Question Without Notice to the Treasurer, June 23, 2022
Amy MacMahon: My question is for the Treasurer. In the budget on Tuesday we saw a $61 million cut from the annual social housing construction budget and no details on returns from the Housing Investment Fund. Can the Treasurer now confirm how much the Housing Investment Fund has actually generated over the past year?
Cameron Dick: Yes, I can. I am pleased to do that, although I do not accept the premise of the question. For the benefit of the member of South Brisbane I will say that we are very proud of what we do as the Labor Party and we are very proud of what we do as a Labor government because we know it is only Labor that delivers for people in need. When we announced our $2.9 billion investment in social housing in the last budget, the largest concentrated investment in social housing in Queensland’s history, including additional funding for emergency housing, that was not just for one year. I will make that clear. When we as a
government make investments, as we have made an investment in the Queensland health and hospitals plan, that is not for one year. That $9.8 billion will run for more than one year, as our $2.9 billion will run for more than one year. It is a long investment over many budgets. Budget Paper No. 3 clearly shows those funds rolling out—$282 million to deliver social housing dwellings, commence and continue construction, and upgrade existing dwelling. There is a whole heap of other money to commence and upgrade housing dwellings for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and social housing dwellings across the length and breadth of Queensland. That is what we do as a government.
(Note: $2.9 billion is the Government's valuing of the Investment Fund and does not represent real funding. Earnings from the Investment Fund total only $65 million real funding.)
Amy MacMahon: Mr Speaker, I rise to a point of order. My question was about the returns from the Housing Investment Fund. It has not been answered.
Curtis Pitt: Treasurer, under standing order 118(b), I do ask that you come to the core of that question as asked.
Cameron Dick: Mr Speaker, I was in the middle of a sentence that started, ‘When it comes to the investment’. I was actually about to say that we have had an increase in investment. We will get $65 million on that fund—not the $40 million that we projected but $65 million—and every one of those dollars will go back. That is prudent fiscal management, good investment outcomes, returning it all back to social and public housing because, member for South Brisbane, that is what Labor does.