Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

In the litany of failures of this government, the biggest failure and the biggest area of neglect and misunderstanding is in relation to housing. The government has no agenda in housing. If you want to be generous and say that their failed Housing Australia Future Fund, the Ponzi scheme money-go-round, is an agenda, then that agenda is in absolute tatters.

The hapless housing minister gets up and tries to say that, somehow, housing has improved under the Labor government. I think it's pretty clear to Australians that that's not the truth. If you look at every single measure since this government has been in office, housing has gone backwards for Australians. New home starts between the March quarter of 2022 and 2023 are down by nearly seven per cent. New home approvals are down by nearly 16 per cent compared to this time last year. New home sales are down by nearly 40 per cent. First home buyers are at their lowest levels since the Gillard government, and, of course, people who are renting are paying on average 11½ per cent more this year than last year. On every single measure for ordinary Australians, housing is going backwards.

What do we hear from the government? As I said, if we want to be generous and call their Ponzi scheme money-go-round, the Housing Australia Future Fund, an agenda, they only want to discuss the fact that they want to build 30,000 homes over five years. There are a couple of caveats to that promise from the government. Firstly, if you look at the fund, they're saying that they can build each house for $83,000—$83,000 per home—so 30,000 homes at the princely sum of $83,000 a home. I will go to my electorate and I can assure members opposite that people in my electorate would say, 'We would love one of those'—an $83,000 home. Secondly, even if we accept this promise of 30,000 homes over five years—that's 6,000 homes a year; it's hardly an agenda that would get too many people excited; it certainly hasn't got the Senate very excited—over that same period, the government wants to bring in 1½ million. Do you remember Kevin Rudd's 'big Australia'? Well, Kevin Rudd's 'big Australia' is back, and it's real under this government. Their great answer to their 'big Australia' is: 'Don't fear Australians that 1½ million people are coming. We've got a plan to house them. We're going to build 30,000 homes for those 1½ million people.'

It is quite comical that, if you want to call it an agenda, that is the housing agenda of this government. For renters out there who are paying 11½ per cent on average more—it's 12.9 per cent for people in Sydney; it's 13 per cent for people in my home city of Melbourne; it's 16 per cent for people in Perth—they don't laugh. They see those additional 1½ million migrants, with no plan to build more housing, as further increases in their rent.

The other thing we don't hear from this government is anything about first home buyers. You do not hear a word out of this hapless housing minister about first home buyers. There's no surprise that first home buyers are now down to levels we have not seen since the Gillard government. New home purchases are down nearly 40 per cent. So the sad thing for Australians is that, because new home starts and new home purchases are down, we haven't actually seen the worst of it. The Prime Minister has the gall to talk about supply at that despatch box, and yet supply is dropping. Supply has dropped off the edge of a cliff and we're seeing nothing from this government—no action whatsoever!

It would be remiss of us to have an MPI on housing and not discuss what I think are the forgotten Australians at the moment. The forgotten Australians are people with a mortgage. Under this government, people with a mortgage are paying nearly $1,900 a month more in interest repayments.

An opposition member: How much?

Nearly $1,900 a month more in interest repayments. The Prime Minister promised before the election that he would deliver cheaper mortgages. Where are those cheaper mortgages? Who's got one of those cheaper mortgages? Do any of the members opposite have one of those cheaper mortgages that they could tell us about? I invite those members of the government who are going to speak on this MPI to outline who on earth has one of those cheaper mortgages that the Prime Minister promised before the election.

When I say there's no agenda from this government, unless you want to be very generous and call the Ponzi-scheme money-go-round an agenda, I'm probably being a bit hard, because the government did promise before the election their help-to-buy scheme. I can't say I was particularly excited about it, and I don't think many Australians were excited at the prospect of having the Australian government owning a portion of their home and having the Prime Minister, figuratively, at the kitchen table with them. But they did take it to an election.

I'm looking at my phone now; it's 8 August. It was promised that the help-to-buy scheme would start on 1 January 2023. Every time the Prime Minister is asked about his so-called promise around cheaper mortgages, he says, 'Well, no, I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about our help-to-buy scheme.' Where is it? It's eight months late. What on earth has this Minister for Housing been doing? This hapless housing minister can't even show up in the chamber for this MPI and defend her woeful legacy. I can understand why the minister wouldn't want to show her face in this chamber, with the record she's got, but she should at least front up and try and put up some sort of paltry defence.

What we see from this government is priorities that are not aligned with Australians. I can assure the House and the members of the government that we are absolutely committed to making sure that every single Australian has a realistic prospect of owning their own home. The government has waved the white flag. The government has given up. The government has said, 'We'll build 6,000 homes over five years while we bring in 1.5 million people,' as their great answer. We on this side of the House are saying to every single Australian: we will be doing everything we possibly can to give you the greatest opportunity to own your home. We cannot, as a generation, accept younger Australians looking forward to their career and their life and getting married and having children but giving up on the opportunity that every generation before them has had to own a home. This government has sold you out. This government has forgotten about you. But I assure those Australians that the Liberal and National parties are just as committed to homeownership now as we ever have been.

The help-to-buy scheme was supposed to start on 1 July. I want to give the government some credit. In recent times they have tried to take some credit for the coalition's Home Guarantee Scheme. Congratulations for continuing the vastly successful Home Guarantee Scheme, which helps people buy a home with a deposit of as little as five per cent. It helps single parents, 85 per cent of whom are single mothers, to purchase a home with a two per cent deposit. But guess what. You can't run off the fumes of the former government forever. You've got to come up with some policy and deal with the challenges in front of Australians. If you're renting, you're worse off. If you're saving for a new home, you're worse off. If you've got a mortgage now, you're worse off. Every single Australian is suffering because of the neglect and lack of planning from this government. I can assure those Australians that the Liberal and National parties have not given up on you.

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