I'm really pleased to rise today as part of this consideration in detail on one of the most important issues facing Australia—that is, housing. Here in the ACT, in my electorate of Canberra, people are experiencing the pressures of housing affordability to a huge extent, as much if not more than anyone around this country. In the 2021 census we learned that 38 per cent of households in the electorate of Canberra were renters compared to the national average of 30.6 per cent. We also know that around nine per cent of Canberra households—
Honourable members interjecting—
Photo of MPMs PAYNE: That's the state in which my electorate is. I'm part of the ACT. I'm just going to get on with my speech. It would be nice to be heard in silence.
Photo of MPThe DEPUTY SPEAKER ( Mr Stevens ): Order! The member will be heard in silence.
Photo of MPMs PAYNE: We know that around nine per cent of Canberra households have rent or mortgage repayments greater than 30 per cent of their household incomes, meaning nine per cent of Canberrans are currently living in either rental or mortgage stress. While Canberra is a relatively well-off community, with average incomes higher than the national average and relatively low unemployment, it means that it is a very difficult place to live on a low income, and that our rents and housing costs are very high in this city.
Approximately 1,160 Canberrans on census night were experiencing homelessness, making up around 0.8 per cent of our city's population. So these issues are really acute. I found this recently as I have run a deliberative process, the Canberra Forum, over the last six months, which involves 40 randomly selected Canberrans who come together to choose a topic and make recommendations to me. The topic that they chose after much thoughtful consideration was housing. They have spent time hearing from experts and working on that. I was incredibly pleased and thankful to have the Minister for Housing and Homelessness come and address that group. I know the group found that discussion with her to be very important. Something that was really important to this group of Canberrans is that housing be seen as a human right, so I'm very pleased this is exactly how our government and our minister and our Prime Minister see housing. This is an incredibly important issue right now for Australians. It's central to the dignity and wellbeing of each and every Australian.
Right now, in the Senate, we are trying to get through our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund to deliver 30,000 new social and affordable homes in its first five years, and investments of $500 million per year into social and affordable homes. This is also prioritising housing for women and children escaping domestic violence and for veterans facing homelessness. My question is: how could anybody in this place who is listening to their constituents vote against new homes being built, particularly for those priority groups? If they are truly listening to anyone in their electorates who is experiencing these issues, I don't understand how they can vote this way. I'm talking about those in the Liberal-National coalition and in the Greens who are failing to support this incredibly important future fund that we are establishing to build homes because we believe housing is a human right and centrally important.
This is just one of the things we are doing to invest in housing at the moment. To talk again about the ACT, part of which I represent in this place, in the 2022-23 budget our government provided assistance to three Reconnect services in the ACT, namely Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation, CatholicCare Canberra & Goulburn, and Queanbeyan Multilingual Centre. The Reconnect program is a community based early intervention program for young people aged between 12 and 21, and these three particular organisations have assisted 140 young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness to get secure housing. We are a government that understands that safe and affordable housing is central to the security and dignity of all Australians.
The housing accord we announced in last year's budget includes federal funding to deliver 10,000 affordable homes over five years. The Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee is already helping thousands of Australians into home ownership after the Albanese government brought forward its launch by three months. Again, my question is: how could anyone not get behind these measures to build more homes for Australians?
