Arch Bevis (Brisbane, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are a number of aspects of the government’s stimulus package for the Australian economy announced yesterday which I am very keen to support. But today I want to make particular reference to the support for housing. I want to talk about two aspects of that. One is social housing, which is very much needed in many parts of Australia. I know that is especially the case in central Brisbane, with a number of people living rough and a number of people without affordable housing. There are a number of organisations that do wonderful work to support them, and I know that they will have been rejoicing overnight at the government’s announcement to provide funding to enable some 20,000 dwellings to be made available in the next two to three years. That will be a very tangible improvement in the quality of life for thousands of Australians, matched, I am glad to say, by a commitment to funds for maintenance. Any of us who have been into some of the public housing stock will know that maintenance is sorely needed.

I am also delighted that Australian Defence Force personnel are to be recipients of additional accommodation as part of the government’s announcements yesterday. In Brisbane there are to be some 103 new dwellings created for Australian Defence Force personnel. In this place we often make mention of the work of our men and women in the defence forces—those on deployment and those here at home. We need to recognise that an important part of support for them is to ensure not just that the equipment that they use in their work, in combat and in trades, is up to scratch but that it is the best available. We also need to ensure that the living standards we afford them are of a high quality. That has not always been the case over the years, and I know that the current minister has a strong commitment to that, as I have had for many years.

In Brisbane there are to be 30 new dwellings created in Upper Kedron, another 32 in Everton Park, and another 41 in another area of Upper Kedron, bringing the total to 103 new dwellings in Brisbane. That is part of a much broader package. But in Brisbane, it will, of itself, create some 88 jobs directly in the construction of those dwellings, with an indirect impact on another 200-odd jobs. That is 300 people who will gain employment in Brisbane or have their employment secured as a result of this initiative, plus more than 100 Defence Force personnel and their families who will get high-quality accommodation. The people in Gaythorne, the people at Keperra and those at the Enoggera army barracks will rejoice in that news, and I welcome it wholeheartedly.