Emma Comer (Petrie, 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 supporting women that are facing homelessness and providing access to safe and secure housing? What risks are there to accessing homes?

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

I thank the member for Petrie for her question. We had an absolutely incredible visit to her community last week, where we sat down with three Australian women whose lives have been changed forever by our government's investments in giving them safe and affordable housing. It was an extraordinary conversation, Speaker, and I can promise you that there will be many more such women to come.

We've got a housing challenge affecting our country that falls unfairly on Australian women. Australian women are less likely to own their own home. They are much more likely to be in need of crisis and social housing, and we are striving to meet that need. Our government is delivering a record $1.2 billion of investment in crisis housing. Most of this housing is going to be utilised by women and children who are fleeing family violence. That $1.2 billion is 20 times the amount that those opposite spent in their entire nine years when they were sitting on the treasury benches.

We've invested in a 50 per cent increase in Commonwealth rent assistance. That's supporting 350,000 Australian households that are headed by older women. We're building 55,000 social and affordable homes and expanding pathways to homeownership. Last week I received an incredible email from a single mum from Brisbane who had just received the keys to her first home that was bought through our Help to Buy program. She said: 'It's hard to put into words what that moment meant to me and my little family. As a single mum who started out four years ago, this represents stability, security and the chance to build a future from a place that is truly ours.' Our Labor government is so proud to have supported this family into their own home.

I'm asked about risk for women in housing, and the truth is that I am looking straight at them. If the chaotic coalition had won the last election, not only would they have scrapped most of our home-building programs but they would have scrapped our homeownership programs too. If they had their way, that single mum who we have helped into her own home would still be renting.

The absolute truth of the matter is that those opposite have absolutely no idea of the experiences of what is going on for Australian women. They'd have no idea about what's going on for Australian women because just look at what sits on the frontbench over here—15 people who are leading this party in the lower house, and two of them are Australian women. This is like a blast from the past. It looks less like a shadow cabinet and more like a historical re-enactment. In modern-day Australia, this is a national embarrassment, and I invite you to look behind me, where a diverse, unified group of people is standing up, representing our country properly and delivering for Australian women.