At a Glance

FIRST TERM WINS

Housing unaffordability and homelessness is one of the biggest challenges we face. It will take a lot more ambition and political courage to solve it.

Our community has told me they want to see housing treated as a human right, not just a vehicle for wealth creation.

During my first term in the Senate, I have co-chaired the Parliamentary Friends of Housing and advocated to improve housing affordability, conditions for renters and support for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. There’s so much more still to do but there has been some steps forward.

Indexation of the Housing Australia Future Fund worth $6.3bn over the life of the fund 

A significant amendment I negotiated early on was to index the annual minimum amount the Government must spend from the Housing Australia Future Fund, which will provide an extra $6.3 billion for social and affordable housing over the lifetime of the fund. This helps preserve the value of the fund to maximise the number of new social and affordable homes. 

An additional $60 million in funding for frontline community housing workers

I also secured an additional $60 million in funding for frontline community housing workers as part of the 2024-29 National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness.

Advocacy on housing tax reform 

In April 2023, with crossbench colleagues, I commissioned and released modelling conducted by the Parliamentary Budget Office on options for reform of property tax concessions, including negative gearing and capital gains tax. Of the five options examined, the most substantial would raise $60 billion over a decade and, in the process, improve housing affordability for those who need it most, while protecting existing investments. You can read more about this modelling here. I will continue to advocate for sensible, middle-path reforms to our housing and tax system so that housing is treated as a human right before an investment vehicle. 

Helped secure successive increases to the maximum rates of Commonwealth Rent Assistance

In 2022, the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee was established (and subsequently legislated) as a result of negotiations between myself and the Albanese Government over industrial relations legislation. The Committee provides independent expert advice before every Federal Budget on economic inclusion issues, including income and rent support payments. In each of its three reports released to date it has recommended a significant increase to the rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA). The Government has followed this advice in part, increasing the maximum rate by 15% in the 2023 Budget then 10%, in addition to the 15% boost announced in Budget 2023. But while these increases have substantially softened the impact of recent rent inflation, they do not fully restore the payment’s historic value. I will therefore continue to advocate for further increases in line with the Committee’s recommendations. 

Better conditions for renters in Build-to-Rent properties including five-year leases & banning no cause evictions

Together with housing advocates I was able to secure amendments to the government’s build-to-rent legislation to ensure:

• Revising the definition of affordable tenancies to ensure they are available to moderate income earners, with at least 20% allocated to low-income earners and managed by community housing organisations.
  
• Ensured five-year lease terms would be offered and no-cause evictions banned in all of these properties.

I’ll keep pushing for more, including a scheme to replace the National Rental Affordability Scheme that is currently being wound up.

STILL FIGHTING FOR

A 10-yr National Housing and Homelessness Plan

Australia’s current housing crisis is putting extreme pressure on a growing number of renters, recent first home buyers and others looking to get into the housing market. Rising homelessness is one result, although only the tip of the iceberg. These problems partly reflect the complexity of housing problems and the division of housing policy powers across multiple departments and levels of government. That’s why Australia needs an ambitious and coherent National Housing and Homelessness Plan embedded in law, to enable a co-ordinated effort to tackle these challenges on the part of Commonwealth, State and Territory governments. 

In June 2024 I introduced a Senate Bill that would mandate the Federal Government to develop, maintain and implement a long-term Plan to transform Australia’s dysfunctional housing system and help bring an end to homelessness. The Bill would also establish access to adequate housing as a fundamental human right in Australia, a principle to guide housing policymaking by all Australian governments. You can read more about the Bill here, and about how it would work here.

Sensible reform to overly generous negative gearing or capital gains tax concessions while grandfathering existing investments

Key housing policy powers held by the Commonwealth Government include national tax and social security settings that are long overdue for fundamental reform. These reforms must include phasing out overly generous tax breaks to private landlords, with the resulting additional tax revenue devoted to expanded social housing investment. 

