Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I begin, I'll say that I concur entirely with the comments made by the member for Riverina about bank closures!

I am completely perplexed to understand why there is opposition in this parliament to the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Bill 2022 and the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023. Both of these bills were not only election commitments which the Albanese government has a mandate for but both of the bills make significant investments in our country and in our economy. Indeed, they are perhaps two of the most important bills that will come before this parliament in the term of this government. That is why the Albanese government is bringing them on early, because they deal with matters that need to be addressed urgently and which will take years to address. These are matters which cannot be fixed overnight.

Both of the bills will rebuild and strengthen the Australian economy. For example, by rebuilding manufacturing capability we not only create the skills—in itself, an area of debate in this place—but create jobs. It will provide security for the nation and for individuals, and it will create exports that we can send overseas. In turn, that will mean that we will be less reliant on imports coming from overseas—and we saw particularly how that crippled the nation over the last couple of years as a result of the COVID pandemic. The bills will also reduce social costs and the stress currently placed on people who, for example, can't find work or can't get a roof over their heads. Those social costs lead to health outcomes which also have to be addressed and the costs that come with all of that.

I'll make these two points, which I think are very simple. In the years after World War II, governments of both persuasions—Labor and Liberal—right around the country did exactly what these two bills propose to do. They may have done it differently, but the general principle of building homes and building housing stock, and of building a manufacturing base, are exactly what they did to boost the economy and to secure the future for our country for the years that followed. That did happen, and I can certainly speak from experience in South Australia, where I witnessed it with my own eyes. It made a difference, and I can say that it was led by a Liberal government, not a Labor government. It was the same with the housing policies, which put a roof over people's heads.

I say to members opposite: the bills certainly may not do everything you want them to do. If that is the case, move amendments. But to oppose them simply doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense from a political point of view and it certainly doesn't make sense from the point of view of trying to secure the future of this country for all Australians.

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