Housing Australia Amendment (Transparency and Reporting) Bill 2026

Senator BRAGG (New South Wales) (15:41): I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill. Leave granted.

Senator BRAGG: I table an explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted. The speech read as follows— President, I rise today to introduce the Housing Australia Amendment (Transparency and Reporting) Bill 2026.

The Labor Government has delivered a trifecta of failure on housing: fewer homes, higher rents, and confidence in the market smashed. Labor has committed to over $80 billion in housing spending, but has built fewer houses than under the Coalition. Labor has also put in place $77 billion in higher taxes in their 2026-27 Budget, which, by design, delivers 35,000 fewer houses.

Labor has further instituted a ban on Self-Managed Super Funds on borrowing to invest in housing, which will affect at least 4,000 transactions each year—or 40,000 over the next year. Industry says it's far higher than this with at least 16,000 transactions affected. Combined, this effort to cut supply undoes all of the 40,000 houses that are meant to be built by the Housing Australia Future Fund.

This bill addresses one of the many failures in the Government's housing policy: the complete absence of transparency, financial scrutiny, and accountability regarding how billions of dollars of taxpayers' money are being spent by Housing Australia and through its subsidiary programs including Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF). Since Labor came to power in mid-2022, Australia's population has increased by some 1.8 million, of which around 1.5 million has been through net overseas migration (NOM).

But during the same period, the dwelling stock has increased by only 550,000. This has created a shortfall of some 130,000 dwellings, which are needed to house at least 350,000 and up to 400,000 persons. To date, Labor is 112,000 homes behind their own 1.2 million housing target.

Their own government modelling suggests they will miss the target by well over 200,000 dwellings. Under the former Coalition Government, Australia was completing close to 200,000 homes each year. Under Labor, that has crashed to 170,000.

Under Labor the population has grown but housing supply has collapsed. Labor has created massive housing bureaucracy instead of building houses. Housing Australia is the agency entrusted with overseeing the $80 billion commitment.

Housing Australia manages the Government's housing gimmicks including: the 5% home deposit scheme (formally known as the First Home Guarantee scheme), Help to Buy and the Housing Australia Future Fund. It is difficult to know what Housing Australia is doing, if anything. Greater transparency is urgently needed.

For years, the Australian people have been promised that billions in public funds would solve the nation's housing crisis, build tens of thousands of new homes, and restore the dream of home ownership. Instead, what Australians have received is an opaque bureaucratic labyrinth, a wall of secrecy, and a masterclass in government waste. I have relentlessly pursued answers through Senate Estimates, orders for production of documents, Freedom of Information requests, and formal requests to the Auditor-General.

For too long, Labor has stonewalled questions regarding how Housing Australia operates, who receives funding under the HAFF, and how many genuine new homes have actually been constructed. After two years of operation and more than $11.5 billion of taxpayer funds, the HAFF has delivered very little new housing. It's actually hard to tell what they have done.

For years, Labor has blocked questions about what the HAFF actually does and how many homes have been built or bought with financial assistance from Housing Australia. The Auditor-General provided the first glimpse into how that HAFF has failed to deliver. The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report on the Treasury's Design and Delivery of the Housing Australia Future Fund and the National Housing Accord Facility, confirmed what we on this side of the chamber have warned for years that "there has been insufficient transparency on program delivery, costs and impact" within Labor's housing fund.

Internal Treasury advice repeatedly warned that the government's headline targets were "unlikely to be met" and rated as "high risk." When the HAFF was established, the government promised it would deliver 40,000 social and affordable homes over five years. Yet after almost three years of operation, the ANAO revealed that a paltry 1,432 homes have been delivered.

Even more damning is the fact that nearly half of those, 670 homes, were not newly constructed buildings at all, but existing dwellings purchased. Buying existing houses is not building new houses. Purchasing existing homes does not add a single new brick to Australia's housing supply.