Modelling by the Parliamentary Budget Office shows that on current settings, negative gearing and capital gains tax (CGT) discounts are set to cost the budget $165 billion over 10 years. Most of the benefit from these tax concessions goes to the highest income earners. Most property investors in Australia own only one or two properties.

Together with Senator Jacqui Lambie, I commissioned and released modelling conducted by the Parliamentary Budget Office on options for reform of property tax concessions. I believe we can make sensible changes, while rejecting an all or nothing approach. My preferred option would be to grandfather CGT arrangements for existing rental properties and limit the discount to 25% (instead of 50%) for any newly purchased, newly built rental properties. For negative gearing, the sensible proposal would be to limit claiming deductions for the first rental property. 

A substantial increase in CRA as recommended by the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee 

In each of its three reports to date the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee (EIAC has recommended further increasing the rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA)  to more fairly reflect current day rent levels.  

The 2025 EIAC report notes that despite successive increases “...more than 200,000 of the 1.35 million recipients of CRA in December 2024 were paying more than half their income in rent.”

CRA must also be restructured to better align with rental stress so that it ceases to exclude low income workers affected by the problem and takes account of the huge differences in housing costs across Australia.

Replace stamp duty with land taxes and boost build-to-rent

To discourage housing speculation and boost the national economy, the Commonwealth Government should also lead a national program to help other states and territories replace damaging and regressive stamp duty taxes with broad-based annual land taxes. To channel more institutional investment into purpose-built good quality rental housing, the Commonwealth should further extend recent changes in income tax settings affecting build-to-rent housing by equalising GST treatment relative to other forms of housing.

Quadrupling of the Housing Australia Future Fund to $40 billion to help build a pipeline of new social + affordable homes

The 40,000 new social and affordable homes promised by 2029 under the Commonwealth’s Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) and National Housing Accord (NHA) will equate to an annual program of around 8,000 new dwellings over this period. While welcome, this is barely sufficient to even halt the proportionate decline of social housing, ongoing for decades. Worse than this, without the commitment of additional funding, the HAFF will be exhausted by 2029, and thus unable to support any further housebuilding. The government must therefore pledge the new resources needed to both continue and expand the HAFF-funded program. To this end,  the $10 billion HAFF stake should be quadrupled during the next Parliamentary term.

Increase and improve social housing in the ACT

Within the ACT, the Territory government must both expand and upgrade the social housing stock. At a minimum, the ACT Government must commit to an ongoing expansion of social housing in line with Canberra’s rapidly growing household population. In round terms that will call for a net increase of around 4,000 social rental dwellings over the next 20 years, or 200 per year. This would be more than double the average annual figure achieved over the past decade. Currently, 24% of ACT public housing is in unsatisfactory condition. The Territory Government must also fully upgrade its public housing portfolio, recognising that - as recently concluded by the Auditor General - this can no longer be viably funded purely by public housing land sales.

More action to tackle homelessness

The latest published figures show homelessness on the rise in the ACT. We see evidence of this around our city. On census night 2021 some 1,777 people were officially counted as homeless in the Territory, including 59 actually sleeping rough. The Territory government should set a homelessness reduction target to be achieved by the time of the 2026 census.

Both in the ACT and more widely, we need more dedicated emergency housing for young homeless people. I’m also backing the national Home Time campaign to adjust government funding frameworks that discriminate against young people when it comes to their chances of securing permanent social housing and fund an additional 15,000 dedicated youth tenancies nationally.

Releasing the CSIRO Ginninderra site for social and affordable housing in the ACT

In 2022 I campaigned for the Commonwealth to divest  the 243 hectares of surplus land identified at CSIRO’s Ginninderra site and release it either directly to the private sector or to the ACT Government for redevelopment as housing, with a strict requirement for new social and affordable housing to be included in the mix. I have met with all the relevant Ministers multiple times to push them on this. While I understand work continues on this proposal behind the scenes it is disappointing that it has not progressed further after three years given the chronic housing supply shortage facing Canberrans and the potential for this site to add significantly to new supply.

