Qld to demand fair share of Albanese’s $2b housing splash

Anthony Albanese has called on state and territory leaders to have projects ready to go following the announcement of new funding for social housing.

Queensland will demand its fair share of the new $2 billion pledge from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to urgently bolster public housing, with the state government to argue its surging population has disproportionately squeezed its supply of homes.

Mr Albanese on Saturday unveiled the federal government’s Social Housing Accelerator cash splash, urging state and territory leaders to pull levers at their disposal to increase supply through rezoning and unlocking new land for development.

Mr Albanese implored relevant ministers to have projects ready to go with the funding to be delivered within two weeks.

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon and Treasurer Cameron Dick at a recent social housing development. Picture: Liam Kidston

Queensland Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon said the federal government will soon announce how the money will be divided but insisted she will be advocating passionately for their fair share given the state’s exceptional housing crisis.

“We want to make sure we’re getting a proportion of that investment based on the size of our population,” she said.

“There is also an opportunity for us to advocate as part of the National Partnership Agreement, so you can expect me to be advocating, in addition to this $2 billion for more funding, to make sure we can keep up with the sort of growth and demand that we’re seeing here in Queensland.

“We know that many people are experiencing the pressures of the national housing market right now.

“Having more money to be able to build more social housing is incredibly important and builds on the great work that we just did in this year’s budget.”

Ms Scanlon said housing advocates and experts had already reached out to the government to offer suggestions for development opportunities on the back of the new funding boost.

“We’ll look at what projects we’re already delivering, maybe some of that funding could partner with us and we’ll also look at where there might be new proposals that we can put forward,” she said.

“We’ve had a number of phone calls already from people in the community housing sector, people who have ideas around new developments.

“We look forward to having those conversations with them around how we can get that sort of supply up off the ground really quickly.”