QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator BARBARA POCOCK (South Australia) (15:25): I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister representing the Minister for Housing (Senator Ayres) to a question without notice I asked today on the need for rent caps and for a massive new injection of investment in public housing. Minister Ayres did not cover himself in glory today. He accused me and Senator Bragg of using data that had no credibility when I talked about the appalling failure of the Housing Australia Future Fund in terms of the new houses that it has put into the market since the HAFF was established.
It is incredible, it is hard to believe, but it is true that only 1,432 houses have been brought by the HAFF into housing as of May 2026. You don't have to believe the view of a mad Greens senator. This is from the report of the ANAO, on page 6, where it makes clear that that number of houses—1,432—are all that the HAFF has contributed.
What's more, 670 of those houses are not newly created. They're not adding to the stock of housing. They are purchased from the market already there.
They don't grow the supply of housing. So the HAFF has serious problems, and you don't need to take my word for it. You can listen to the ANAO.
The government's own body, in its review recently of the HAFF, pointed to failing delivery arrangements, including—and I'm quoting from their report—'program management, risk management and performance management'. These failures 'increase the risk that the program is not governed and managed to a standard sufficient to deliver the desired policy outcomes'. The review also says: There has been insufficient transparency on program delivery, costs and impact.
So here we are, two years into a five-year program, and we've got 1,432 homes. The ANAO is appropriately sceptical of it reaching anything like its halfway mark of 20,000 homes in two years time. Given that it's taken two years to get to 1,400, its chances of delivering its 40,000 outcome by the time it sets are Buckley's.
And yet the Minister representing the Minister for Housing today comes in here and accuses me of making up numbers. Well, that is BS. I call BS on that.
The Labor government needs to take responsibility for the failure of HAFF in the middle of a housing crisis. My questions today, however, were about renters. This Labor government is so out of touch.
They have done nothing for renters. They need to listen to what the majority of Australians are saying; they want the government to do something for renters. Millions of people are renters, and the renting story in Australia has changed.
It used to be that renting was a short period of transition as you saved your deposit and found your way into housing purchase. That is not what is happening. Millions of Australians now—those first home buyers, older women and lots of people across the age spectrum—are struggling to get that foothold that was available 20 or 30 years ago.
New polling today tells us that Australians understand what's going on. They are alarmed about what the rental crisis is doing to people out there. People are choosing between paying the rent—so important—and putting groceries in the fridge.
Seventy-eight per cent of Australians back limits on rent increases. They know that is causing a major crisis for households, and 94 per cent of renters know that that is what we need. We need some kind of rent regulation.
Landlords in some cases are also on board. They know we need regulation in this system. Rent caps are clearly supported across political parties.
The majority of Greens, Labor, coalition and One Nation voters are supporting restrictions on rents. Three in four voters also agree that government should spend more money directly on public housing, not this complex, slow, inadequate supply through the HAFF. We need direct spending on public housing.
It's no surprise that most Australians support rent regulation and direct investment in public housing when this housing crisis is pushing them to the brink. We need to see action. We need to see Labor understanding where Australians are at and understanding the pain that people are in.
Labor took nothing for renters to the last election. It is failing renters right now. The housing policies are out of step with where we are at.
We need a real intervention here. National rents across our country are now $713, on average. That is an impossible level of rent to meet on minimum wage.
We need action; Labor is failing. (Time expired) Question agreed to.