Ms C KING (Ballarat—Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government) (15:04):

I thank the excellent member for Hunter for that question. We know that there are many Australians who are wanting to get access to rental properties and they are wanting to own their own homes. It is why this government has been so focused on the cost of living and on getting new homes built right now. We are increasing the supply of homes and have an ambitious goal of 1.2 million houses. We're incentivising states and territories to build more homes through the New Homes Bonus. And today this parliament has passed the Help to Buy legislation, and I want to give credit to the housing minister and her predecessor for the great work on that. I know there is a lot more to do.

We are also using infrastructure to unlock and streamline approvals for new homes. We are investing more than $1.5 billion over the next two years alone to build the infrastructure to bring those houses to market. I'm pleased to report that the Housing Support Program has been very well received by communities around Australia with funding already being delivered to support new housing.
The Wollondilly Shire Council mayor said of their Housing Support Program funding:
With Wollondilly already fastest in the Greater Sydney area for DA approvals, this will make our processes even faster and more accurate …

A Campbelltown City Council representative said of their funding:
This will provide development confidence and enable council to revise development standards including land use, density and building height.

Tasmania's Central Coast Council mayor has said: 'What is unique about this funding is to actually apply for funding to help us do some of the planning work. Often programs are only about delivery and they're only about hard infrastructure, and councils do struggle to come up with the money that it takes to actually do the planning work and the long-term visionary work that actually helps deliver homes.' The Shire of Victoria Plains president said of their housing support program:
This vital funding will help bridge a long-standing gap in regional planning capacity, enabling progress on priority housing projects.

Even the member for Parkes celebrated the Housing Support Program funding action in Dubbo, saying:
This funding will help Council ensure there is an adequate supply of housing to meet future demand.
We know that this funding is critical to local government to actually make sure they can deliver homes, particularly in our regions. Unfortunately, all of that is at risk if the Leader of the Opposition gets his way. In the middle of a long housing crisis, the Leader of the Opposition is committed to cutting $19 billion from housing and has a plan to force councils to raise rates through concessional loans to pay for infrastructure. That will get passed on to every single resident, from the regions to the cities to our suburbs.