Dear *|FNAME|*,
There was not a single day at The Alfred where I did not look after a homeless patient. I usually kept these patients in hospital a little longer than necessary just to give them a feed and a bed. Inevitably, they would be moved onto crisis accommodation like boarding houses. It was a never-ending cycle of despair. A cycle that can only be broken with a parliament, not a prescription pad.
Every night, 122, 000 Australians experience homelessness, up by 6,000 from 2016. According to the 2021 census, women accounted for the overwhelming majority at 81%, while 1 in 5 were young people aged 12 to 24 years and 1 in 7 were children 12 years or less. The Albanese Government’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund could have been passed in March to assist women, children, youth, First Peoples and our veterans who have fallen through the cracks. Instead, it has been delayed in the senate by the cross bench in the Senate.
The Housing Australian Future Fund (HAFF) represents the largest Commonwealth investment in social and affordable housing in a decade. Returns from the HAFF will be ploughed into building 30,000 social and affordable homes over the next 5 years and then into perpetuity. The 20,000 social homes represent more social housing than was provided over the past decade from the Commonwealth and sub national governments combined. Key workers such as nurses, teachers and police, will be allocated 10,000 homes, while 4,000 homes will be used by women and children fleeing family violence. In Australia, 7,500 women fleeing family violence are turned away from crisis accommodation every year – it is a key driver of homelessness.
The HAFF, once established, will supply millions for First People’s and veterans. Is the HAFF a gamble on the stock market? Australia’s future funds have returned an average of 9% per year and invest in a range of assets including equity, cash, and tangibles. Why not make it $20 billion or one trillion?
It would be pro-inflationary as alluded to by a director of a housing company who said, “First year apprentices are getting dragged out of the sector to go to the government’s [infrastructure project] Big Build. It’s sucking up resources from our industry (The Age 9 April).” High expectations are good but need to be implementable or will drive up inflation and costs as we come up against hard resourcing constraints.
Arguments that the HAFF will make things worse are baffling. With one of the lowest number of dwellings per capita in the OECD, Australia needs more supply of social and affordable housing. But the HAFF is not all we are doing. The HAFF interlocks with the National Housing Accord (NHA) which aims to build one million homes from 2024. Led by the Treasurer, the NHA brings together industry, institutional investors, states and territory governments with national coordination led by the Albanese Government. We will establish a statutory National Housing Supply and Affordability Council to bring long-term thinking to homelessness – an interim body has already met to start the work on a long-term strategy. Given the acuity of the problem, we released $575 million in the October 2022 budget to start building these homes.
Other initiatives include:
- An allocation of $1.6 billion for 2023-24 to fund housing and homelessness services.
- the Regional Home Buyers Guarantee which was brought forward by 3 months and has already helped over 4,700 households enjoy the merits of regional living.
No one pretends that a problem of this magnitude due to sustained policy failure by the Liberals over the past decade, will be fixed overnight. I encourage you to write to the leader of the Greens Mr. Adam Bandt [email protected] to expedite passage of the HAFF. The suite of measures listed above are a start, and that’s the point. We need to start.
I have given several speeches on housing available here and here.
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Clean Air Forum
I chaired a national first, Clean Air Forum at Parliament House on 30 March 2023. Bringing together experts in air science, public health, the built environment, industry, and the regulators it was the culmination for me, of years of advocacy for better indoor air quality. This was an opportunity to learn more about the gaps and opportunities in the area.
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Electric Vehicle Forum
Our Electric Vehicle Forum was highly successful. We discussed product offerings, subscription models of service, supporting the life cycle of batteries and I provided an overview of our soon-to-be-released National Electric Vehicle Strategy.
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Women in Leadership Forum
Next Thursday, I will be hosting a Women in Leadership Forum at St Catherine's School Toorak featuring leaders across the political spectrum, including:
- Zoe Daniel, Member for Goldstein
- Bridget Archer, Member for Bass
- Jami Klisaris, Mayor of Stonnington
Register your attendance below.
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If you are seeking extra information on the Voice, please read an excellent explainer by Mark Leibler AC here; the Yes Campaign here, and the National Indigenous Australians Agency here.
You can read my other newsletters here.
Follow me on socials to stay up to date on local and national activities.
Sincerely,
Michelle
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