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

In my home state of Victoria where the Labor government has been in government for a very long time, we've never seen longer waiting lists for public and social housing—never have they been longer. Any intellectually honest person on the Labor side would admit their abject failure to those people who are waiting on those waiting lists.

On this side of the House, we believe in aspiration and the worthy objective that every Australian should have, and that is the opportunity, should they choose to do so, of owning a home in their lifetime. The government has waved the white flag on home ownership for young Australians. They're not interested in talking about home ownership, whereas on this side of the chamber, when we were in government, we directly assisted 300,000 Australians into their first home. Whether it was through the HomeBuilder program, the Home Guarantee Scheme or the First Home Super Saver Scheme—all programs that were opposed at the time by the Labor Party, some of which have been enthusiastically adopted now because their agenda is so bereft. They have absolutely no idea. Even today their billion dollars of bribery to get the Greens over the line is an extra billion dollars in the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, which I set up as housing minister.

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