Affordable housing legislation to come before parliament in next few months: Collins

The first homes for essential workers and vulnerable Australians financed by Labor’s new housing fund will not have foundations dug and frames up until the end of next year.

Housing and Homelessness Minister Julie Collins said legislation for the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund was nearly complete and would be brought before parliament in the next few months.

Minister for Housing and Homelessness Julie Collins.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Collins expects the legislation to pass parliament early next year and wants to see concrete slabs poured as soon as the fund starts providing returns, hopefully in the second half of 2023.

“If the returns come through in the second half of next year, I want to see that happening as quickly as we possibly can,” she said.

The fund would be designed to provide investment returns that would be used to fund social and affordable housing across the country, Collins said.

Those returns are expected to fund 30,000 homes in the first five years, including homes for families fleeing domestic violence and for essential frontline workers including nurses, police and cleaners.

Collins said states and territories, and social housing providers thought the timing was good for the construction industry – which has been under pressure from booming demand and a shortage of supplies and workers.

“We’re pretty confident that once the funds are up and running, there’ll be no shortage of projects,” Collins said.

Greens housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather said Labor’s plan was barely a drop in the ocean, noting modelling had shown the need for social and affordable housing increased by about 14,000 homes a year.

“It’s not even a question of not being good enough, it will literally see the situation get worse,” he said.

The Greens, who want to see 275,000 social and affordable homes built in five years, are willing to negotiate to see the legislation passed. Chandler-Mather said he wanted a commitment to fund more homes, and the government should begin work right now to build them.

“We need to at least build enough public housing to make sure that we start making a dent in the need,” he said.

Coalition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar said Labor’s $10 billion off-budget commitment had no detailed costing or implementation plan.

“The government has not outlined how it will deliver on its Housing Australia Future Fund promise of 30,000 social and affordable homes over five years,” he said.

“This promise requires the delivery of 6000 homes in the first year of the fund and the creation of thousands of jobs which we are yet to see any sign of.”

Collins said the federal contribution was in addition to the efforts of social housing providers and state governments, and the point of the fund was to provide money for housing over the long term.

“The Housing Australia Future Fund is really a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have a future fund sitting there … to invest in perpetuity in social and affordable housing across the country,” she said.

While the fund was being set up, Collins said up to $575 million from the housing infrastructure facility would be made available by the end of the year or early next year to be used for similar social and affordable housing and also attract greater superannuation investment in the sector.

Collins said she was confident the legislation would pass.

“I can’t think of one single member of parliament that would stand in the way of more federal government investment in social and affordable housing, given the situation in which the country finds itself with housing affordability,” she said.

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