LABOR BILL PASSES FOR 30,000 HOMES, DESPITE O’BRIEN’S AND WALLACE’S ATTEMPT TO BLOCK
19th September 2023
• Legislation that will see 30,000 homes built across Australia – including in Queensland – has passed, but not without attempts by Fed LNP MPs Ted O’Biren and Andrew Wallace to torpedo the Bill
• Member for Nicklin, Rob Skelton MP has welcomed the news, saying it builds on Palaszczuk Government’s plan to deliver 13,500 social and affordable homes
• Rob says the Sunshine Coast LNP needs to explain why – when national housing pressures are impacting our community – they tried to block the delivery of more homes
Member for Nicklin, Rob Skelton MP has blasted Fed LNP MPs Ted O’Brien and Andrew Wallace after they voted against Federal legislation to deliver 30,000 homes across the country through the Housing Australia Future Fund.
Mr Skelton said Mr O’Brien and Mr Wallace needs to come clean to families in his/her community on why they failed to support more housing funding from the Federal Government.
In addition to creating a secure, ongoing pipeline of funding for social and affordable housing, the new $10 billion Fund will see:
• $100 million allocated for crisis and transitional housing for women and children experiencing family and domestic violence
• $200 million for the repair, maintenance and improvement of housing in remote Indigenous communities
• $30 million to build housing for veterans who are experiencing homelessness or at-risk of homelessness
It builds on the Palaszczuk Government’s record $5 billion for social and affordable housing – the single-largest concentrated investment in Queensland’s history.
The legislation also follows Queensland securing close to $400 million earlier this year from the Albanese Federal Government to build more social and affordable homes.
Quotes attributable to Member for Nicklin, Rob Skelton MP:
“We need builders – we need every level of government, together with industry, to pull every lever possible to address national housing pressures. What we don’t need is blockers like O’Brien and Wallace.
“This is legislation that unlocks thousands of homes for Australians at a time when we need them most, so O’Brien and Wallace must explain to our community why they voted against it.
“This will mean more homes for key workers, more affordable homes for Australian renters, and more homes for those most in need, like women and children fleeing domestic violence, and Indigenous housing. It’s baffling why anyone would vote against it.
“The LNP have an ideological opposition to housing for Queensland families – they’ve voted against this Bill, they walked away from the rental affordability scheme and under their watch social housing went backwards by hundreds of homes in this state.”
Quotes attributable to Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon:
“Peter Dutton, David Crisafulli and every Queensland LNP Member has made it clear to today that they don’t support homes for Queenslanders.
“In fact one of those LNP Members bizarrely said that adding a huge number of new homes would make the situation worse.
“It’s not surprising though when it was the LNP that scrapped the National Rental Affordability Scheme, walked away from critical funding for remote Indigenous housing and, rather than fund social homes, handed out funds to people with money to renovate kitchens and back decks instead.
“While the LNP have a lot of explaining to do to Queenslanders, we’ll get on with the job together with the Federal Government to build more social and affordable homes.”
ENDS