Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities. How is the Albanese Labor government delivering new social and affordable homes for Australians in need? Is the minister aware of any obstacles?

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for her question. She represents an absolutely beautiful part of our great country, and it is a part of our nation which has some really specific housing challenges. It's in part because of her really powerful advocacy that we have in Canberra today an Australian government which has the boldest and most ambitious housing agenda that a Commonwealth government has had since the postwar period. This is bringing really meaningful change to the member for Richmond's constituents. About 500 of the people she represents have got the keys to their first home because of the Albanese government's backing. There are 14,000 recipients of Commonwealth rent assistance in her community who are getting almost a 50 per cent increase on that payment because of our government.

We absolutely recognise that housing is a life-defining challenge for many people around our country. We hear it from an entire younger generation, who tell us, in absolutely clear terms, of the anger that they feel that they experience completely different housing opportunities than their parents and grandparents had. We hear it from parents, too. They talk to us about the deep worry they have that the younger people in their lives are not going to have the same financial future and security that they had. And, of course, we see it in all of our communities with that rising homeless population that is so distressing.

Our government has a $43 billion agenda which is targeted at addressing some of these issues. Under this Prime Minister and this government, we're building more homes, getting renters a better deal and getting more Australians into homeownership. A really important part of the work we're doing is our efforts to build 55,000 desperately needed social and affordable homes right around our country. In our government, we are all about delivery, delivery, delivery. I want to let the parliament know that, of those 50,000 new social and affordable homes, we've ticked off over 5,000 of those homes as already complete, many with tenants already in them, and we've got 25,000 of these homes in planning or construction today. I really want the parliament to understand the scale of what we are undertaking here. Remember, our government is delivering 55,000 social and affordable homes in five years. The coalition, in nine long years, delivered 373 homes for the country. What an absolute disgrace.

We are getting it done. In the member for Hasluck's electorate, there are 537 new social and affordable homes; in the member for Fraser's electorate, 795 new homes; in Jagajaga, 711 new homes; and, in Adelaide, 680 new homes. Do you know how many new homes the coalition delivered in all these electorates together? Absolutely zero. It is no wonder we have so many housing challenges, and we are getting on with the job of addressing the housing concerns that Australians so clearly have.

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

I say to the member for Flynn: see if you can get in one of the first 24 questions tomorrow, and we'll give you a crack. On that note, I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper.