Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hughes for this motion. I think she is perhaps the only member from those opposite who actually cares about housing, because if we are to look at their record, look at what they did on housing, it clearly demonstrates that they had very little interest in addressing the housing affordability crisis that was brewing.

The Abbott government abolished the National Housing Supply Council. The council was established under the Rudd Labor government to monitor housing demand, supply and affordability in Australia. It gave us a better understanding of the problem. Now that is gone. The former housing minister, the member for Deakin, failed to convene a meeting of state and territory housing ministers. It begs the question: what was he doing when he was housing minister? This is a wicked challenge that requires three levels of government working together—development approvals at the council level, planning policy at the state level, infrastructure spend at the state and federal levels. We need three levels of government working together yet the previous minister for housing could not even get everyone in the same room in the five years that he was housing minister.

This motion here talks about the lack of skilled workers. I agree with the member for Hughes because there is a critical lack of skilled workers, particularly in the construction sector. But let's look at how long it takes to complete an apprenticeship—three to four years. Some apprenticeships take six years. So if we go back three to four years, who was in government then? Those opposite. This skills crisis that those opposite talk about, and which we readily admit to, is a skills crisis that was brewing, again, for a long time and that those opposite failed to address.

We, on this side of the House, are doing the hard work to address the skills shortage. We are providing fee-free TAFE. If you want to do a cert III in bricklaying, that's free. A cert II in construction is free. We are making the hard choices and hard decisions to ensure that we've got the skilled workers to complete the necessary construction to address the housing affordability crisis.

The one idea we have from those opposite, so far, is superannuation. This is their one golden ticket, their one golden egg that they go to every time there's an issue that they have to pay for. They go and raid super balances. Again, it's a bad idea because housing experts, finance experts and economic experts all agree that this won't solve the issue of housing affordability. In fact, it's likely to make it worse because you're adding to demand.

Ultimately, a key part of the housing affordability crisis is the lack of supply. That's why it is a key plank in what the Albanese Labor government is doing to address the housing affordability issue. We are increasing supply. We're doing that through the Housing Affordability Future Fund, we're giving incentives for build-to-rent, and, importantly, we are financing the National Housing Infrastructure Facility to ensure that we are building the critical infrastructure that is required when you build new homes—things like public transport and utilities. That's something that the former New South Wales government failed to do when they were building in greenfield sites and failing to provide adequate education facilities or roads.

The other three major areas that we're concentrating on include providing direct assistance to the most vulnerable through our 15 per cent increase in rental assistance and institutional reform by providing national leadership. We've reconvened the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council to ensure that we have evidence based recommendations, and we have finally convened state and territory housing ministers. We are also assisting first home buyers through the expanded First Home Guarantee and Help to Buy schemes.

In Australia, we have major iconic infrastructure, such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, the Snowy Hydro. We are a country obsessed with major infrastructure projects, and I think our next one should be housing.

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