John Murphy (Lowe, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Government members are calling points of order because they do not want to listen to the truth. The minister was the person who left the chamber, Member for Macquarie. As I said, he was allowed to leave the chamber. He was not prepared to listen. He did not acknowledge the five interest rate rises that have occurred under this Howard government. The member for Macquarie typifies just how out of touch and stale the government is by saying that it is going to keep interest rates at record lows, which it clearly is not. In my electorate of Lowe there is a tremendous crisis in housing affordability. I draw to the attention of the House my campaign to make the wider electorate aware of just how serious the problems are.

I have a constituent in my electorate by the name of Mr Rhys Brett-Bowen. Rhys is 24 years of age. He is on a moderate salary. He has a HECS debt of tens of thousands of dollars. He is living with mum and dad in Croydon Park and saving like mad because he wants to get a house. I joined Rhys and his father on a house-hunting exercise in my electorate. We went to Croydon to have a look at something that the real estate agent described as an ideal first home. It was also described by the real estate agent as a rough diamond property. You can be sure of that! It was also described as ‘an opportunity come knocking for a prospective buyer’ and a ‘renovator’s delight’. Well, it was an opportunity come knocking; it was an opportunity to knock this house down because the house had a collapsed roof, holes in the floors and termite damage. It went at auction for more than half a million dollars. It is little wonder that people like Rhys Brett-Bowen have no opportunity to get a house when we have had five interest rate rises and the government not honouring their commitment made to the people of Australia at the last election. Then we have to listen to the minister and the member for Macquarie engage in this blame game of blaming the states for everything. It is called projection. They will not accept any responsibility—(Time expired)

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