Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Not one of the members in this parliament who are blocking the social housing package that we have put forward is currently waiting on a social housing waitlist—not one of them. Not one of the members from the opposition, the One Nation party, the Clive Palmer party or the Greens is currently waiting on a social housing waitlist. Yet, that group of members is currently blocking the federal government from constructing social housing homes. It's the first time in a decade that a federal government has constructed social housing. You would think that, if you're sitting on the same side of the chamber as Pauline Hanson, as the guy from the Clive Palmer party and as Peter Dutton's crew, maybe that would be an indication that you're on the wrong side of this debate. But that's exactly what the Greens are doing.

It gives me no joy. On this side of the House, after watching the previous government refuse to spend a single cent on social housing over their decade in office, we know how hard it is not only to win government but to get money on the table for social housing. We finally have the opportunity to build 30,000 homes, as a starting point for the federal government: homes for First Nations Australians, homes for veterans, and homes for the thousands of women and children who are currently experiencing domestic and family violence and are being kicked out of shelters because there just aren't enough beds. These people are waiting. Games can be played with a whole range of issues, and politics will be played on a whole range of issues in this place. That's fine; that's part of this place's peaks and troughs. But don't stand in the way of shelter, of social housing homes.

As I said at the start, not one member of that group of parties—of One Nation, of Clive Palmer's party, of the coalition or of the Greens—who is currently standing in the way of social housing is waiting for a home. None of them are. I think that in this place we have to be honest and we have to be accountable. There are times when we agree with each other and there are times when we don't. But I know that if I was sitting on the same side of the chamber as Pauline Hanson, Peter Dutton and Clive Palmer on a debate about social housing, maybe I'd look around, because on the other side of the chamber you have the Labor Party, the teals and the Independents. You have the Labor Party, the teals and the Independents all coming together because we've negotiated in good faith to try and come up with an outcome. From the Prime Minister to the housing minister, everyone has tried to get an outcome on this bill. But there is a group of people standing in the way, and they should get out of the way so we can build more social housing homes.

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