the Willoughby City Council, it means up to 30 per cent of a household's income for very low to moderate income households. It's a mess, and this mess has real-world impacts.

Take the '30 per cent of gross income' definition. For most young people in my electorate—young people working in nursing, teaching, hospitality and retail—there just isn't anything available to rent for 30 per cent of your income. They end up paying more like 50 per cent, and they can't sustain that. So they move away—away from their families, their workplaces and the places that they love. The 20 to 25 per cent discount on market rent isn't necessarily any better either in an electorate with such high market rents.

This patchwork system simply isn't working. That's why I'm running a campaign to establish a nationally consistent definition of 'affordable housing'.

The first step is to craft the best definition we can. I'm consulting with experts on this subject right now, and we'll have something to report very soon.

The next step is to get governments to cooperate. Now, that's a tricky part at the best of times, let alone on an issue as vexed as housing. But it's essential that we find a way to work together. The federal government has a unique position to lead on this, because of the leverage it wields through the GST, through the National Housing Accord and through programs like the special investment vehicle, the Housing Australia Future Fund. I'm also convening a roundtable in parliament in August, bringing together industry, parliamentarians, civil society organisations and academics, to drive the conversation on affordable housing and push us closer to real solutions.

This is complicated, and it's difficult work, but, with your support, we can make it happen. Already, over 5,000 people have signed on to this campaign. So please join us. My goal is to ensure that, when governments talk about funding affordable homes, we actually understand what they're talking about and intend to deliver, and we can hold them to account.

But, of course, there is more to the housing crisis, as the member for Adelaide's motion points to. Boosting housing supply isn't just about building houses; it's about building the infrastructure that underpins those houses. It's the roads, the cycle paths and the footpaths; it's the water and sewerage infrastructure; it's the electricity connections and public transport stops; it's open spaces, recreational facilities and cultural centres—all the things you need to make new housing development places that people can actually live. In the budget, the government announced $2 billion for these infrastructure improvements. I welcome this, and I want to see it flowing into housing developments that build genuinely affordable housing supply where it is needed most.

Between the two LGAs that make up my federal electorate, we're working hard to deliver 11,000 new homes, slated for development over the next three years. I want to see a fair share of this $2 billion directed to Ku-ring-gai Council and Willoughby City Council to support that effort. These councils are already pulling their weight in building more housing supply, and they need assistance from the federal government to do this. I've already met with the minister to discuss this funding, and I'll keep pushing until we see that the funding that my electorate deserves and needs goes there, so that we have liveable places that people can call home, no matter what stage of their life they are in.

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