Nita Green (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a member of the previous opposition, I was very passionate about housing policy in this country. I spoke many times in this chamber about the need to invest in social and affordable housing. That's why, as a member of the Albanese Labor government, I'm so incredibly proud of our policy to deliver the Housing Australia Future Fund to Australians, to make sure that we can have more affordable and social housing and investment in the housing that we really need across the country for vulnerable Australians.

But the one thing standing in the way of us delivering the Housing Australia Future Fund is the Greens political party of this country, which is standing in the way of this sensible, important investment. We've seen the politics of this issue on display this week. We know that those opposite, the Liberal-National opposition, have again dealt themselves out of the negotiations. So we are seeking to get agreement to this legislation, but the Greens political party is standing in the way of investment into housing, including social housing, for everyday Australians.

Let me explain what this legislation does. It is the single biggest investment in affordable and social housing in more than a decade. That is what the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund will do. In addition to the 30,000 social and affordable homes that will be built over the next five years from this fund alone, there is additional funding here for really important things that matter. This is what the Greens are standing in the way of. From this investment we have $200 million for repairs in remote Indigenous communities and Indigenous housing, something that is desperately needed and has been called for by people in those communities for years now. That is the investment that the Greens are standing in the way of. We know that part of this investment includes $100 million for crisis housing for women fleeing domestic violence. I don't know how the Greens have managed to justify standing in the way of $100 million of crisis accommodation funding, but that is what they are saying to the Australian people they don't support. It also includes $30 million for veterans housing. It is incredibly important at this juncture in time, when we do have pressures in our housing system, that we take care of the people that have taken care of us. That $30 million for veterans housing is what the Greens political party are seeking to block when they stand in front of this legislation.

But the thing that really is astounding about the position that has been taken by the member for Griffith in the other place, but also by Greens senators in here, in standing in the way of this legislation is that it is supported by the housing and homelessness sector. The Greens are ignoring the pleas of the very people who are dealing with the housing crisis right now. When this announcement was made, there were people who came out and supported it: Anglicare Australia, Mission Australia, St Vincent de Paul, the Australian Council of Social Service and, of course, the Community Housing Industry Association. They all said, when we announced this policy in opposition, that this was an important step forward that needed to be delivered. But now we have the National Shelter, Homelessness Australia, Community Housing Industry Association and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Housing Association also calling for this bill to be passed by the Senate. They are pleading with the Greens to put down their political weapons, to stop making their memes for social media and to find something else to campaign on because this is too important to stop. We know that, if you want more funding for affordable and social housing, the worst thing you could do is block more funding for social and affordable housing. That's exactly what the member for Griffith is doing in his calls to his Senate colleagues to stop that. The Greens political party is stopping investment in housing.

I don't know what the personal positions of other people in this house are, but I have spoken very personally about the fact that as a young person, having left a domestic violence situation, I was homeless with my mum. I am here to stand up for those people that need housing and don't need homelessness, and the Greens are not. (Time expired)