Anthony Albanese’s $10bn housing fund boosts at-risk Labor seats

Anthony Albanese has been accused of ‘pork barrelling on steroids’, with the government’s $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund pouring funds into Labor marginal, battleground and target seats across the country.

Anthony Albanese in Ashfield in Sydney’s inner west on Friday. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

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Anthony Albanese has been ­accused of “pork barrelling on steroids” weeks out from the election, with the government’s $10bn Housing Australia Future Fund backing projects in 29 Labor marginal, battleground and target seats across the country.

Analysis by The Australian reveals that a list released by the government of 183 social and ­affordable developments in planning, under construction and completed heavily favours ­government seats, with up to 50 Labor electorates home to HAFF projects.

Amid rising expectations the Prime Minister will call an April 12 election following the West Australian election next weekend, the government is planning on bringing forward round two HAFF funding announcements to unveil during the campaign.

Under pressure from Coalition attacks that the HAFF had not ­delivered any new homes, the ­Albanese government on Wednesday released a list of projects claiming that 340 homes were complete, more than 5400 were under construction and nearly 8000 were in the planning stages.

The Coalition says most of the homes on the “pork barrelling” list – a claim Labor rejects because the HAFF is “independent of government” – were only “planned to be built” and that the several hundred homes constructed had converted existing stock into social and affordable housing and not added to supply.

Vulnerable Labor seats allocated HAFF projects include: Bennelong, Hunter, Paterson, Eden-Monaro, Robertson, Gilmore, Richmond and Dobell in NSW; Lingiari and Solomon in the Northern Territory; Lyons in Tasmania; Boothby in South Australia; Hawke and Wills in Victoria, and Pearce, Hasluck and Swan in Western Australia.

Labor’s HAFF is also backing projects in Coalition, Greens and independent seats that Mr Albanese is hoping to win, including: Leichhardt in north Queensland; Bass and Braddon in Tasmania; Fowler in Sydney; and Griffith in southern Brisbane. Including the new WA seat of Bullwinkel, which is notionally held by Labor on a 3.2 per cent margin, there are up to 50 ALP seats with HAFF projects ahead of the Coalition (28), independents (5) and Greens (1). Cabinet ministers Tony Burke and Jason Clare, whose western Sydney seats of Watson and Blaxland are being targeted by Muslim Vote candidates, have also got HAFF projects in their electorates.

There are 33 HAFF projects promising up to 2036 new social and affordable housing dwellings in Labor-held seats that are top Coalition targets, including: Bennelong, Paterson, Hunter, ­Gilmore, Solomon, Boothby, Lyons, Pearce, Hasluck and Swan. Only 16 projects across the ­country, mainly in regional and outer-­suburban areas, have been completed.

A spokesman for Housing Minister Clare O’Neil, whose own electorate of Hotham has five HAFF projects, on Friday rejected any suggestions of pre-election pork-barrelling.

“Housing Australia is an ­independent agency – with an ­independent board – that makes all decisions about funding through the HAFF independent of government,” the spokesman said. “Under the Housing Australia Act, ministers absolutely ­cannot direct the board to fund a project. The government was first briefed in September 2024 on ­outcomes from round one of the HAFF after the board made its ­independent decisions. The Liberals held up the HAFF for close to a year – meaning Housing Australia announced the first round of successful projects only five months ago. Any person with a thread of experience in home building knows houses can’t be built in five months, but there are thousands currently under construction.”

Opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar said the HAFF allocations looked “like pork barrelling on steroids”.

Housing Minister Clare O'Neil. Picture: NewsWire / Ian Currie

“But even worse, these are just homes that are planned to be built because after three years the fact is not a single home has been delivered under the HAFF,” Mr Sukkar said. “Labor is incapable of building homes.”

If Peter Dutton wins the election, the Coalition would move to repeal the HAFF, walk away from unsigned contracts that aren’t ­executed in agreement and return to funding social and affordable housing directly through the budget process.

Mr Sukkar said Ms O’Neil’s claim that 340 homes had been built was “actually just converting existing stock into social and ­affordable housing”.

“These are not new homes built under the HAFF and they are certainly not adding to supply,” he said. “Most of these projects have not even been signed and are in many cases years away from even commencing, if ever.”

The Albanese government’s promise to build 1.2 million new homes by mid-2029, which is tracking 216,500 short on current projections, is being supported by the HAFF.

In Mr Sukkar’s Melbourne electorate of Deakin, held on practically a 0 per cent margin, the HAFF has allocated funding support for 62 dwellings in Mitcham to be delivered by Community Housing Victoria. The HAFF is also backing a Together Housing project building 153 dwellings in Mr Dutton’s seat of Dickson on Brisbane’s northern fringe.

There are HAFF projects in planning or under construction across Ms O’Neil’s Melbourne seat of Hotham in Carnegie, Noble Park, Murrumbeena and Clayton.

Labor’s marquee housing fund, the anchor of the government’s $32bn Homes for Australia plan, has been playing catch-up to have projects in place before the election, after enabling legislation was stalled and not passed through the parliament until September 2023.

The off-budget HAFF, a 2022 election centrepiece pledge, was established to help construct 30,000 social and affordable homes for more than 50,000 Australians, generate $20bn of housing investment and support 90,000 jobs.

More housing announcements are expected from Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton during the election campaign, with both sides already having unveiled tens of billions of dollars to convince voters their side has the right plan to reverse the housing crisis.

Asked last week why the HAFF had not built one home, Mr Albanese blamed the Coalition and Greens for delaying the fund in the Senate. “If you make a decision to build a house today, I assure you that you won’t purchase the land, get the planning approvals, do all that and have the house built and move in in six months,” he said. “That would be remarkable. If you’re able to achieve that, I’ve got a job for you.”

Mr Albanese said homes had been built under Labor’s $2bn ­Social Housing Accelerator, which was commenced in part to offset delays in the HAFF’s commencement.