Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I will take that correction in the spirit in which it was intended, because I think that the member for Farrer is a really lovely person. I like her very, very much. I want to put that on the record. When I meet housing developers, builders and people in the social housing area and when I meet people struggling to pay their mortgages and struggling to pay the rent and they ask me, ‘Is there a shadow minister? What is her name?’ I say: ‘There is—it’s the member for Farrer. She’s a great human being,’ and they look forward to meeting her eventually too.

This budget delivers on housing affordability for Australians. It makes a down payment on our efforts to tackle homelessness. It doubles financial counselling; it helps with environmental measures for people’s own homes and for rental properties. The government has begun talks with the states, the private sector, people in community and public housing areas and mums and dads. I believe that—despite the fact that we cannot fix 12 years of Liberal Party neglect overnight and there is no silver bullet to housing affordability—this $2.2 billion of new measures will begin to turn around problems of housing affordability in Australia.

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