00:00This fund was the centre of a bit of a political fight about 12 months ago here in Parliament
00:07House, but the government says now that it's in place it is delivering new homes, saying
00:11it's actually delivering them faster than expected.
00:14Under the first round of the Housing Australia Future Fund, it's going to fund about 14,000
00:19homes around the country.
00:20We should have a breakdown of the numbers to give you.
00:23About 13,700 in total, roughly 4,000 will be social housing, where rent is set at a
00:29level for people on low incomes, and about 9,500 are affordable homes, where rent is
00:34capped at three quarters of the market rent.
00:38Now, the way this scheme works, $10 billion has been invested.
00:42The government uses the earnings on that investment to fund these new social and affordable homes.
00:49This was, of course, at the centre of a bit of a political brawl a year or so ago.
00:53The Greens negotiated some changes, including a floor of about half a billion dollars that
00:58needs to be spent every year, which might perhaps lead, interestingly, into this week
01:03in Parliament, where the government's pushing a very different set of legislation, its new
01:07shared equity scheme.
01:08This is that shared equity scheme, and it has a much less certain future in the Parliament
01:14this week.
01:15Now, this is about essentially trying to get first homebuyers into properties and people
01:20on lower incomes as well.
01:22The government would take a stake in a property with a homebuyer, up to 30 or 40 per cent.
01:29The idea is to try and reduce the deposit that's required for that home, and also mortgage
01:34repayments as well.
01:35Now, the government says these sorts of schemes are up and running and working well around
01:40various states and territories, and it wants to put in place a federal model.
01:45But at the moment, this bill is relatively friendless in the Parliament.
01:48The Coalition opposes it, saying the government has no business buying homes alongside people
01:53and there are other better ways to improve housing affordability for Australians.
01:58The Greens also oppose it as well, saying this is only going to drive demand in the
02:03housing sector and push up prices further.
02:07They do want to negotiate with the government, but the government seems to be of a mind not
02:11to do that, saying this bill should stand on its merits.
02:14Here's the Housing Minister, Clare O'Neill, speaking on this issue earlier today.
02:18Our government's trying to build.
02:21The Greens and the Liberals are trying to block, and we need them to stop doing it.
02:24We want nurses and early educators and paramedics to get into home ownership.
02:29This is going to be the only viable pathway for a lot of them, and I cannot believe that
02:33we've got political parties in this country that are going to stand in the path of these
02:36people who we owe so much getting into home ownership.
02:40The Greens say they are willing to talk about this bill.
02:43They are, in principle, opposed to it, but say if the government's willing to talk about
02:47things like negative gearing, capital gains tax or rent caps, it would be open to discussions
02:52of perhaps passing this bill.
02:54Here's the Greens Senator, David Shoebridge, speaking earlier.
02:58There is no credible modelling that says this will work.
03:02The Property Council independent expert says without significant amendment, it will just
03:07drive up house prices for the tiny fraction of houses that it's likely to deliver.
03:12A door is open, and we're ready to negotiate.
03:15So right now it appears the government is willing to lob this bill into the Senate,
03:19even with the prospect that it might fail, essentially setting up a political fight with
03:24both the Greens and the Coalition.
03:26For now, both those parties seem up for that brawl.
Comments