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

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes the Government's announcement of a new $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator to deliver thousands of new social rental homes across Australia;

(2) acknowledges the Government's commitment to an ambitious housing agenda which will boost the supply of all housing, with more social housing, more affordable housing, more homes to rent and more homes to buy, and includes:

(a) establishing the Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee three months early, helping regional Australians purchase a home with as little as a five per cent deposit and avoiding paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance;

(b) widening the remit of the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, making up to $575 million available to invest immediately in social and affordable rental homes, with projects already under construction as a result of this funding;

(c) working with the states and territories through the National Housing Accord and National Cabinet to support planning and zoning reforms to contribute to the aspiration of building one million new homes over five years from 2024, as well as investing $350 million in additional federal funding to deliver 10,000 affordable rental homes over five years from 2024 as part of the accord—matched by the states and territories;

(d) further establishing the interim National Housing Supply and Affordability Council to provide expert advice to Government on housing supply and affordability;

(e) delivering the largest increase to Commonwealth Rent Assistance in more than 30 years, with a 15 per cent increase in the maximum rates;

(f) increasing the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation's liability cap by $2 billion to provide lower cost and longer-term finance to community housing providers through the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator;

(g) providing tax incentives to encourage more build-to-rent developments to boost new supply in the private rental market;

(h) further providing an additional $67.5 million of funding to the states and territories to help tackle homelessness challenges as part of a one-year extension to the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement which provides $1.7 billion a year to the states and territories for housing and homelessness services; and

(i) expanding eligibility for the Home Guarantee Scheme, which helps people purchase a home sooner by reducing the deposit they need to save; and

(3) condemns the Opposition and the Australian Greens for blocking the Housing Australia Future Fund, and notes that every day of delay is $1.3 million not being spent on social and affordable housing for Australians who need it today.

Renters are doing it tough. Unit rents in Victoria alone have gone up 22 per cent in the last year. The median rent now in Victoria is sitting at $500 a week. Tough decisions are being made by renters and other people around the country, around the essentials of life—decisions around food, around fuel, around clothing and around skills acquisition.

But there is a group that is actually doing it tougher than renters, and that is homeless Australians—the invisible homeless Australians. I was a frontline doctor for 26 years, and every single day my ward rounds would start in the emergency department. Why? Because I would be seeing homeless Australians every single day. They came from all walks of life. Initially, they were older men; then I started seeing older women; then it became young men and, finally, young women. I recall vividly a young woman in her 20s who had addiction problems and was also a sex worker, who was homeless and came into hospital with an infection in her foot. She left after 24 hours, for lots of reasons. These people without a roof over their head lead chaotic lives. I always kept a box of antibiotics by the bedside in anticipation that these patients would leave hospital, because I knew they would likely abscond. She left and went out into the unknown. I couldn't fix this problem as a doctor, but I'm now a parliamentarian and I certainly am committed to doing something about it.

We have, in Australia, an acute imbalance between supply and demand, and there is one cure that will fix both the rental crisis and the homelessness crisis, and that is: increasing supply. This is basically economics 101. We know that new dwellings in Australia peaked in 2016-17 but have been falling ever since.

We also know that this housing crisis did not happen overnight. It has been years in the making under successive Liberal governments, with whom we had a decade and who basically kicked the can down the road. They sounded good, but they didn't actually do any good when they were in office. So we now have a problem which is of a magnitude that requires multifaceted solutions that involve all three tiers of government, because, as we speak, there are at least 230,000 households who are on social and affordable housing waiting lists.

The problems with respect to social housing were brought home in a recent roundtable I hosted in my electorate with the Minister for Housing, Julie Collins, and stakeholders. These are some of the things they said: 'We need to be working in partnership with others. This is not about blaming people; this is about working together. You cannot address poverty without addressing the lack of affordable housing.'

We agree, and this is why we have an absolutely massive housing agenda. We have already committed $9.5 billion in the last financial year to social and affordable housing—the highest in Commonwealth history. That includes $2 billion, passed just a few weeks ago, to the states, in our Social Housing Accelerator. Victoria alone got $496.5 million and the minister is waiting now on site so that she can sign off on this and we can start to build those homes. We boosted the build-to-rent sector, which the Property Council estimates will contribute another 150,000 to 250,000 homes over the next decade. The Treasurer is leading the National Housing Accord, which aims to build a billion—I mean a million—homes from 2024. I wish it was a billion! We've expanded the Home Guarantee Scheme with another 50,000 extra spots. We've provided a $1.7 billion extension to the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement with the states.

