QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Ms O'NEIL (Hotham—Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities) (15:07): I thank the member for Bullwinkel for her question. The member for Bullwinkel knows in a really personal way what safe housing means. She's one of a number of Labor MPs in this parliament who grew up in social housing, so she knows that a house is not just about four walls and a roof.
It is about safety. It's about stability. It's about knowing where you and your children are going to be sleeping each night.
About two months ago, I had the fantastic experience of visiting her in her electorate, where we looked in on 19 new social homes that our government is helping to deliver in her electorate. They were just getting the finishing touches put on. We got to meet some of the tradies who were building this housing for us.
They are beautiful homes in an absolutely gorgeous part of Perth. On Saturday, the member for Bullwinkel went back to visit the first families who are moving into these homes. There she met Kay, a mum of two young kids who, before moving into this housing, was effectively bouncing from home to home.
Now this family has a home that they can depend on. When the member visited, Kay was bringing furniture into her home, deciding where things would go. What an amazing feeling for this family.
It's a home that Kay and her kids can finally settle in. We are not just building social homes in the massive visionary home building program that our government is implementing around the country. Just this fortnight, I announced just over $600 million for about a thousand new crisis homes for Australians who desperately need that same security.
That funding is split basically 50-50 between two groups of Australians that our government is desperately concerned about. The first is women and children who are fleeing family violence. Speaker, did you know that, in Australia today, women tell us one of the main reasons they do not leave a violent relationship is they have no safe home to go to?
That should not be happening in a country like Australia. That's why our government is standing up and doing something about it. The other half of that funding is going to support young people who are at risk of homelessness.
Genuinely, one of the great privileges of my job as housing minister of this country is the time that I get to spend with young people who are at risk of homelessness. There are children around our country who, through no fault of their own, have had horrible experiences in their childhood—things that no human being should have to put up with. But what I see is that these young people are tough.
They are resilient and they can rebuild their lives if they have a solid foundation to stand on. Our government is delivering real change to the housing situation faced by so many Australians. We've got a lot of work to do, but we're making a lot of progress.
Mr Albanese: I ask that further questions be placed on the Notice Paper. The SPEAKER: The Manager of Opposition Business. Mr Tehan: On indulgence, it's been the normal practice at question time that there are 20 questions usually asked.
Yet what's happened because we've got someone under witness protection is that they're not going the full 20 questions. I don't know what you're running scared of. The SPEAKER: Order!
That's not how indulgence works. Indulgence is gifted by the Speaker, and I don't want to withdraw indulgence for members when they require it. I just want to make that clear.