Political attack ads are underway by the local sitting Labor MP just a week after Greens candidate, Mandy Nolan, announced her second tilt for the local federal seat of Richmond.
According to www.aph.gov.au, the next federal election could be between August 3, 2024 and May 17, 2025.
Long standing Labor MP, Justine Elliot, who has held the seat since 2004, has been using social media and newspaper ads to accuse the federal Greens of blocking a $10B Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023, which she says will ‘build social and affordable housing plus housing for women and children fleeing domestic violence, and more’.
By Monday, the federal Greens halved their demands in supporting the legislation, and are now calling for an ‘immediate rent freeze’ and a ‘guaranteed minimum spend of $2.5 billion per year on public, community, and affordable housing, starting now’.
The Echo asked Nolan whether she believes Labor’s bill is at least a step in the right direction, ‘and then the law could be improved in the future?’
‘Does nothing for renters’
Nolan replied that Labor’s bill ‘does nothing for renters, many of whom are one rent increase away from homelessness.’
‘Currently, there is a shortage of 640,000 social and affordable homes in Australia, and that’s set to grow by 75,000 over the next five years.
‘The 30,000 homes figure [from the Bill] is best case scenario, and even then, it’s based on an allocation of $83,000 per home. $83,000! I’d like to know what home our local Labor member thinks she can build for $83,000.
‘Labor has an opportunity to directly invest billions in public and affordable homes, and instead, they’re choosing tax cuts for the rich, stadiums and submarines. There is nothing stopping them from investing directly in public housing but themselves’.
Nolan says the unmet housing need in the Richmond electorate (from Tweed to Ballina Shires) is estimated to be 5,800 homes, according to UNSW City Future Research Centre.
Ten-year waiting list for social housing in Richmond electorate
And, according to the NSW government’s own statistics, the Richmond electorate has a social housing wait list time of more than ten years.
‘At the same time, the government is winding back the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS), which will see 97 homes removed from government-subsidised housing in Tweed Heads (Richmond electorate)’.
On page 10 of the December 2022 NRAS Quarterly Performance Report, it states 20 government-subsidised homes will be removed in Tweed by 2024, and a further 77 by 2026.
Additionally, Lismore (page 9) is set to lose 20 government-subsidised homes by 2026.
‘The government is doing nothing whatsoever for the 16,786 families renting in Richmond’, said Nolan.
Elliot replied to Nolan’s claims with the assertion that ‘at all levels of government, the Labor Party builds houses and the Greens Party blocks them’.
Referring to the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS), Mrs Elliot said it was a ‘desperate attempt to divert attention from her party’s destructive actions in the Federal Parliament’ and, that Nolan ‘failed to understand that this program was actually cancelled nearly a decade ago by [former Liberals PM] Tony Abbott and had been deliberately winding down under previous Liberals-National governments ever since then, leaving us with nothing’.
New solutions needed: Labor
‘With this program having been cancelled by the previous government, we need new solutions – and the Albanese Labor Government has introduced the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, the biggest investment in social and affordable housing in a decade.
‘Unfortunately, as Echo readers will know, the Greens are blocking it – along with the Liberals, Nationals, and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation’.
‘As the Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence, I’m on the ground speaking to people and groups involved, and working hard to get this bill passed.
‘Our community is desperate for housing and the Greens Party needs to either back the bill or just get out of the way.
Fixing a decade of neglect from the previous government (which let wait times for housing in Richmond blow out to 10 years) needs action, and our community has every right to be angry that the Greens Party continues to block this important bill in Parliament.’
‘It’s very, very disappointing that Mandy Nolan’s Greens Party colleagues are delaying the building of 30,000 new social and affordable homes for people in need.
Elliot added, ‘It’s disgraceful that, while locals are living in cars, and women and children fleeing domestic violence have nowhere to go, candidate Mandy Nolan and her Greens Party colleagues are playing political games to try to win votes’.
Doesn’t add up
Nolan’s office also told The Echo, ‘The Housing Australia Future Fund is a $10 billion investment fund that gambles tax payer dollars on the stock market’.
‘[If it were in place now] The fund would have lost $120 million last financial year.
‘In the years that the fund does generate a return, the bill caps total spend at $500 million a year.
‘Given the average cost of constructing social housing is about $300,000, and the absolute maximum investment per year is $500 million – that equates to about 1,600 homes.
‘Over five years, that would be about 8,000 homes, not 30,000. It just doesn’t add up.
‘The bill also doesn’t account for skyrocketing inflation; hence being a gamble’.
‘This is in contrast to investing directly in social and affordable housing to address the housing crisis now’.