Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I bring to the attention of the House the wonderful work being performed by the Western Suburbs Housing Cooperative in Sydney. In the current climate of interest rate rises and dwindling Commonwealth funding to public housing, the co-op is struggling on. It administers 460 affordable, appropriate and secure properties in the Parramatta, Holroyd, Auburn and Blacktown local government areas for people in need. The chief executive officer of the co-op, Peter Malone, and his staff work tirelessly and patiently to deliver affordable housing options to their tenants. But the co-op currently has a waiting list of over 1,000 applicants and, as the residents of Western Sydney suffer the triple whammy of rising interest rates, skyrocketing petrol prices and the wages race to the bottom, courtesy of the Howard government’s extreme workplace laws, this waiting list is only getting longer. I hear on a weekly basis now from organisations in my electorate that provide free meals to the homeless of the growing number of families that come along to avail themselves of their service as a way of continuing to meet their rental needs. They get their food for free because they can only just afford their rent. More and more of these families are turning to agencies like the co-op for subsidised housing, and they are doing it in far greater numbers.

What will the government do to help benevolent agencies like the Western Suburbs Housing Cooperative? It will do nothing; in fact, it is doing the opposite. Since this government won office in 1996 it has stripped funding under the Commonwealth-State Housing Agreement by 30 per cent. Because of this, only half the number of new tenants could get into public housing in 2005 as could in 1995. This puts more strain on the waiting lists of affordable non-government housing providers such as the Western Suburbs Housing Cooperative. The government claims that it does not need to fund public housing because it is spending more on rent assistance, but we already know that this is a false argument. There are still fewer people receiving rent assistance than there were in 1997 when the Howard government cut back eligibility.

Labor believes that secure and affordable housing is square 1 in building a decent life—square 1 for participating in education, training and employment and square 1 for building a secure future for their children. Under a Labor government, excellent organisations like the Western Suburbs Housing Cooperative will be better able to deliver their service to people in need instead of frantically trying to deal with the burden of overflows from people who cannot get into state government housing.

Labor supports the establishment of a national affordable housing agreement which would aim to increase the level of public and community housing stock as well as promote partnerships between the public, community and private sectors to provide affordable housing for both purchase and rental. The Western Suburbs Housing Cooperative is a wonderful example of just how effectively these partnerships can work in practice. I wish them all the best in continuing their crucial work of delivering affordable housing to people in need in the western suburbs of Sydney. I want to congratulate Peter, Cheryl and the team for the service they have been able to deliver since their inception. I am sure they will continue to deliver excellent service to the people of Western Sydney for many years to come.