Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

MILLER-FROST () (): Prior to coming to this place, I worked in the housing and homelessness sector, so this is something I am passionate about and something I know a bit about. There's been a lot of noise about our election commitment to deliver the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, more commonly known as the HAFF. It's a huge investment in social and affordable housing through a funding source that continues into the future.

We know that too many Australians are finding it difficult to find a safe, affordable place to call home, and for those who do have a place many are facing increasing pressures from rising rents and higher mortgage payments. We all know that the current housing crisis is a supply issue and it has been developing over the last decade. We need more rental properties. We need more for-purchase properties, more social and affordable properties—more properties across the housing spectrum. But the HAFF is only one thing amongst a raft of housing measures that Minister for Housing Julie Collins has been implementing since we were elected just over a year ago, and each of them is an important part of working towards a solution.

Over the last 12 months, the Albanese Labor government has helped more than 50,000 Australians into homeownership. In 2022, we released $575 million of extra funding, which is even now being put to work. Projects are already under construction, and more projects will be coming forward under the expanded Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator. In our first budget, we had the National Housing Accord, which includes funding for another 10,000 affordable rentals, to be matched by the states and territories with another 10,000 affordable rentals.

In this latest budget, we are helping 1.1 million Australians with the rising cost of rent by increasing Commonwealth rent assistance by 15 per cent. That's the largest increase in 30 years. We've released an additional $2 billion in financing for more social and affordable rental housing by increasing the guaranteed liabilities of the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation. We're also providing an extra $67.5 million to states and territories in the coming year through the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, the NHHA, as well as delivering more than $1.6 billion in a one-year extension to the agreement while we work out the new National Housing and Homelessness Plan. We're also working on our Help to Buy shared equity plan. This is a shared equity model similar to the one that we have in South Australia that has been working for close on three decades. It's not rocket science. It works.

We've been making considerable progress, but, as many in this place know, the Housing Australia Future Fund is critical to our housing agenda. The HAFF will fund tens of thousands of social and affordable rental homes, with 30,000 homes in the first five years. The only thing stopping us from being able to get a start on building those extra 30,000 homes is a truly unholy alliance between the Liberal and National parties and the Greens. People in this place say they want a solution to the housing crisis, but actions speak louder than words.

Labor has always been the party that supports social and affordable housing. We're not pretending that we can fix the housing problem overnight. Houses do take time to build. We're not pretending that the HAFF is the solution to everything. It is part of a raft of housing measures, many of which I have listed here and many of which are already underway. We know that, after a wasted decade when it comes to housing, there is much to do to ease pressure on Australians, but we are getting on with it. I'd encourage those who are holding back progress to quit their grandstanding, no matter how many likes it gets on social media, and get out of the way. The Albanese government has our constituents at heart, and we need to provide housing.