Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians are sick and tired of politicians playing politics with housing. The Greens do it in the federal parliament when they block the Labor government's housing policies, and they do it in local government when they vote against affordable social housing in our communities. Unsurprisingly, the Liberals are here today doing it too. Get this: the Liberals in my electorate, with a full majority on the local council, opposed their own council's plan to address the housing crisis whilst also opposing the state government's plan. Their choice is no plan.

With this MPI here today, the federal Liberals are playing politics as well, choosing to blame this government and, despicably, choosing to blame migration for the housing crisis that we're in. I cannot stress how disgusted I am that the Liberals repeatedly choose to focus on migration as the reason for the housing crisis we are in.

I'll break down why I think their attack on migration is despicable. Firstly, the housing crisis existed before the last federal election. Economists, academics and industry are all in agreement that the housing crisis exists today because of decades of poor housing policy and missed opportunity. I am all for having conversations about housing policy and how to solve this crisis, but it's naive at best and wilfully misleading at worst to imply that this crisis is new and that it exists because of migration. Economist Chris Richardson put it well when he said: 'It's not that we've messed up migration; it's that we've messed up housing, but we've messed up housing so much.' Maiy Azize, of the Everybody's Home campaign, called out the fallacy of blaming immigration for the housing crisis, labelling such accusations as nonsense. And there's no better evidence of those opposite's disdain of the facts than looking at what happened to our housing market during the pandemic. You'll recall, Deputy Speaker Georganas, that borders were shut during the pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, when our borders were closed, Australia witnessed some of the highest increases in housing prices within the OECD. According to CoreLogic's home values across Australia, prices leapt 25 per cent in the two years to the end of February 2022, and, since the pandemic, rental prices have increased by 32 per cent.

The facts show that soaring housing prices and diminishing affordability are not tied to migration rates. We have a housing crisis today because of a lack of supply, poor planning laws, a skills shortage, supply chain issues and a historical lack of investment in social and affordable housing. Yet those opposite choose to ignore all of that, and they focus their gaze on migration and migrants—and it's not right. Punching down on migration and migrants will not solve the housing crisis.

I grew up in Seven Hills, in Western Sydney. Both my parents were born overseas. Both my parents didn't speak English when they came here. Both my parents came to Australia for a better life. Both my parents worked hard, employed people, paid taxes and made our country better, and nearly all their friends and all my friends have near identical stories. In my entire life, in 40 years spent here on this land, I've not yet met a migrant family that hasn't made our country better. And when the Liberals come in this place and choose migration as the reason for the housing crisis, it makes me angry. I see it as an attack on me, an attack on my family and attack on migrant families in my electorate of Bennelong. There are people out there who will jump on this language and attack migrant communities and blame them for a crisis that is not of their making. Blaming migration for the housing crisis is dangerous and irresponsible, and it undermines the absolute truth about the role migration plays in modern-day Australia. The truth about migration is this: it makes our country better, it makes our country stronger and it makes our communities safer.

Instead of attacking migration and playing politics, I encourage the Liberals and Greens to support the government in our genuine attempts to resolve this housing crisis. Pass our Help to Buy legislation, which is stuck in the Senate. Stop voting against our policies, like you did with the Housing Australia Future Fund. And tell those in your parties to work with the state and local governments who are seeking to address supply. To the Liberals and the Greens: stop playing politics with housing, and work with us to make this the parliament that takes meaningful action on the housing crisis.

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