In fact, when a government agency enters the open market with taxpayer funds to buy up existing houses, it actively competes with everyday Australians, pushing home ownership further out of reach for young families and first home buyers. This "buying, not building" sleight of hand is a complete betrayal of the Australian public. It contradicts evidence previously provided to Senate committees and proves that Housing Australia's flagship program is failing on supply.

When they actually try to build houses, they spend up to $1.2 million to build a single new dwelling, when the average cost of building a new house in Australia is closer to $500,000. Why should the taxpayer pay more than double for Labor's houses? Furthermore, before a single new home was completed, Housing Australia managed to spend millions of dollars on its own administrative expenses, bureaucrats, and external consultants.

It has been a classic case of filling the trough for bureaucracy while first home buyers are left out in the cold. Housing Australia has been more distracted with its internal dysfunction and chaos than with building houses. With a staff turnover of over 25 per cent in twelve months to August 2025, and four Work Health and Safety cases—it is clear that there are serious cultural and organisational issues plaguing the agency.

We have received through the Senate process the most recent staff surveys conducted in Housing Australia; which show 40% of employees are unfavourable towards the statement "I rarely think about looking for another job", with only 31% of employees being favourable towards the statement. When it is clear that someone is not delivering in their role, we do something about it.

We should talk about what is holding back supply, what Parliament is doing on accountability, and how our housing agenda is shaping up. If taxpayers are expected to underwrite Housing Australia's balance sheet, its loan guarantees, and its multibillion-dollar disbursements, Parliament and the Australian public are entitled to complete financial transparency. The Housing Australia Amendment (Transparency and Reporting) Bill 2026 establishes a strict, statutory quarterly reporting framework under a new section 10A of the Housing Australia Act 2018 to bring this agency out of the shadows.

First, the bill inserts a mandatory quarterly reporting function into Housing Australia's core statutory responsibilities. Housing Australia will be legally required to prepare and submit a detailed report to the Minister as soon as practicable after the end of each quarter. To ensure parliamentary oversight, the Minister must table a copy of each report in both Houses of Parliament within 7 sitting days of receiving it.

The bill is intended to strengthen parliamentary and public oversight of Housing Australia and ensure timely reporting on the use of public funds and the delivery of housing programs. The bill mandates line-item transparency on expenditure. Each quarterly report must explicitly detail total spending across all Housing Australia functions, including activities established under the Investment Mandate, expenditure relating to the Help to Buy program, capacity building functions, administrative costs, and every single dollar spent on external consultants.

The bill will require Housing Australia to report the total amount spent across every individual program and measure; including the total number of projects that have received financial assistance from Housing Australia, broken down by each of the activities established. This will provide transparency as to how many homes have been bought off the market. The bill will provide transparency on all guarantees issued by Housing Australia.

Reports must state the total number of guarantees issued, broken down by individual guarantee stream and categorised by the recipient's income decile, as well as the price per dwelling for houses from Housing Australia. This will show how much taxpayers are liable for this scheme and will show exactly who is benefiting from government-backed guarantees. The bill mandates full disclosure regarding the Help to Buy program and project assistance, including the number of Help to Buy arrangements entered into, as well as the associated residential property values and purchase prices for supported projects and associated houses.

The bill requires each quarterly report to include summarised minutes of all meetings of the Housing Australia Board that have taken place during that quarter, to open up the governance and decision-making processes of Housing Australia. Finally, the bill will explicitly prevent the Minister from issuing directions to Housing Australia regarding its quarterly reporting function.

This guarantees that Housing Australia's reporting remains independent, objective, and free from ministerial interference or political spin. President, housing affordability is one of the greatest economic challenges facing our nation. But we cannot solve a housing crisis through bureaucratic opacity, financial waste, and statistical tricks.

Australian taxpayers deserve full value for every dollar spent, and Parliament deserves complete visibility over Housing Australia's operations. This bill delivers the transparency, accountability, and financial scrutiny that Housing Australia desperately lacks. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Senator BRAGG: I seek leave to continue my remarks later. Leave granted; debate adjourned.