Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think it is fitting that we should be debating this bill about affordable housing today, when a group of experts have had the time to analyse the Labor Party's ill-conceived thought bubble, almost—where the Labor Party felt that they could have a situation where they could end negative gearing and simultaneously drive rents up, drive prices down, and make sure that no-one can get into the housing market because no-one will be investing in it.

The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, the new corporate Commonwealth entity dedicated to improving housing outcomes for Australians, was established on 30 June 2018 upon the commencement of the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation Act. NHFIC operates a billion-dollar National Housing Infrastructure Facility and the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator. The finance corporation will provide local governments, registered community housing providers and other eligible applicants with finance for infrastructure that will unlock new housing supply. The AHBA aims to provide cheaper and longer term finance for registered community housing providers. The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation Amendment Bill implements amendments to the NHFIC Act regarding the composition of the board of the NHFIC and the time frame for review of the operation of the NHFIC. The bill also amends the NHFIC Act to make provision for the establishment of a special account for the bond aggregator function for the NHFIC.

These things are important. The Labor Party like to sneer at people who want to have affordable housing. The Labor Party like to sneer at people who don't have quinoa and goat cheese salads on a Saturday morning and who don't get their almond milk activated. The fact of the matter is that, throughout Australia, in my own communities, there are people who are struggling to afford to live in a home of their own.

The Burdekin Association in my electorate of Mackellar does an extraordinary job of providing affordable housing for people who are elderly and have nowhere else to go. They have done so for almost 60 years. They provide a service that is truly extraordinary across my community and many other communities. This amendment, this corporation and this bond aggregation will make it possible for them to provide yet more services and more housing stock to people who are seeking to afford to buy their own home.

Then we have the situation raised by ANT Constructions. This is a construction firm that was handed down from father to son. The ANT Constructions CEO has made the point on many occasions that governments have made the problem worse, that every time we have sought to make housing more affordable we've made it less affordable and that every time we have tried to increase supply we have reduced supply. That's why this government is getting out of the role of telling builders like ANT Constructions and Ant Gleeson how to build a home. He knows more about building houses than I and everyone else in this place will ever know. But, somehow, the Labor Party think that they know how to tell people like that how to run their own businesses, and it's not good enough. The truth is that the people they've hurt are the most vulnerable, the people who don't have goat cheese on their salad and who sometimes get almond milk that isn't activated already.

The Labor Party represent the inner-city latte group, most of whom are professors and lecturers at university. They don't know about the real people, like in my electorate of Mackellar.

Mr Champion interjecting—

I see the members opposite interjecting and getting upset. They should try coming to my electorate, and I don't I mean just flying over it. I mean getting out of their aircraft and coming down and seeing the struggle on the streets of my electorate to sometimes afford those simple pleasures of life, like being able to put a roof over your head.

The fact is: every time you look at how housing got so unaffordable in Australia, at the centre of it, at the end of the path, is the Labor Party. In my state, New South Wales, you only have to say two words to know how bad it's going to get under them: Bob Carr. He is the bloke who had two choices: he could run a government or he could blame immigrants. Of course, being in the Labor Party, he blamed immigrants. He said: Sydney is full; go away. And at the same time, in Canberra, there was his good mate Kevin Rudd. I've been going through the index of the three-kilo biography, volume 2. It's almost as good as Clive's. In fact, you'd think they were in a race to see who could produce the heaviest autobiography.

Mr Champion interjecting—

It's a shame that the member opposite wants to be heard but no-one can understand him when they hear him. I had a look down the index and I couldn't find a bad word from former Prime Minister Rudd about the former state Premier, Bob Carr. And why would there be? At the same time Bob Carr was telling everyone to go away, because he couldn't be bothered building infrastructure—the New South Wales Labor Party made 33 infrastructure announcements and cancelled 35 of them—

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