Minister Collins interviewed on ABC RN Breakfast with Patricia Karvelas

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

TOPIC: The Albanese Government’s ambitious housing reform agenda.

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: Housing Minister Julie Collins joins me now. Minister, welcome.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR HOUSING AND MINISTER FOR HOMELESSNESS: You’re welcome, thank you, Patricia.

KARVELAS: Just want to go to that first announcement, if we can, in relation to the homelessness funding. It’s $67.5 million. A similar amount you were being warned about was going out of the system to pay wages in the homelessness sector. Is it about dealing with that?

COLLINS: What we’re about is recognising that the Census data shows that homelessness has increased significantly. What we wanted to do is make sure that the states and territories have the resources available to be able to deal with that. What we’re talking about is $67.5 million across the country in the 12-month addition or extension to the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement, which brings it to a total of almost $1.7 billion this year that we will be providing to the states and territories for both homelessness services, but also to add to supply for housing stock.

KARVELAS: So is this – I’m just trying to get a sense of is this because you heeded the warnings that there was a shortfall for one year to that funding?

COLLINS: We’ve been pretty clear all along, Patricia, that we didn’t want to see any reduction in services. And we understand that the states’ and territories’ services are under pressure. At every opportunity as a government what we have done is we have lifted and we have listened to concerns. What we want to do is make sure that people that need support and assistance get those services. I mean, when you look at the Census data that came out this week, it’s heartbreaking to find out but another 6000 Australians, taking it up to 123,000 almost, who are homeless. We need to do better. We all need to lift together, and this is about working with the states and territories to make sure that we’re taking our role on.

KARVELAS: Yeah, okay. So this is a one year extension. What happens beyond that? You just mentioned the Census data. It’s really alarming the rates of homelessness now in this country. This is an emergency. Does the government plan to invest more money in the coming Budget to try and deal with this emergency?

COLLINS: What we’ve done, of course, is we had an election commitment which is the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund. We have legislation currently in the Parliament for that. But what we’ve done since that time is we’ve added to it. Out of the Jobs and Skills Summit late last year, up to $575 million made available by the end of last year for more social and affordable homes. We actually have homes under construction today because we unlocked that money. We of course had in our first budget the Housing Accord, where we’re talking about the federal government doing 10,000 additional affordable rentals from 2024 over that five years. We’ve got the states and territories to agree to match that, so 20,000 more affordable rental properties coming from states and territories and the federal government working together.

So what we have is a whole plan here. We’ve got immediate relief, and then we’ve got of course the Housing Australia Future Fund. We’ve got a National Housing and Homelessness Plan, and we’ve got the Housing Accord that we want to all line up. And what we want to do is negotiate with the states for a new five year funding agreement that lines up with all of that policy.

KARVELAS: This week, we’ve heard the Greens, David Pocock, Jacqui Lambie will not support your bill in its current form. How far are you willing to go to get them over the line?

COLLINS: Well, we’ve been having some really good discussions with the crossbench in both Houses. We’ve obviously had good discussions in the lower house and were able to secure most of the crossbench in the lower house, and indeed a member of the Liberal Party, to support the Housing Australia Future Fund. It was of course, an election commitment that we took to the Australian people. We know that delaying this bill means a delay on returns, which means less homes on the ground for people that need it most. And I think that in our discussions, all of the crossbench senators that I’ve had discussions with understand that. What we want to do is make sure we get homes on the ground as quickly as possible and deliver on our election commitment.

KARVELAS: Okay, but that doesn’t answer my question about whether you’re prepared to go and spend more and help get more housing up. That’s what they’re all asking for. Now under the Fund, up to $500 million will be spent on social and affordable housing. But that depends on how much money the Fund can make. Can you guarantee any amount of money will be spent on housing?

COLLINS: Of course, as I’ve said Patricia, it’s not just the Housing Australia Future Fund. We have actually already added to it with the $575 million in terms of social and affordable housing. With the National Accord, we’re talking about an additional $350 million over five years through 2024. We have actually already invested significantly, and we’re talking about, just today of course, that almost $1.7 billion for just 12 months to states and territories for more housing. And of course, we’re talking about another five-year agreement from first of July 2024. So we are already working with states and territories.

This is not just the federal government doing this alone. We need to work with other tiers of government. We need to work with the community housing providers. We need to work also with institutional investors. One of the things that the Housing Australian Future Fund will do is it will allow institutional investors and support institutional investors to put even more funds into social and affordable housing. What we need to do is leverage as much investment as we can across all tiers of government and across the sector.

KARVELAS: So are you willing to look at that $500 million figure and perhaps index it or work on making it worth more to deal with the concerns of the crossbench?

COLLINS: As I said, we have had some good discussions with the crossbench. We continue to have good discussions with the crossbench, and I’ll continue to have those discussions. I don’t want to get into the detail of what they are-

KARVELAS: Of course, that is what I’m trying to get. I’m just trying to see if you’re open, because there’s a lot of them. It’s not just one. There’s actually quite a chorus on this one. They want more, I know you’ve talked about your election commitments.

COLLINS: We’re already doing more. We have done more than our election commitments. The Accord was not an election commitment. That is a new agreement with states and territories, whereby we’re putting an additional $350 million from 2024. An additional 10,000, affordable rental homes coming from the federal government, matched by states and territories -we’re getting them to lift – and of course our initial investment of up to $575 million. We are of course looking at the system and looking at the data, and we want to negotiate another five-year agreement as part of the National Housing and Homelessness Plan, and line that up with the Accord. We of course have already set up the interim Supply and Affordability Council to give all tiers of government the advice on how we get more supply on the ground more quickly, how we make sure that the right houses in the right places. We also of course have to look at the sector and the capacity issues in the sector when it comes to the construction industry, and also when it comes to community housing providers.

KARVELAS: Just finally, the National Rental Affordability Scheme implemented in 2008 is a 10-year agreement between the government and landlords. It will incrementally wrap up before being scrapped entirely in 2026. It has subsidised the rent of about, I think it’s about 36,000 households across Australia. Will you extend it?

COLLINS: Well of course the National Rental Affordability Scheme was the former Labor government scheme, but it was cancelled by Tony Abbott back in 2014. So we’ve already seen a range of properties, quite a significant number, come off that. I would also say that in terms of the properties that are still on the National Rental Affordability Scheme, that there is community housing providers and they of course already have agreements with tenants about the percentage of income that they are allowed to charge in terms of people’s rents. And of course, states and territories have now had eight years to work with and to understand what is happening in terms of NRAS properties and their tenants. We’ve had some good discussions in our meetings with state and territory ministers about what is happening with those properties, and in some states and territories there have been programs to deal with that to make sure that people transition appropriately into appropriate accommodation.

KARVELAS: Minister, thanks for your time.

COLLINS: Thank you very much.