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Wednesday, June 21, 2023
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BE IN IT TO WIN IT CHERYL Hooke and Michelle Johns from West End Lotto are excited about tomorrow night’s $100 million Powerball draw. Story page 5. PHOTO: Kurt Hickling
‘Pies hungry for action Sport
$496m housing boost FFederal d l social i lh housing i g iinjection j i to offer ff some relief li f d despite pi bl block k iin S Senate on $10b ffund d WANGARATTA and the greater region are likely to benefit from more than $496 million in a Social Housing Fund Accelerator payment for Victoria. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, alongside Premier Daniel Andrews, announced the funding which he said would begin boosting social housing stock within the next two weeks. States and territories will have flexibility in how they permanently
BY STEVE KELLY skelly@ nemedia.com.au
boost social housing stock, including through new builds, expanding existing programs, renovating or refurbishing existing but currently uninhabitable housing stock. It’s expected to create thousands of homes for Australians on social
housing waiting lists and will increase housing supply sooner, with all funding to be committed by states and territories within two years ending June 30, 2025. Independent Indi MP Helen Haines welcomed the announcement as the situation in the North East is at crisis point and urgent government action is needed. “I have met with Housing Minister Julie Collins to discuss the need for funding for housing projects in
Indi, and working closely with her office to unlock funding,” Dr Haines said. “This federal funding will be delivered by the State Government and I will write to the appropriate state minister to ensure we are able to benefit from this funding in Indi and increase the amount of social housing available.” A future social housing development has been slated for Wangaratta’s former Ovens College site which
could benefit from the boost. Ms Collins said no tier of government is going to turn the housing crisis around by itself and all levels need to work together. “The social housing accelerator program is about us working with states and local government to turn around the housing challenge,” she said. “Dwelling approvals are down, the construction sector is coming down, and this will boost the
construction sector right across the country. “They will have capacity in the latter half of this year and early next year so this is the perfect timing for us to be investing with the state and territories and more social housing.” However, Mr Albanese has described the Coalition and Greens decision to defer the vote on the $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund last week as a “political game”. ■ Continued page 2
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