Its no secret that Australia is in the depths of a housing crises, with availability of affordable housing a severe problem for many seeking a home to buy or wanting to rent. Its good to see after months of negotiation Labor has now secured the support of the Greens, along with that of The Jacqui Lambie Network and independent David Pocock to pass the governments $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund (Haff) bill in the Senate. Once more the Coalition has been marginalised, left sitting on the "No" side with extreme Pauline Hanson's One Nation. Through negotiation the Greens have secured an extra $1 billion from Labor for direct public, social and affordable housing. I for one is glad that this modest undertaking by Labor has finally been agreed to. Just as they are irrelevant on so many issues, the Coalition once more see themselves locked out in the cold on this, where is Dutton's "Housing Policy"? Nowhere to be seen.

$10 billion plus another $3 billion curtesy of fiscally profligate Greens.

Wow $13 billion. That's a big number.

How many new social houses will that conjure out of thin air?
What's that you say....approx 38000 new houses over the next 5 years?
(that's if you believe government estimates and if you do I have this bridge for sale I want to talk to you about!)

So how many people will that house? Oh, about an extra 100,000.

How many new residents will the government allow to come to Australia in that period? oh, about an extra 1,500,000.

1,500,000 new people....100,000 new housing places. Great plan.

Still the point was to placate the usual whiners and in that it will be a massive success.

Dear Paul,

So good to see that the Greens will after all the
fuss, back the Housing Australia Future Fund after
drawn out negotiations. Good also that this means
the bill (a key election commitment for Labor) will
become law.

The deal includes additional funding for much needed
public and community housing. Hopefully this will
happen sooner than later - and projects will get
underway this year.

Good news all round.

Now all we need is to win the YES vote for the Voice.
Yay!

yeah.. nar...
Sorry Paul

I'm going to have to jump in the defend "extreme Pauline Hanson's One Nation" here.

Tweet from yesterday- Malcolm Roberts, One Nation
http://twitter.com/MRobertsQLD/status/1701762883787628823

"COWARD ALERT

Every Liberal and National Senator has failed to be in the Senate for a vote on my amendment to the $10 billion #Housing Future Fund Bill.

The amendment would have acknowledged that the 1 million arrivals to Australia in only 12 months is the major cause of the housing crisis.

The Liberal/Nationals would rather hide in their offices than state a position on Australia's unsustainable big #immigration intake.

Once again, the Coalition and Labor are two wings of the same bird when it comes to suppressing wages, keeping house prices high and destroying the rental market. Only One Nation stands for cutting immigration until our country catches up."

What's your say on this-
Is he a radical, or is he being sensible?

I don't know where the 1 million figure came from, curious about that, I thought it was only 400,000.

I don't know that he's right, but lets assume he is.
Maybe we should put it into perspective to where we are at right now.
1 million immigrants in a year...

Google how many indigenous in australia
http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=how+many+indigenous+in+australia
"Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. At 30 June 2021, there were 983,700 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, representing 3.8% of the total Australian population: One-third (33.1%) were under 15 years of age. The median age was 24.0 years."

Those ages are interesting.
More importantly though - 983 thousand.

We brought in more immigrants in a year than the entire population of indigenous Australians?

Dear Paul,

We can spend the money on housing for poor
people, the homeless, the old, single parents,
the old, people with disabilities and so on, or
we can spend it on giving politicians salary
increases, or spend it on the Commonwealth Games,
football stadiums, racing events, golf courses,
or royalty visits. The list is endless.

We can't address poverty unless we address the
lack of affordable housing in the cities.

As for migrants?

Migrants contribute far more economically and
culturally than they take. And always have.
They have supplied for decades the work force
that Australians needed and wanted. They have
supplied the workforce for more shops, schools,
hospitals, aged care, in factories, in transport,
and many other services.

Also it usually does not take long for most migrants
to work and buy their own homes. Many hold down more
than just one job. And owning a home for them is a
must.