Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I often like to start speeches like this by quoting famous thinkers, and today I would like to quote one in particular. I would like to quote one of the leading lights of the Australian Labor Party, one of the intellectuals of the Australian Labor Party, one of the giants of the Australian Labor Party. They would gather around his feet and listen to his pearls of wisdom. But I see a couple of puzzled looks coming from the opposition as they frantically start to think, ‘Who could that possibly be?’ I talk of course about the former member for Werriwa, Mark Latham, who said, ‘Politics is show business for ugly people.’ I have to say that I think we are witnessing that here. Some might unkindly remark that about me—and I will cop that—but if there is an Oscar going for acting, it has to go to the Australian Labor Party in this debate this afternoon.

Members of the Australian Labor Party have, one after another, stood up with their most sombre faces on, decried the lot of Australians and said how, if they were in power, they would improve the lot of ordinary Australians and how outraged the Labor Party are that, under the Howard government, interest rates have increased. If you were to take them at their word, Mr Deputy Speaker, you might actually think that the Australian Labor Party genuinely believed that. If you were to take them at their word, you might actually believe that the Australian Labor Party are powerless to not have an impact on interest rates or housing affordability. But the very opposite is true. The Australian Labor Party are more able than the coalition government to rein in interest rates and to bring down housing costs so that they are more affordable. The question is: how could that possibly be done? How could the Labor Party do that? The answer is very straightforward, and members opposite do not need to take my word for it. I will quote two third parties. The first is the Residential Development Council, which have made it perfectly clear that the single biggest problem with housing affordability is state Labor governments and the outrageous taxes and fees that state Labor governments levy on first home buyers and home buyers across the board. That is the single largest problem, and if the Labor Party were genuine, if the Labor Party were serious, if the Leader of the Opposition Kevin Rudd really cared about housing affordability, the Leader of the Opposition would pick up the phone, call his state Labor mates and tell them to scrap or cut stamp duty and make more land available, because these are the absolute triggers that are causing the housing affordability crisis in this country. There is no blame game involved in this. They are the facts. They are not the facts because I as the member for Moncrieff say they are. The Residential Development Council says they are the facts.

I say to the Australian Labor Party: do not just stand up here and be hypocrites; do something about it. You have the power. Ring your state Labor mates and get them to fix this problem. At the moment the Howard government provides a $7,000 first home owner’s grant to first home buyers. It is not a lot of money, but it makes a big difference to the lives of ordinary Australians. What does the Australian Labor Party do? The Howard government provides a $7,000 grant to first home buyers to help get them into their first home and the Labor Party takes it straight off them as stamp duty. That is the Australian Labor Party. Look through the crocodile tears. It says, ‘Thank you very much, Prime Minister Howard; we will take that as tax at a state government level.’ Do something about it. The Australian Labor Party should get serious and cut stamp duty rates so that it is not ripping that $7,000 out of the hands of Australia’s first home buyers. The second issue is state Labor debt. The Australian Labor Party is borrowing $70 billion. We have paid off $96 billion. (Time expired)

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