Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

PM, could you confirm that house prices in Brisbane and Sydney exceed $800,000? Since only a million people live outside the 70 kilometres of the East Coast, Perth and Victoria—who'd miss Victoria!—if migration is halved, if your housing authority buys or designates 14,000 one-hectare housing blocks out at Charters Towers, Ingham, Mareeba and Atherton, and if the authority overrides what the Reserve Bank describes as insurmountable building, planning and zoning impositions, won't we get house and land packages in paradise for under $280,000?

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

I thank the member for Kennedy for his question. I thank him for his ongoing interest in delivering more homes for people who live in regional Queensland. I note he will be cheering for Queensland tonight, and I note also that this is one of the three nights of the year where the member for Kennedy and I might have some differences there! I also thank the member for his support of the Housing Australia Future Fund. He's quite right. One of the things we need to have a look at is decentralisation in this country. There is enormous potential for growth in places like the paradise that the member for Kennedy has shown me around over the years, whether it's Kurri, Mount Isa—which I'll visit with the member for Kennedy in a couple of months time—Julia Creek or the other wonderful parts of the member for Kennedy's electorate.

I know that the member understands that, if we look at affordability, part of what we have to do is look at decentralisation and growth in regional Australia—where people are wanted, where there are jobs available, where people can live with an extraordinary quality of life in those local communities that do have that real sense of community that comes with a smaller regional town. This is why I'm happy to work with the member for Kennedy in ensuring that, when we look at where in Queensland the investment of the increased social housing funding will go, a portion of that goes to regional Queensland, including the member for Kennedy's electorate.

It is why we announced the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator to deliver thousands of homes on Saturday. It's why we made $575 million available for social and affordable rental homes by widening the remit of the NHFIC as one of our first acts when we came into government. It's why we're building, through the National Housing Accord, a shared ambition to build one million homes. It's why we are delivering increased support in build-to-rent accommodation through the budget measures that the Treasurer announced on budget night, which are anticipated to build something like between 150,000 and 200,000 additional homes. The fact is that the member points towards what needs to be a part of the strategy—to take pressure off our big major cities, particularly along the East Coast, but also to have growth in parts of regional Australia that are going to be a part of powering us into the future, particularly in the member's electorate. (Time expired)