Mary Doyle (Aston, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Treasurer. How is the Albanese Labor government getting on with the job of building the homes our people and our economy need, and what is blocking further progress?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Another excellent question from the member for Aston, which gives me the opportunity to add to the answer that the housing minister gave a moment ago, as well. A defining feature of this PM and his government is to try and bring people together to address the big challenges in our economy and in our society, which have been neglected for too long. That's not because we expect some kind of unanimity around issues but because we want to draw on the best pragmatic, problem-solving and collaborative instincts of the Australian people to try and create more opportunities in more communities. That's the approach that guided the $2 billion social housing accelerator, which we announced on the weekend, which will build thousands of new homes for the people who need them the most. It's the same approach that I'll be taking to a meeting with state and territory treasurers on Friday to advance the Housing Accord, which brings together governments, investors and industry.

This is a really important part of our broad, ambitious housing agenda, but it's not the only part of it. As the housing minister said a moment ago, we are investing $9.5 billion in housing in this year alone, our first year in office. In just two budgets we've made room for an extra $6.9 billion to fund more social and affordable housing and the biggest increase in Commonwealth rent assistance in three decades. Not since the member for Sydney was the housing minister have we seen this kind of investment in housing. In her case, it was about $6 billion, including 21,600 new homes for social housing. I pay tribute to her for that.

Those investments then and these investments now show how serious we are about working with the sector and working with the states to build more homes for the people who need them in our communities, unlike the Liberals and the Nationals, who always say no to more social housing, and unlike the Greens, who said, 'Yes, but no.' They say they believe in social housing; they're just not prepared to vote for it when it really matters. They say they want more social housing, and they go into the Senate and vote against more social housing.

This government and our budgets aren't just defined by our Labor values. They're defined by Australian values: working together to get things done for each other, putting pragmatism and problem-solving ahead of posturing and product differentiation—not just issuing pithy press releases but running this country and our economy in the interests of the people and communities who sent us here to work for them. What the Liberals and Nationals and the Greens have shown in the last week in the Senate, in particular, is that they have no idea what that means and no idea why that matters.