While the Federal budget brought a welcome commitment to funding for electrification and energy performance in social housing (see below), new incentives for market build-to-rent projects and an increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance, these were no compensation for the continued Senate impasse over the government’s housing legislative package.

The $10B investment into the Housing Australia Future Fund together with other commitments from the Federal, State and Territory governments under the National Housing Accord are promised to deliver 50,000 new social and affordable rental homes in around five years from 2024. True, set against the 640,000 low income households in rental stress or homeless identified in analysis of the 2021 census and other data, this total appears to barely scratch the surface. However, after more than a decade of inaction at the Federal level it is a foundation on which to build.

CHIA has urged all sides of politics to negotiate in good faith to secure the bills’ passage. There are opportunities to beef up the legislation and make commitments that provide assurance more will be done to solve the bigger problems.

In our submissions we have argued that the legislation can be strengthened to provide certainty that, if necessary to meet housing investment commitments, HAFF returns will be supplemented from general funds. Index-linking HAFF-yield payments and government underwriting Fund returns would deal with these concerns.

We also need to move away from the stop / start nature of government housing programs. The Housing Minister’s speech moving the Bills’ second reading indicated this was uppermost in her mind too – i.e. ‘the fund will be the end of the housing one-offs from the Australian Government’ and that ‘the Housing Australia Future Fund will be the start of an enduring promise from the Australian government’ and ‘provides an initial credit of $10 billion.’ Clarifying intentions and aspirations may be one way to move the bills forward.

The Government’s institutional reforms and strategic initiatives (including the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council and the National Housing and Homelessness Plan) provide an opportunity to build on the current legislative package. Certainly, the housing sector will take these opportunities to ensure this is only the beginning and not the end of the story.  

We continue to hope the Fund will pass as quickly and as strongly as it can. Australians can’t afford the housing crisis deteriorating further. We must build more social and affordable rental housing immediately.