In the last budget, as you know, we increased Commonwealth rent assistance by 15 per cent. This is designed to aid those patients that I looked after every single day. But we also have a piece of legislation, the Housing Australia Future Fund, which should not be contentious by any stretch but has become a fault line in this parliament. I have no idea why, but I suspect it has something to do with the piety of the Greens and the inaction of the Liberal Party, who had a decade in government and now have the temerity to write to our housing minister demanding that she does something about social housing while basically blocking this bill in the upper house. It makes no sense to me. We know that in Tasmania they are experiencing the highest acuity problems with respect to social housing, which is why we have negotiated in good faith with the crossbench and won the support of David Pocock, Tammy Tyrrell and Jacqui Lambie for this bill. It should be passed. It is unconscionable not to do so. (Time expired)

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

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

This is a laughable motion from the government—absolutely laughable. You would be laughing if it wasn't so serious. If you call it an agenda, which I think is a very kind description, the Labor housing agenda is an absolute tatters. It is in tatters. The member opposite spoke about waiting lists in Victoria. Who's been in government in Victoria for nearly 10 years, with the primary jurisdiction of responsibility over housing? Have the courage to criticise the Labor government. Have some courage. Criticise the Andrews government. Amongst their litany of disasters, housing is another. What we haven't seen under this government is any cohesive plan for housing—any at all.

Listening to the member opposite you'd think that it's all going swimmingly and that this huge agenda is seeing a blossoming industry of new housing, new first home buyers and reduced rents. It's exactly the opposite. What we've seen since this government has been in office is first home buyers down, new home starts down and rents up. We saw the comical million homes announced in the budget in October. You're already going to miss the target. I would suggest that you say to your whip, 'Take that out of the Labor talking points,' because the million-home target is already in absolute tatters. It's gone. Forget it. You will not meet that—not even lofty—target. We built a million homes over the previous five years. They can't even meet the business-as-usual of recent history, of a million new homes over five years.

Then the member opposite talks about fault lines and the Housing Australia Future Fund, which really is a Ponzi scheme—a money-go-round, confected arrangement to try and ensure that the spending is not on budget. What we have here is a situation where, had this fund been set up last year, we would have borrowed $10 billion, paid about $400 million in interest on that borrowing and put it with the future fund, and then it would have lost money in its capital. It would have lost more than $100 million of capital—not $1 for social and affordable housing. If you're fair dinkum you have to put the money in.

We see, belatedly, the Greens forcing the Labor Party to put an extra two billion dollars in, but what is very concerning about that extra two billion dollars in the accelerator is that the Labor government can't point to one single project or new home that will be built. I would never be a cynic, but—for the cynics in the room—we have great concerns that that money will just be subsumed into business-as-usual housing budgets within the states. Quite frankly, we've seen it before. Unless the government can point to specific projects, specific new dwellings that are being built, then basically it's a blank cheque for a state government, and God knows if anything will happen.

The Labor Party has to have a moment of reckoning. Are they going to be honest and upfront and basically outline the great limitations that they see in housing—that they can't really move the dial—or are they going to keep making these ridiculous claims of a million new homes over five years as if that's some ambitious target, when we built a million over the previous five years? It's just business as usual, and they're not even going to meet that target.

Finally, they should stump up and be honest when members opposite start talking about the Housing Australia Future Fund—the $10 billion fund, which is how they always start it, that may or may not spit out $1 for social and affordable housing. That's the truth. Each and every year, it may or may not send $1 to social and affordable housing. That's the reality of it. It was confected for one reason only. If it is an absolute raging success and everything I say is wrong and it does deliver its paltry 6,000 dwellings a year for five years, how on earth is that going to assist with the 1½ million people you're bringing into the country? Even if I'm wrong and you are going to build 30,000 new homes—well done!

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

That's right; blame it on migrants.

