5 December 2022

Doorstop interview, Rydalmere

Note

Subjects: disability housing projects being built across NSW as part of a $20 million commitment by the Federal Government’s National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, the Housing Australia Future Fund, Housing Ministers meeting in Sydney

JULIE COLLINS:

Thank you, Charles, and thank you to everybody who's come here today. I think what we're seeing here today is a great partnership and great collaboration. It is the type of projects that we want to see built through the HAFF - the Housing Australia Future Fund, where we're talking about a $10 billion fund with the returns every year going into social and affordable homes across Australia. Our aim from that fund is to build 30,000 in the first five years of the fund. We do hope to get the fund legislated through the parliament early next year. Given the year we've had and how busy we've been as a new federal government, I think that's quite ambitious. But we like ambition, because we need to make sure that more Australians have a safe, affordable place to call home.

So I want to congratulate everybody involved in this project, from BlueCHP to SILC to Tim over there from the Social Impact Investments. And also, of course, to the team at NHFIC - we've got the chair Adrian here, and we've got the CEO Nathan. This is a great collaboration. These are the types of projects we need to see more of right across Australia if we’re going to make sure that more Australians have safe, affordable places to call home.

I also want to thank Fred and the families. I’m delighted to hear that Julian and Noah move into this house tomorrow. This is the good news, I think, from today. This is the type of project that we should be seeing more of right across Australia because every single Australian deserves to have somewhere safe to call home, and that's what we're seeing here. We've seen people put together - as we’ve seen through the steps - something bespoke, something designed for the people who have additional needs, who are living with disability. And we want to see people right across the spectrum from the Housing Australia Future Fund get somewhere safe to call home. Right across the spectrum, including people living with disability and their families.

So I want to congratulate everybody today, from the architects to the building teams, to the people involved in the project management, to the people in the backroom signing the bits of paper to make sure all this happens. It does take a lot of work and a lot of time, as we've heard from Charles. What we do need to do - and I've got a Housing Ministers meeting in Sydney tomorrow - is to try to make that process a little bit shorter for you all, so that we can get more homes on the ground more quickly. I'm looking forward to it, and I look forward to seeing more projects like this and being more openings like this. Thank you for having me.