Today in a Budget Estimates hearing, Abigail pressed the Minister for Homelessness and Housing about Labor's lacklustre housing policy, revealing that Labor's plans to build new social housing will only build 5 per cent of what is required to provide homes for the 50,000 people on the social housing waiting list... Read the exchange below.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: I'm going to depart from tradition and ask you in budget estimates about expenditure in the budget.
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: I'm ready.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: Brace yourself. So the $5.1 billion that was announced in relation to social homes—I understand that was 8,400 social homes made up of 6,200 new, and 2,200 replacements over four years. In the infrastructure statement it indicates that $1 billion has been put aside for this year for approximately 1,025 genuinely new social homes. Is that correct?
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: Yes. I was following along with your numbers there but, yes, I think that it is.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: Does that $1 billion a year include the Federal amount that came through the HAFF negotiations that The Greens secured, that $3 billion that then got distributed?
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: No. The Commonwealth delivered $2 billion as part of the Social Housing Accelerator. That is not HAFF money; that is called the Social Housing Accelerator. That is $2 billion, and $600 million for New South Wales. No, that money is not part of the budgetary amounts that you have
described. The HAFF is a different source of money—
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: That $1 billion?
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: Well, $10 billion in the future fund, the dividends will be divided amongst the States. We've put in bids for round one, and we await news from the Commonwealth as to whether we will be successful. So obviously that is not included, because we actually don't know what we will be receiving.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: Where has that money gone then from the social accelerator?
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: That is listed separately in the budget as Social Housing Accelerator. You can see it separately accounted for.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: So that is in addition?
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: That's right. That was $600 million.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: How many new homes will that add to the 1,025?
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: We are delivering 1,500 homes as part of the accelerator. That is a combination of grants from community housing providers, homes that we are directly delivering and vacant restorations.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: Sorry, 1,500 over how long?
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: July 2028, Ms Boyd.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: So we are looking at about 1,500 social homes each year?
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: We are hopeful to receive money from the Commonwealth under the HAFF. But, yes, obviously that is not secured at this point.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: Given that we have a current waitlist of 50,000 families waiting for homes, that then comes to about 5 per cent of the new houses required just to clear the backlog. Is that correct?
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: Yes and, just to be clear, unfortunately we currently have 56,000 families waiting for homes. There isn't a suggestion from me, Ms Boyd, that the contributions that we have made are going to clear the waiting list. The effort that I am making is to make a significant dent in the priority waiting list. Over the period of the delivery of the accelerator, the Building Homes for NSW program and the HAF, that figure— we are really running headlong towards reducing it.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: Okay, but how much? We're still looking at only 5 per cent of the new houses required—a bit under, because you've said there are actually more on the waitlist. NCOSS is calling for 5,000 a year. I understand that you've inherited a lot of this. But if we're just looking at supply and not addressing the multiple other levers that we could be pulling, we are really behind. What are we going to do to increase that amount by a factor of 20? It seems impossible.
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: As I've indicated, yes, we are behind. This is a historic investment. Is it going to clear the social housing waiting list? No. What are we going to do about that? We'll ensure that this delivery pipeline is done on time and on budget, and makes the kind of contribution that I hope it makes, in particular to the priority waiting list. My view is that this work will demonstrate how valuable these investments are and the impact that the government housing delivery program can have on overall supply, and that this will create the conditions for further investment.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: But given that this is comparatively small, and we have—
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: It's comparatively large.
Ms ABIGAIL BOYD: Sure, it's all relative, but it's not going to happen for some time. There are levers we could be pulling right now that would release new homes. For example, empty homes levies, meanwhile use— there's a whole bunch of other things. What is your Government doing to implement other things that would have a much quicker impact?
The Hon. ROSE JACKSON: I'll just mention two briefly for you, Ms Boyd. One is meanwhile use. You are right to identify that as a big opportunity. We have a program to unlock our homes that are vacant, on the path to redevelopment that you have described, for meanwhile use. We've already delivered one of those at a property in Glebe, and there are others on the way. So, yes, we are doing everything we can to make our homes available for meanwhile use, as well as exploring opportunities in the planning system for others. The other thing that we are doing is our work on modern methods of construction, which is a way that we can deliver homes— not necessarily permanent social homes, although potentially permanent social homes—much more quickly. That is part of our new supply pipeline. The AHO, in particular, has done an excellent job of turning around new homes for Aboriginal people very quickly. Those are just a couple of examples of what we are doing in the short term to address the challenge.
Read the full hearing transcript here.
9 September 2024