Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness. How would the Albanese Labor government's Housing Australia Future Fund help tackle the country's housing challenges? What is the cost of blocking its establishment?

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hawke for that question. I know that he, like me, wants to see more Australians with a safe, affordable place to call home. He has also been a big supporter of our ambitious and broad housing agenda, particularly in his own electorate.

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What agenda!

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our housing agenda is ambitious—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister will pause. The member for Deakin is continually interjecting. He is warned. He will not interject anymore.

Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are investing more than $9.5 billion in housing and homelessness in just this financial year—$9.5 billion in just one year—because we are taking this so seriously. Part of our ambitious plan is the Housing Australia Future Fund, a $10 billion fund that will deliver 30,000 desperately needed social and affordable rental homes in the first five years of the fund.

It will also provide the certainty that organisations working on the front line have asked for. There in perpetuity is half a billion dollars each and every year. These groups were in Canberra this week. Indeed, they were there on Monday when the Greens moved a suspension in the Senate to block the Housing Australia Future Fund, and they were supported by the Liberal and National senators.

But there is a cost to this blocking, even though some have been saying there is no cost. Let me be clear: this is from the people who are on the front line. PowerHousing Australia said that the delay until October could mean approvals for 8,000 social and affordable homes would be delayed. Charles Northcote from BlueCHP said his staff had spent the last 18 months preparing 3,000 properties, to start construction as soon as the bill had passed, and 'this may not happen' now. The Master Builders said, 'The opposition and the Greens need to come to the party on this one. We need houses and our industry needs jobs to do.' That was from the Master Builders. The New South Wales Minister for Housing said, 'The work that we are doing, the work that everyone who is interested in actually delivering housing under these processes was doing, is now paused.'

There are very serious costs to blocking this bill in the Senate. Decisions taken by the Greens, the Liberals and the Nationals are having real consequences not only for these organisations on the ground but, importantly, for the people whom they are supporting each and every day. These are people who need homes. Every day of delay past 1 July is $1.3 million that will not be spent on housing. But while they're blocking, we'll get on with building. While they're about delays, we're about delivery. And while they're about protest, we're about practical action that will help people, because we won't forget about the people on the ground.