Ms BYRNES (Cunningham) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Housing. How is the Albanese Labor government helping people dealing with housing stress, what have been the challenges in delivering that help and are there any other approaches that would leave people worse off?
Ms O'NEIL (Hotham—Minister for Housing and Minister for Homelessness) (14:56): I want to thank the member for Cunningham for her question. She's a huge housing advocate, and, of course, we announced a couple of weeks ago that our government is directly funding new affordable homes right in her community in the Illawarra through the Housing Australia Future Fund.
We've had some good economic news recently, but there's no question that many Australians are facing real pressures right now, and housing is a big part of that picture. Whether it's families living in insecure rentals or whether it's that generation of young people who feel that homeownership is slipping out of their reach, we've got a housing crisis in our country which has been cooking for a generation. We know that the long-term fix here is to build, build, build. That's why, after the wasted decade, the Commonwealth is back, leading on housing and investing $32 billion. We're building 55,000 social and affordable homes around the country with our big housing build. That's part of the 1.2 million homes we're working to build with the states. We're training more tradies, we're creating more infrastructure and we're directly investing in homes ourselves, just like the Australian government used to.
In round 1 of the Housing Australia Future Fund, we'll deliver 13,700 new homes for Australians. Just in that round, that's more social and affordable housing than those opposite delivered in their entire nine years in office. And I want you to remember, Speaker, that, for most of that period they were in office, they were so checked out of this problem that they didn't even have a Commonwealth housing minister. Unfortunately, that attitude has continued through the wrecking and blocking that we've seen from the opposition on housing over the last three years. The opposition leader blocked the Housing Australia Future Fund, personally delaying the construction of tens of thousands of social and affordable homes that our country desperately needed. The opposition leader blocked 40,000 aged-care workers and nurses from getting into homeownership, and he'll abolish that program too if he's elected. The opposition opposed build to rent, which will create 80,000 new rental homes. They even opposed our national housing target
Imagine looking at the situation we face today and thinking that the answer is to cut billions out of our housing approach and lower the nation's ambitions? What frustrates me so much about this is that, when the Liberals want to find money for the things that they value, they do it. They'll move heaven and earth for taxpayer funded caviar and steak tartare for the boss, but God help you if you're looking for more Commonwealth investment in housing. On that side of the chamber, they're hungry for subsidised long lunches; on this side, we're hungry for more housing. That's why our government is investing billions in social and affordable homes Australia needs. We want more affordable housing; they want more affordable corporate lunches. It's all about priorities, isn't it?
