David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for bringing this motion to the parliament. As we all know, homelessness is a serious issue and one that, quite frankly, should not be politicised in any way, shape or form. Homelessness is not only about supply; it is also about issues around mental illness and drug dependency. Homelessness should not be conflated with housing affordability. They are two separate issues. I am proud of our government, which has actually tackled mental illness. We have only recently invested another $192 million into mental health programs right across this country, to ensure that we tackle this scourge that has embraced many parts of our country, along with drug addiction, particularly the scourge of ice. We have invested $300 million to tackle ice and the scourge that it brings not only to metropolitan areas but also to electorates like Maranoa, where we have small communities that have been decimated by ice. In my own electorate, our coalition government has put nearly $9 million into the Primary Health Network that will ensure that those programs are run at a local level to make a real impact on people who have that addiction.

Let's not just look at the mental health than the drug addiction issues. Let's look at the affordability issues and responsibility. Affordability is squarely and wholly a state and local government responsibility. They are the ones that can unlock the tenure of parts of the country to allow more supply to reduce the costs of developers going out and developing more land in order to reduce the cost of land in our metropolitan areas, and they can reduce the red tape and reduce the stamp duty. Our big metropolitan areas like Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne have high-density building infrastructure.

The big issue comes back to our good friends over the road here, the CFMEU. The costs are inhibitive because the CFMEU adds costs to the construction of any high-density building. The reality is it is the CFMEU that adds this value. It is the CFMEU, but, lo and behold, the Labor Party is there continually taking the money. The CFMEU are always out there adding to the costs and that is the problem we have in cities.

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