Social housing
Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (09:56): Housing is clearly an issue of concern to many in this Parliament, and rightly so. A place to call home is a right that everyone should enjoy – too many do not. We have got to find ways to solve the housing crisis. Yesterday the Reserve Bank governor gave us three policy solutions – he suggested supply, supply, supply. So if you are serious about fixing the housing crisis, you have got to back more supply, which is why I am finding it a bit difficult to grapple with the grandstanding from our colleagues in the Greens, both inside and outside this place. If you want to fix the housing crisis you have got to back housing supply. Instead, in here and out there, they are campaigning against new social housing developments. Here in Melbourne and up in Brisbane the story is the same, and in Canberra they continue to block the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, a social housing endowment fund that will build homes for decades.
Whilst they campaign against social housing, we are building social housing – 12,000 new homes as part of the Big Housing Build. In my electorate in New Street, Brighton, there are 299 new homes being built. I visited the Markham estate in Ashburton a couple of weeks ago with the Minister for Housing, where we are replacing 56 outdated walk-ups with 178 brand new homes. If you want to fix the housing crisis, you have got to build more homes.