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Anthony Albanese will establish a new $10bn social housing fund to build 30,000 affordable homes for vulnerable Australians and frontline workers if Labor wins the next federal election, as he promises to “deliver for working families” as prime minister.
The opposition leader also used the traditional budget in reply speech on Thursday night to pledge to create 10,000 new energy apprenticeships, criminalise wage theft, and make employers responsible for workplace sexual harassment.
Saying Labor was committed to “building back stronger” after a pandemic that had seen Australians make incredible sacrifices, Albanese said the country now deserved a government that was “worthy of your efforts”.
“I want Australia to emerge from this crisis stronger, smarter and more self-reliant, with an economic recovery that works for all Australians,” he said.
“It would be a disaster if we emerge from this crisis having learned nothing – and changed not at all.
“What a missed opportunity if our economy comes out the other side with nothing to show for this transformational moment but the biggest debt and deficit of all time.”
Under the centrepiece housing policy unveiled on Thursday, Labor would set up a new $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund to build social and affordable housing, while also stimulating the economy and creating jobs.
Investment returns from the fund would go to a new national housing finance and investment corporation that would work with existing providers on affordable and social housing projects.
He said that over the first five years the fund would build 20,000 social housing properties, with 4,000 of those to be allocated for women and children fleeing domestic violence, and for older women on low incomes at risk of homelessness.
Another 10,000 affordable housing properties would be made available for frontline workers, whom Albanese described as the “heroes of the pandemic”, including nurses, police, emergency service workers and cleaners. This would allow many of these low-income workers to live closer to where they worked.
Under Labor’s proposal, the new housing fund would be managed by the Future Fund Board of Guardians that currently manages six public asset funds and is chaired by the former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello.
A portion of the funds would go to community housing providers over 25 years to bridge the gap between rental revenue and operating costs, and another portion to fund acute housing needs.
During the first five years of the fund, it is estimated that $200m would go to the repair and maintenance of housing in remote Indigenous communities, $100m for crisis housing and $30m for housing for veterans experiencing homelessness.
In total, $1.6bn will be allocated to women, $1.7bn for long-term housing and $100m for crisis housing, with the spending expected to create an extra 21,500 jobs each year.
Albanese also used the speech to detail a new $100m energy apprenticeship plan, which would encourage apprentices to get training in the energy jobs of the future with incentive payments of up to $10,000. A separate $10m new energy skills program would also be set up to ensure state and territory Tafe systems had programs in place to tailor skills training for the specific needs of new energy industries.
“The government has proven incapable of developing an energy policy or dealing with climate change,” Albanese said.
“Positive action on climate change and moving to net zero emissions by 2050 will create jobs, lower energy prices and lower emissions.”
Albanese also announced a Labor government would legislate to criminalise wage theft and to put in place a “positive duty” on employers to address sexual harassment in the workplace.
“Every woman should feel safe in every workplace, including this one,” he said.
The positive duty was recommended in the Respect@Work report completed by the sex discrimination commissioner, Kate Jenkins, but was rejected by the government, which suggested it would “create further complexity, uncertainty or duplication in the overarching legal framework”.
On wage theft, the Labor leader said too many Australians were being “exploited or underpaid” but the government had tried to cut wages and conditions and would continue to undermine the union movement.
In March, the government abandoned the criminalisation of wage theft in its industrial relations omnibus bill in order to pass the bill through the Senate, passing only limited changes to casual employment.
Albanese said the “eight-year-old government behaved like an eight-year-old child and threw a tantrum” over the legislation.
“And why were they cranky? Because Labor and the crossbench refused to support the parts of the legislation that would cut pay.”
Responding to Tuesday’s budget, Albanese said the Morrison government had delivered a “showbag” with “no real reform” that had failed workers and offered no long-term vision.
“Flashy enough to sell on Tuesday night, falling apart the next day when the reality of falling real wages, vaccination confusion, infrastructure cuts and productivity inertia became apparent,” Albanese said.
“This budget offers a low growth, low productivity and low wage future – and a trillion dollars of debt – is that really the best we can aspire to?”
Wage growth forecasts in the budget papers show workers’ wages are not expected to increase in real terms until 2024-25, with inflation expected to be higher than wage growth in the meantime.
The wage price index in 2020-21 will be just 1.25% compared to a 3.5% inflation rate, rising to 1.5% in 2021-22 compared to 1.75% for inflation.
“I believe that the economy should work for people, not the other way around,” Albanese said.
“People have endured eight long years of stagnant wages, growing job insecurity and pressure on family costs like childcare, rent, petrol and groceries.”