QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Ms O'NEIL (Hotham—Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities) (14:14): I thank the member for Bullwinkel for her question. She is a massive advocate for getting more crisis and social homes built in her electorate, and I'm really proud to be working with her on this matter. I want to tell the House about a woman I'll call Sarah.

Sarah recently moved into a new home that was built by our Labor government, and she recently wrote to the member for Bullwinkel to explain what that home has meant for her and her family. Her words say more than I ever could about the importance for the country of this kind of housing. She said: I would like to express my deepest gratitude for our new home.

I am a single mother to two young children, a victim-survivor of family and domestic violence, and this new home has provided us with safe refuge. We've had to move four times in the last two years. Thanks to you and the Australian government, we are able to build a life of dignity and freedom.

Housing is not just about bricks and mortar. For this woman and for her two children, this is about dignity, freedom and the chance to rebuild her life in our country. We have a housing crisis because we have a housing shortage.

We have a shortage of every kind of housing, but we have a particular shortage in crisis housing, the kind of housing that Australians turn to when they're at their most vulnerable. Today I announced that we are granting new funding of $300 million for additional crisis and transitional housing. This is the final piece of the $1.2 billion that we are spending on this critical form of housing around our country.

This housing will support 19,000 vulnerable Australians around our country who desperately need help. The Minister for Social Services was with me this morning talking about the impact that this has on women and children fleeing family violence, but I want to talk about another group for which I have a massive passion, and that is Australia's young people who fall into homelessness.

We are lucky to have Sienna with us today—if you want to, give us a wave, Sienna! Sienna was brave enough to come along to a press conference this morning and talk about the life-changing impact that supported youth housing has had on her life. Now there are young people like Sienna growing up right around our country.

They go through more heartache and trauma in the first 10 years of their lives than most people will experience in their entire lifetimes. I think I speak for every person in our country when I say that those young people need and deserve our support. One of the best parts of my job is meeting and talking to young people like Sienna, because they remind me that the human spirit can recover from anything.

These young people are so resilient, but they can't turn their lives around if they don't have stable housing on which to rebuild it. Well, our government is proud to be working with the young people of this country to rebuild that housing so more people like Sienna can get the second chance they deserve.