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

Will those 1½ million people live in those 30,000 homes? Have some honesty. Explain to your electorate where those people will live and, importantly, what the impact will be on Australians who will be finding it harder to have a roof over their heads thanks to Labor. (Time expired)

Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise today to speak to the motion that's been moved by the member for Higgins. I would like to commend the member for Higgins for so eloquently outlining our government's ambitious housing agenda, which will boost supply of all housing, with more social housing, more affordable housing, more homes to rent and more homes to buy. I think it would be of benefit to the chamber, particularly to those on the crossbench and to those in the other place, to hear what my community has been saying to me. Like many other members, I have had many meetings and discussions with housing and community organisations during the winter recess. There is a very clear and consistent message: people are doing it tough, and we need social and affordable housing. We have had 10 years of neglect, and here in New South Wales we finally have state and federal Labor governments who are keen to tackle this problem.

The level of engagement I have had with housing, business, community and social service organisations on this issue reflects the scale and the urgency of the problem we face, particularly in the Illawarra. Business Illawarra recently released their advocacy report Solutions to the affordable housing crisis in the Illawarra Shoalhaven. It was compiled by planning experts Judith Stubbs and Associates, in partnership with key regional experts. The report predicts:

… approximately 11,645 additional dwellings may be needed by 2041 … To maintain the existing regional average of 5.8% 3,925 dwellings would need to be social housing.

That's from Judith Stubbs and Associates 2023.

In June the Wollongong Homeless Hub reported that homelessness in the Illawarra has reached critical levels, with a 75 per cent increase in the number of people who sought help in the month of May. I have recently become a collection centre for nonperishable goods for donation to assist the homeless hub. The CEO of the homeless hub told ABC Illawarra on 22 June:

Every delay means that there's thousands of people without a home, so for every week that we go without any new legislation passed, then it means people are currently sleeping on the streets that don't need to be.

This is not a lone voice; it is part of a very loud chorus, including Narelle Clay AM, who is CEO of Southern Youth and Family Services. I spoke with Narelle recently at the opening of a new $10.5 million 20-unit social housing project in Warilla by Minister Tanya Plibersek. Completed by Southern Youth and Family Services, it is jointly funded by both the state and federal governments. Narelle asked me to convey the following message to the House:

There is a dire need for social housing everywhere—everyone knows this.

Southern Youth and Family Services just opened 20 new units in Warilla and already there are more applications than units—there is no problem filling them.

We could fill 200 more right now.

This was funded half by the Commonwealth and half by the State and we are so appreciative of this grant funding.

This is a way to support small and medium sized community housing providers to build capacity and contribute to solving this problem.

Housing is essential—it is a human right—not a way to make a profit and so we need our Government to do more.

The Federal Government has recently provided $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator extra funding to the states and this is well received and will make a difference.

But we need the funding for the Housing Australia Future Fund—it saddens me to know this is real funding and could be already out there assisting our communities and yet it is held up in the Senate.

No one in need of housing would agree with this delay. It's shameful and ludicrous.

Those were Narelle Clay's words. She also said:

I don't disagree with the sentiment that we need more than the Housing Australia Future Fund offers but we must start somewhere. We cannot have this stall while "politics is played". Get the funding out, let it start helping, and then let's get more.

We need many years of concerted capital and funding initiatives to address the homelessness and social and affordable housing crisis—let's get on with it.

The longer we delay the further we will see the consequences. Supported Accommodation and Homelessness Services Shoalhaven Illawarra, SAHSSI, have seen their waitlist again grow exponentially, with 131 women needing domestic violence support in Wollongong and 89 women, with and without children, needing a crisis bed. They have told me that it's not uncommon for women and their children to wait up to five weeks for a crisis bed. In this time they are either couch surfing, staying with family and friends, or, in desperation, returning to the perpetrator. (Time expired)

Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Higgins for bringing this debate to the House. When people think of Goldstein they think of wealthy bayside suburbs, but homelessness, like violence against women, is not determined by postcode. I hear currently that there are women sleeping in their cars in the car parks of Bayside, alongside major parkland in the electorate and in the car parks of our supermarkets. Research shows that most older women who are homeless had never been homeless before. As a social worker Jennifer McVeigh, who works in the homelessness sector in Melbourne, says:

They are not the rough sleepers seen sleeping on the streets but are the invisible homeless who are couch surfing or sleeping in cars.

Just last week I spoke to one such woman who was sitting on the cement outside Woolworths in Hampton. She told me she has been couch surfing for a year.

