Submission: The National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill, 2024

Abstract

The primary focus of this submission is not on the need for a national plan. That need is rightly accepted by the Government, as reflected in its pre-election commitment to implementing a National Housing and Homelessness Plan.

The primary focus of this submission is on the need for a national plan with a statutory basis. In our view, the National Housing and Homelessness Plan Bill 2024 would establish several crucial legal foundations for successful national plan-making in housing and homelessness policy.

Whereas historically the Australian Government’s involvement in housing and homelessness policy development has been patchy, even erratic, the Bill’s framework would require the Government to apply itself to national policy leadership in a sustained way, continually accounting to the Parliament and the Australian people. The Bill would not guarantee a successful Plan; that would still ultimately depend on
the Government and the quality of its policies and implementation. But the Bill would make a successful Plan much more likely.