Forgiving the ACT’s Historic public housing debt to release funds for additional new social housing

Canberrans are being hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis, with access to affordable housing as the most urgent issue. The ACT has a crippling shortage of social and affordable housing, yet more than half of our federal housing funding is lost to interest payments on historic federal debt. The ACT has a crippling shortage of social and affordable housing, yet more than half of our federal housing funding under the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement is lost to interest payments on historic housing debt. In 2022 I campaigned for what was then a $102 million debt to be forgiven, just as a previous federal Labor government forgave South Australia’s far larger debt in 2013. It’s something Labor called for from Opposition, but haven’t followed  through with in government. I’ve pushed to have the debt waived in every negotiation on housing legislation and I will keep doing so, especially as our stock of social and public housing in the ACT has gone backwards. If the government is serious about increasing housing supply, wiping this debt is a logical first step. Housing is a crisis, and we must act now.

Sources: ABS, Productivity Commission

Sources: ABS, Productivity Commission

Addressing the missing middle

In pursuing the ACT Government’s aim of accommodating 70 per cent of growth within existing urban areas, the Territory must do more to relax zoning and other rules that restrict permissibility of ‘missing middle’ townhouse and medium-rise apartment buildings. More medium-density housing must be allowed under RZ1 zoning and ways must be found to encourage more homes near shops and community facilities.

The ACT Government has to find ways to speed up the development assessment process. In 2024-25, average monthly development approval processing times have been mainly in the 150-300 day range. 

Support Homes for Homes

As an admittedly small, but still significant contribution to meeting the need for affordable housing, the ACT Government should integrate a presumption in favour of the ‘Homes for Homes’ covenant on property title for newly built dwellings in the Territory. Akin to a tiny ‘transaction tax’, this kicks in every time a home is bought and sold. Under the Homes for Homes covenant, the seller donates 0.1% of a property’s sale value into an affordable housing development fund, administered by the not-for-profit agency Homes for Homes. 

A better housing deal for vulnerable young people

Almost 40,000 16–24-year-olds are alone and homeless each year, actively seeking homelessness and housing assistance. But Australia has little dedicated accommodation for young people. Also, because they get a raw deal under our social security system, young people are financially unattractive to social landlords (public and community housing agencies) who charge rents set as a fixed proportion of a tenant’s income. This means that when a social tenancy is allocated to a young person the landlord loses 46% of the rental income they would gain by housing an adult on a higher social security payment. This disincentive further damages housing prospects for vulnerable young people.

For these reasons I’m backing the HomeTime campaign’s demand for Australian governments to:

1. Develop and maintain a national pool of 15,000 dedicated youth tenancies.
2. Provide linked support services to enable young people to pursue their goals and transition to independence.
3. Remove the Youth Housing Penalty that disincentivises social landlords from allocating homes to young people.

Expanding the number of Help to Buy shared equity scheme places annually, on an ongoing basis

I have been pushing the government to expand the number of places available under the  Help to Buy shared equity scheme annually, on an ongoing basis and reserve a dedicated number of places for vulnerable cohorts.

I was pleased to see the government lift income eligibility thresholds and property price caps in the most recent federal budget. This scheme is uniquely placed to help more people get into home ownership, especially people who miss out on being classified as first home buyers but who are also needing assistance.  

Increasing the First Home Guarantee property price caps and income thresholds to help more people buy a home

I have also been making the case to lift property price caps under the First Home Guarantee Scheme. The caps have disadvantaged Canberrans where property prices more closely resemble Sydney or Melbourne but our cap has been lower than regional NSW. Federal Labor has now announced that if re-elected it will scrap income thresholds altogether and lift the property price caps. The Coalition, if elected, has promised to lift both income thresholds and property price caps.