Property market analyst PropTrack reported that, in February 2023, only 17 per cent of all rentals listed on realestate.com.au across Australia were for properties priced at $400 or less per week. Three years ago, 43 per cent of properties were listed for this price. The standard calculation for rental affordability is 30 per cent of income. Anglicare took a snapshot of 45,985 national listings on realestate.com.au over the weekend of 17 March 2023 and found that only 162 of the properties were affordable for a single person on the age pension, that a single person on the minimum wage could afford only 345 of these properties and that a person on JobSeeker could afford only four of these properties. In Australia there are currently more than 172,000 women over the age of 50 on JobSeeker. None of them could afford private rental—I repeat: none of them could afford private rental.

The Victorian government is considering new rent controls, but the Real Estate Institute of Victoria says that this would lead to a loss of rental properties. These approaches need to be carefully calibrated in order not to create a new problem. Meanwhile, the number of people on the social housing waitlist in Victoria has increased from 35,392 in 2017 to 54,945 today. However, there's a growing cohort of older women who don't meet the eligibility criteria for social housing because they do have some money in savings.

The government's new $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator, which aims to create thousands of homes for people on social housing waiting lists, is welcomed, as is the intent of the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which aims to build 30,000 new social and affordable rental homes over the next five years, with 4,000 reserved for women and children escaping domestic violence. I agree with the Greens that this is grossly inadequate and that there are aspects of the bill that need improvement, but community housing providers tell me that thousands of projects are being held up because the bill is stalled. The solution is to dramatically increase the supply of social housing and have better collaboration between all levels of government.

In one such example, the federal government, through NHFIC, the Victorian government and the community housing not-for-profit HousingFirst, have delivered the $76 million Halcyon village, building 152 affordable homes for people aged over 55 in Brighton East in my electorate. I was grateful last week to be invited by Diane to visit her picture-perfect apartment. HousingFirst also works with Bridge It, an organisation working in Goldstein and elsewhere to support people into refurbished accommodation in currently empty buildings, in an approach being driven by the goal of housing all Australian. Governments and agencies can work together to fix the problem if we park the politics.

I would encourage the government and the Greens to show that leadership and find a reason to compromise to allow the HAFF to proceed. The HAFF is far from perfect, as I made clear in my speech in the second reading debate and in subsequent correspondence and conversations with the housing minister, especially in relation to accountability and the adequacy of its capital base. But, the longer the Greens and the government keep shouting at each other, the longer thousands of people, many of them women, will have to keep couch surfing or sleeping in cars.

With that in mind, I am today calling for an increase in Commonwealth rent assistance by 40 per cent to provide real and immediate support to around one million households. This was recommended by the Henry review and is supported by the Grattan Institute. We must also address the drivers of homelessness for older women, the gender inequality and discrimination that make them vulnerable in the first place. We must apply a gender lens to housing and housing solutions.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Since coming into this place last year, and in my time as a councillor and mayor, I have risen countless times to discuss one of the most critical and pressing issues facing us in Australia, particularly in my electorate of Bennelong, and that is housing. Secure and affordable housing is a fundamental right that underpins the security and dignity of every individual and family in this country, and I know from my experience that the best way to address this crisis is for all levels of government to contribute.

For the first time in a decade, I'm so proud to be part of a federal government that cares about and is committed to delivering housing across the nation. A decade of inaction under the former Liberal-National government has left us grappling with significant housing challenges nationwide. The consequences of this inaction have been felt by many, and we cannot afford to have this inertia continue any longer. Our government came to parliament with a mandate to reform Australian housing delivery and with an ambitious housing agenda that will boost the supply of housing across the affordability spectrum. But, week after week, we go on without this crucial agenda being implemented because it is being blocked by the Liberals and the Greens political party, who have chosen to block more homes being built. This obstruction is detrimental to the constituencies they claim to represent and directly impacts the lives of countless Australians who are in dire need of stable housing today.

Our government has not only invested significant sums of money directly into housing but also put up long-term reform and innovative solutions for how we can increase the supply of homes across the country, working with every level of government and institutional investors to do so, because supply is what matters here. More homes equals fewer social housing waiting lists, more homes equals less pressure on rents, and more homes equals more options for people to buy.

