2025-10-29
The Greens welcome the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO)’s audit of the Albanese Government’s Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF). The HAFF has failed to deliver the social and affordable houses that Labor promised Australians.
Lines attributable to Green spokesperson for finance, housing and homelessness Senator Barbara Pocock:
“From day one, the Greens warned that Labor’s Housing Australia Future Fund was too complex and too slow to deliver homes for the tens of thousands of Australians caught in a deep housing crisis.
“The Greens welcome the ANAO audit. Australians deserve to know why Treasury designed such a convoluted scheme that even developers say they can’t make money off.
“Hundreds of millions have been allocated but it appears very little of it has been spent on building homes. That’s unacceptable in the middle of a housing crisis.
“This is a billion-dollar fund with little to show for it. The HAFF is a slow, clumsy, and cost-ineffective way to fund housing and it’s opening the door for private developers to profit while people can’t find a home.
“Why isn't the government investing directly in public and community housing? The government should be directly investing in public and community housing. It’s faster, cheaper, and it worked the last time Australia faced a housing crisis in the postwar years. We know we can do it. We’ve done it before.
“Labor has already admitted it won’t meet its 1.2 million homes target and the HAFF is part of that failure. The resignation of Housing Australia’s Chair and the ANAO’s investigation shows the HAFF is in disarray.
“It shouldn’t be this hard to build homes in a country that has solved housing shortages before through direct public investment. The HAFF is poor in design and poor in delivery. As a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee of Public Accounts and Audits, I’ll be closely scrutinising the ANAO’s findings to make sure Australians get answers.”
Media contact: Charlotta Lomas – 0466339862