Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. How will the Housing Australia Future Fund improve Australia's housing supply? Why did the Senate fail to pass it?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Higgins for his question.

Honourable members: Her!

Her question. Indeed, she is the best member for Higgins that there has ever been.

Our $10 billion HAFF will build 30,000 new social and affordable homes, including housing for veterans, frontline workers and women and children fleeing domestic violence. But, of course, yesterday the Liberals and Nationals were teamed up with the Greens political party in the Senate to block support for this. We know that every day of delay means $1.3 million a day not going to social and affordable housing for Australians. That is the price that the Greens political party, with their new coalition allies in the Liberal and National parties, want Australians to pay. For the Greens political party, this isn't about renters. It's not about people in social housing. It's not about affordable housing. It's about them. They want the issue, not the outcome. They deal in protest; we focus on progress. They see issues to campaign on; we see challenges to act on. They want to build their profile; we want to build more homes.

I say to the Greens political party: there are more people involved in this than you. Understand who you are saying no to. You're saying no to people who are at risk of homelessness who are veterans. You're saying no to women and children escaping domestic violence. You're saying no to Indigenous Australians in remote communities. And you are saying no to those housing groups who stood up before this vote in the Senate yesterday, calling for the HAFF to pass. The Community Housing Industry Association said yes; you said no. National Shelter said yes; you said no. Homelessness Australia said yes; you said no. Everybody's Home said yes; you said no. The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association said yes; you said no. The Property Council of Australia said yes; you said no. The Master Builders association said yes; you said no. It is time that you put aside this pettiness, put aside the politics and actually voted for more public housing.