Portfolio — 29 May 2026

Minister for Regional Development Kristy McBain used a House question time appearance on 28 May to lay out the full architecture of the government's $47 billion Homes for Australia plan as it applies to regional communities, running through supply, demand-side support and enabling infrastructure in a single extended answer [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s141].

The centrepiece demand-side claim was that the five-per-cent deposit scheme has already assisted 83,000 regional residents into home ownership, with the expanded scheme and the Help to Buy program together extending that reach further [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s141]. On the supply side, McBain pointed to the Housing Australia Future Fund financing construction of more than 2,900 social and affordable homes in regional and remote locations, with a third funding round described as forthcoming [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s141].

She anchored the argument in a specific local project — a $12.4 million Cooma development converting 12.6 hectares into 140 new lots across social, affordable and private tenures — as evidence of on-the-ground delivery [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s141]. The fiscal case rested on two further commitments: a $2 billion social housing accelerator payment targeting almost 1,400 social homes in regional Australia, and a separate $2 billion enabling infrastructure package of which $500 million is directed specifically to regional projects [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s141].

McBain positioned the cumulative infrastructure investment — over $6.3 billion already committed, with a further $2 billion from the new budget — in explicit contrast to what she characterised as the opposition's prior funding levels, framing the government's record as a step-change rather than an incremental adjustment [TA-260528-house-f5e69c44cc32:s141]. The portfolio's consistent thread across the answer was that housing supply, affordability and the infrastructure required to unlock new lots are inseparable components of the regional development agenda — a framing that positions McBain's regional remit as integral to the government's broader housing narrative rather than a secondary channel of it.