I rise to speak to the National Rental Affordability Scheme Amendment Bill 2019 on behalf of the Greens. While the Greens will be supporting this bill, I want to make it very clear that this bill does not address the real issues of rental affordability and housing stress that the community is facing more and more every single day. We know that our housing system is completely broken. There are no ifs and buts about that whatsoever. For many years now we have gone from one news headline to another about the housing crisis, only to be met with lukewarm policy responses by this government.

Australian Greens Senator and Spokesperson for Housing, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has responded to today’s Australian Institute of Health and Research report which shows Australia has lost 20,000 public housing units in the last decade. She welcomed the increase in community housing, but said public housing must be a bigger part of the housing mix.

Senator Faruqi said:

“It is time for the Federal Government to step in and show leadership on the housing crisis. We know that social housing in general has not kept pace with demand.

Australian Greens Senator and Housing Spokesperson, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has called the Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Servicer, Luke Howarth MP, completely out of touch for his comments around putting a ‘positive spin’ to homelessness and housing stress.

Senator Faruqi said:

“Minister Howarth is completely out of touch if he thinks there is any way to positively spin the number of people who are homeless. What an incredibly insensitive gaffe.

Australian Greens Senator and Spokesperson for Education, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, has responded to today’s release of the 2018 Higher Education Accommodation and Financial Stress Survey that shows high levels of student financial and psychological distress.

The survey found:

Australian Greens Housing Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has commented on the latest Anglicare Australia Rental Affordability Snapshot which has found that there is a huge shortage of secure, affordable rentals across the country.

The Australian Greens have a plan to more than double the amount of social housing across Australia by building 500,000 new ecologically sustainable and fully accessible homes, with a net addition of 33,000 dwellings each year. The homes would be funded by scrapping negative gearing and capital gains tax exemptions, as well as redirecting part of the banking levy on major banks.

Hundreds of homes have started to drop off the National Rental Affordability Scheme, NRAS, with the number of homes swelling to thousands next year. This means many vulnerable people, including families on low incomes, will be left without support and will face homelessness. We are facing a cliff in the housing crisis. Social housing hasn't increased since the turn of the century, despite the rise in homelessness and the rising numbers of those in housing stress. Rental support needs to continue. What we really need is a massive federal investment in building new social housing.

Australian Greens Housing Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, has described Labor’s housing announcement as tinkering around the edges.

Senator Faruqi is calling on the Labor Opposition to commit to building more public housing stock which will be affordable in the long-term.

Senator Faruqi said:

“Housing in Australia is monumentally messed up. With so many people in need of affordable housing we need radical solutions.

The Australian Senate has today called on the Federal Government to take a national approach to homelessness and to develop a National Homelessness Plan. Australian Greens Housing Spokesperson, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, moved the motion which was cosponsored by Labor and supported by the Centre Alliance, One Nation and Senators Hinch and Storer. The Liberals, Nationals and Katter's Australian Party voted against. The motion is copied below.

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (15:48): I, and also on behalf of Senator Cameron, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) the latest census shows that, since 2011, homelessness has risen by 14 per cent,

(ii) the number of people sleeping rough, which is the most visible and extreme form of homelessness, has risen by an alarming 20 per cent since 2011,