Joint statement with the Hon. Kevin Andrews MP, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services:

Labor has again tried to spin its way out of its failure to provide affordable rental housing, announcing a new round of 10,000 National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) incentives, even though it has only completed 11,532 out of its promised 50,000 NRAS dwellings.

A report released yesterday by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has revealed major failings in the Government’s key homelessness funding deal with the states and territories, the National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness (NPAH), confirming the Coalition’s long-held concerns about the agreement.

Labor’s announcement of 10,000 more National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) dwellings is nothing more than a patch-up job to divert attention from the dismally slow level of progress on providing rental housing, while reports of a black market in NRAS entitlements have all the hallmarks of Labor’s roof batts and school halls programs.

Labor has failed to explain why it split the housing portfolio into two levels of ministerial responsibility, just one year after Julia Gillard consolidated the housing and social housing and homelessness portfolios into one ministry and announced in a media release that this would “ensure a stronger focus on this issue in the future”.