However, the progress of our broader attempts to lessen the impacts of this crisis is all at risk due to the obstructions caused by the Liberals and the Greens political party. The delays caused by their opposition to our Housing Australia Future Fund mean that every day $1.3 million that could have been utilised to increase supply is not being spent. Numerous projects that could have provided housing solutions for vulnerable Australians have been indefinitely postponed due to the lack of this style of funding from the Housing Australia Future Fund. The community housing sector themselves say that between 8,000 and 12,000 properties are not under construction today because the fund was blocked in the Senate by the Liberals and Greens. Families and individuals who desperately need stable homes are now left in limbo, uncertain of their future, all while political parties go out and doorknock, telling people that the government isn't doing anything about this crisis. Can you believe it?

We need to recognise that the housing crisis is a multifaceted issue that requires comprehensive and bipartisan efforts. Our direct investment policies such as the social housing accelerator are but one set of solutions to this problem. Their effectiveness, of course, is hampered without the support and the establishment of the Housing Australia Future Fund.

We know that when there is bipartisanship and all levels of government work together, that delivers tangible results for the community. Just minutes away from my electorate of Bennelong, in Carlingford, a partnership between the Commonwealth, the New South Wales government and community housing provider BaptistCare has delivered 162 new social and affordable homes in Carlingford for hundreds of people in need. Ninety-seven social housing applicants will now be moved off the waiting list and into secure accommodation because we have these levels of government working together. These are the types of projects that the HAFF will fund. In Bennelong, over 2,000 applicants on the New South Wales housing register are waiting to be allocated housing. For a studio apartment there's a five- to 10-year wait. For any housing over two bedrooms, the wait is longer than 10 years. Projects like those in Carlingford are sitting idle because the Greens and the Liberals have decided to play politics. Their blocking undermines our collective effort when the nation elected us to address homelessness and create stability for those struggling to pay rent or find a place to call home. Their blocking of more housing makes an absolute mockery of their self-proclaimed title that they are the party for renters. It's like giving yourself a nickname: it's lame and it doesn't work.

Get out of the way. Support this bill. Let's get more houses out of the ground.

Pat Conaghan (Cowper, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Social Services) | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for bringing this motion on. I think that everybody in this House genuinely wants to see more homes built and ensure that Australian people have a roof over their head. Whilst I do commend the member, we can't agree on the policies. And we have seen in my electorate alone housing go up by up to 60 per cent over the past 18 months to two years, and the influx of people from metropolitan areas into coastal areas—I mean, you can't them; it's beautiful. But it's caused homelessness to an extent that we haven't seen before. It is very sad when you see mums and dads with their kids in car parks, sleeping in their cars.

I've referred to the policy, and the first issue is the accelerator fund—$2 billion—which didn't form part of this budget, didn't form part of last budget and will be given to the states and territories effectively untethered. I've been listening to the speeches here today and in the past, and nobody seems to be mentioning that, over the past five years, states and territories have sold off over 30,000 social and affordable properties and haven't replaced what they've sold. They've only replaced 10 per cent of those 30,000 homes. Now, if we're about to give $2 billion of taxpayers' money to the states and territories, there must be some accountability. There must be a tether between that fund and seeing affordable homes built. Otherwise, we are going to see exactly what we've seen in the past: that those funds will be used for other things apart from social and affordable housing, and we'll continue to see properties sold off. That's the first issue with the accelerator fund. We do need to start calling out those states and territories for their failure to provide that housing for our most vulnerable.

Then there's the HAFF, the Housing Australia Future Fund. This is $10 billion of borrowed money. This is what people don't understand. This isn't money that's coming out of the back pocket of the government of the day—money that we have in our coffers. This is borrowed money. We've heard the statistics, and it's economics 101. In the first year it will cost $400 million to set up the fund, without building one home, because the government is investing in equities. That's as much information as we have—in equities. Now, I'm no economist, but, sometimes, equities don't pay. If we invest this $10 billion of taxpayers' money—or borrowed money, which the taxpayer will then have to pay off; and we have no guarantee that these equities will pay—then there is a real risk that, year after year, there will be a deficit in the HAFF, a deficit in the $10 billion and not one home will be built. That is the problem with this policy.

Then we need to look at the 1.5 million people that this government intends to bring in over the next five years, while intending, through the HAFF, to only build 6,000 homes. Where are these people going to go? We don't have enough homes for our own citizens right now. Therefore, you have two failed Labor policies that will not see one home built in the foreseeable future. Labor has the audacity to criticise the coalition and the Greens—I don't often say that—when the policies prove to be inadequate, and that's what the problem is with these policies.

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.