David Bradbury (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion on housing by the member for Blaxland. I think it is a very good motion that goes to one of the most significant issues affecting residents in my electorate. Before I enter into discussion of the substantive elements of the motion, I will simply make a few observations about the comments that have come from those on the other side. I think it is interesting that, when we have a debate in this place that affects Western Sydney, we only end up having one of the three speakers on the other side who has a remote connection with Western Sydney. I commend the member for Macarthur, who I know grew up in Western Sydney and has lived in Western Sydney. He does not anymore, but no doubt in future debates, when we discuss the impact of the first home owners grant on the North Shore, he will have an even more contemporaneous contribution to make. I look forward to that.

I want to take issue with the comments of the member for Cook, who made the startling comment that he has been consistent and, indeed, the opposition has been consistent when it comes to the first home owners grant. I think his words were: ‘We have always supported this measure. It’s a good measure. We support it. We just want it to go a little bit further.’ I found it interesting that he would make that comment when, in a press release dated 29 October last year, he made a number of disparaging comments in relation to the doubling and the trebling of the first home owners grant. Under the headline ‘Government must explain impact of home buyers grant on rising rents’, he goes on to take up the case of the poor tenant coming to terms with the rising costs of rental. As someone in Western Sydney, I understand that rental costs have increased, but I also understand that there is only one party that has enunciated policies that go towards addressing some of those concerns, whether it be in the form of the National Rental Affordability Scheme or whether it be the measures that have been outlined in the stimulus package that address social housing. In that press release, the member for Cook went on to continue his disparaging remarks in relation to the first home owners grant to the point where he refers to it as a quick fix. He goes on and talks about some of the other things that should be done and says:

These are the hard yards of housing policy, not quick fixes that may serve to exacerbate the problem further …

We heard a bit earlier that the member for Cook says the opposition has always supported this measure. He has always supported the measure, except back on 29 October when the measure was simply a ‘quick fix.’ The quick fix has gone from being a quick fix to now being the panacea for all of the woes of not just the housing sector but the economy more generally.

Let us have a look at some hard evidence in relation to what has occurred since the first home owners grant has been doubled and trebled in relation to newly constructed properties. Let us have a look at one of the significant broadacre developments in Western Sydney, the Ropes Crossing project, which is being undertaken by Delfin Lend Lease. Since October, since the introduction of the first home owners grant measures, we have seen a 175 per cent increase in sales. By anyone’s measure, that is a success. Coupled with reduced interest rates—

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