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

What a humiliating day for this government. They've paid the ransom. We should look over to the Greens, who are contributing the housing minister to this government. This government has absolutely buckled to the Greens in order to get this hopeless policy through. We listened to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Housing speak about their commitment to housing. Why on earth, on every measure of housing, are things going backwards?

Since the election of this government, we have seen first home buyers down, new home starts down, new dwelling approvals down and rents up. So we've got an absolute disconnect between the very happy, self-satisfied group over here on the government benches and the people that they represent, because the people they represent are not sitting around grinning, laughing and patting themselves on the back as they are today. You never hear this government mention first home buyers—not once. The Prime Minister didn't speak about first home buyers once. The housing minister didn't speak about first home buyers once. That might be part of the reason why they are down. Every time this housing minister says, 'There was a wasted decade under the coalition,' I think, 'Why are things worse under you since your election?' They have no connection to or focus on the people that they represent.

Then we see this faux war with their frenemies in the Greens. The Greens stood in this place and demanded a whole lot of things. I must say that the Greens buckled a fair bit themselves from what they originally demanded. In the end, we see a tawdry deal between the government and the Greens. Why? It's because, in the end, so many of the members on the government benches only got elected because of Greens preferences. So it is a bit of a faux war and a bit of a faux argument because, in the end, they are addicted to Greens preferences. They rely on the Greens to sit in this chamber. So we always knew they would cut a deal in the end. We always knew that they would buckle.

For the taxpayers out there, in order to get this through, the government just magically recently found $1 billion behind the cushions on the couch, just a lazy billion dollars that they found at the eleventh hour to get this deal over the line. But that's actually a good outcome for Australians because that last billion dollars, credit to the government, they put into the coalition government's Housing Infrastructure Facility. Our government thoughtfully put in place policies like the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, soon to be renamed Housing Australia. We set that up. I set it up as Assistant Treasurer. This minister is renaming it. That's her legacy—she is renaming an entity that is a proud coalition achievement.

We don't see, though, anything else from this government. If this policy delivers, which I have serious reservations about, it will not even be a drop in the bucket. This is 6,000 homes a year over five years at the same time as this government is bringing in 1½ million new migrants. Those people in the gallery watching here today will see a lot of backslapping and people patting each other on the back. But, at best—at its absolute best—it might see 30,000 homes, they claim, being delivered over five years at the same time as there are 1½ million new migrants, with absolutely no idea where those people will live. What do you think that is going to do for rents? What do you think that is going to do for potential first home buyers, people today who are renting and saving for that first home?

What else has been on this government's agenda? They took to the election the so-called Help to Buy Scheme, a very small, niche program, not particularly original thinking. It is already nine months later. It was supposed to have started on 1 January. What on earth has this government been doing? Nine months after they proposed this bill, we've got no investment mandate. We've got no investment mandate at all. All this government can do is issue media releases. I fear that we won't see anywhere near these 30,000 homes. I would say with a great deal of confidence today that we will not see close to what is being promised. But, even if they do meet it, it will be inadequate.

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