Sharryn Jackson (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing and Minister for the Status of Women. How is the government tackling housing affordability for working Australians and their families? What are the government’s housing programs delivering in my state of Western Australia?

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Hasluck for her question. She knows, as well as people on this side of the House, that housing affordability is intricately and directly linked to housing supply. We have not been building enough homes across Australia for at least a decade now. Because of that, we have seen price pressure both on homes for people to buy and on homes for people to rent. Of course the previous government ignored this problem for 11 years. The only real moves they made in housing were to cut $3 billion from housing programs during 11 years in government.

In contrast, since coming to government we have helped almost a quarter of a million young Australians into a home of their own through the first home owners boost. In the member for Hasluck’s state, Western Australia, the number is 28,800 first home buyers who have been helped by the first home owners boost. We have also supported the building of thousands of affordable rental properties through our National Rental Affordability Scheme and other programs. I have been very pleased with the uptake of the National Rental Affordability Scheme. In fact, in the first two rounds of the scheme we have approved 11,000 National Rental Affordability Scheme properties. In this current round, round 3, which is open until the end of August, we have so far received eight applications from right across the country for over 12,000 National Rental Affordability Scheme incentives. I am very pleased to inform the House today that the first major proposal in round 3 is from Western Australia, from a wholesale company called Yaran, which specialises in affordable housing projects. They are building across 47 sites, right across WA, more than 1,100 new homes for Western Australians which will be offered at affordable rentals.

Of course that is terrific news for those families in Western Australia. The homes are spread right across the Perth region. Yaran is the name of the company, and the homes are spread right across the Perth region from Mandurah in the far south to Merriwa in the outer north. The projects are proposed for regional areas like Denmark, Mount Barker and Bridgetown in the south-west as well, and I am sure that the member for Hasluck is very happy to know that up to 170 of these new homes will be in her electorate alone. That goes with the 20 homes in the first two rounds of the National Rental Affordability Scheme at Gosnells and Midland and with the 53 homes built through the stimulus package—social housing homes, including the 16 that we have visited together, which were being built for seniors in Gosnells. So there are 243 new rental homes for the member for Hasluck’s seat as part of about 4,000 new rental properties right across Western Australia. And it is not just the new rental properties; it is new homes to buy. Through the Housing Affordability Fund we will see a total of $31½ million going to WA for 13 projects, saving homebuyers in Western Australia around $16½ thousand on about 1,820 new homes and housing lots.

In the Hasluck electorate, the City of Gosnells has received over a million dollars from the Housing Affordability Fund, and 100 homebuyers will receive discounts of around $11,000 each on their homes. This is a massive investment in housing right across WA, a state that desperately needs affordable rental housing and affordable homes for people to buy. This investment means more homes sooner and better affordability for those Western Australians who want a home to buy, to live in or to rent.