Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

Here we go! Members opposite will be interested to know I just googled 'lovers getting back together in songs'. They're 'Whatever it Takes' by Lifehouse, 'Reunited' by Peaches and Herb—I like this one—'Let's Stay Together' by Al Green, but the best one of all is Katy Perry's 'Never Really Over' because it never was really over. The relationship between the Greens and Labor was always there and was always strong. They were just pretending they had a little lovers' tiff, and we know that, on housing, the Greens pretended they were going out on a limb. They have rolled over, the government has capitulated and it is embarrassing for all concerned.

We as a coalition are not going to support these amendments to the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023. The former minister for housing in the coalition government, who sits behind me here, the member for Deakin, put in place three very responsible measures, three programs which assisted 300,000 people to get homeownership. They are the Home Guarantee Scheme, HomeBuilder and the First Home Super Saver Scheme. Those policies were effective. They worked. What we have now is the Greens, who have never been in favour of building anything, and Labor, who puts in place reviews of everything that ever was going to be built, coming together to put a scheme in place that is not going to build a single house. It's just not going to. When Labor took government I heard promises of a million houses. Now it's 30,000. What is it going to be? Is it going to be a house? Is it going to be 30,000 houses? Is going to be a million homes?

What I'd really like to know is: what are you going to build those houses with? We've got a Labor Victorian government. They're totally against any timber being extracted or used. They want to turn off all the gas. The Greens are with them. They don't want any fossil fuels used. Are they going to be straw houses, so, when the wolf comes, he's can huff and puff and blow them down? These are questions that need to be answered, because those opposite don't want to build anything. They want to review absolutely everything.

The other thing too—and this is pertinent—is that, as of late June 2023, ASIC data shows 2,023 construction companies have gone into liquidation since mid-2021. This figure dwarfs the next industry sector, the accommodation and food sector, with 1,013 companies, and makes up the lion's share of 7,231 companies in total that have folded over the same period. You've got housing and construction companies throughout Australia shutting up shop. They can't find labour. They cannot find the materials to build houses.

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