Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I read the MPI put forward by my neighbour the member for Griffith—I do share his concerns about the housing crisis—it was surprising that he would be so political and suggest that the Labor Party is doing nothing when it comes to housing. First and foremost, the Labor Party is about increasing supply. That's what we need to do first and foremost. I do have concerns about the Greens policy. As reported by the ABC, constitutional expert Professor Anne Twomey reckons it would not be constitutional. That is the concern I have. It's been a while since I did constitutional law, but, in terms of the head of power that the Greens are hoping to find magically, I think that would be a problem.

We know that we have the power to give the states and territories moneys to build more housing. We need to do a lot more when it comes to building housing, and we've got some plans in place. So to suggest that there's nothing, when we know that things are being held up by the Greens—we could have more homes on the ground. But look at what happens when we actually get an opportunity to build some social housing. We know the Greens love a good stunt. They stunt as a pack all the time when it comes to making decisions about housing, or anything, and then they'll get the social memes out there. But what do they actually do? I walked past the member for Griffith's room the other day and I saw this sign in the window: 'Build public housing—beautiful, well designed, sustainable'. I agree with it. It's a great thing to do. But I obviously need to get a sticker and fix up the poster so it says 'Build public housing but not in a Greens electorate'. That's what we need to do.

I know they're taking their lead from the member for Melbourne, who said in Clifton Hill that the Brotherhood of St Laurence would not be able to build housing. The Brotherhood of St Lawrence—not exactly Gina Rinehart. The Brotherhood of St Laurence—doing great work.

Let's look at what some of the other Greens have said, closer to home. We have a quote here from the Daily Mail about Elizabeth Watson-Brown:

A Greens MP who helped to design a 375million apartment block where individual units were going for as much as $8million refused to back a Uniting Church plan to build 92 units on an abandoned chicken farm

The Financial Review said the Greens opposed a developmental proposal for 349 apartments across two towers in West End—in the member for Griffith's area: 'Chandler-Mather opposes two 26-storey towers in his electorate, despite the 470 new homes it would create. His argument was it will create more congestion.' More congestion? This is from the Guardiannot exactly a right-wing mag:

The Greens' housing spokesperson has led a long-running community campaign against a proposal … to build more than 850 dwellings—

on vacant land in Bulimba, at Bulimba Barracks. That's from the Guardian. Or this from the ABC—not exactly a right-wing publication either:

Apartment towers up to 75 stories proposed for Woolloongabba—

again, in Griffith—

to alleviate housing crisis opposed by Greens.

We know that they have these weird policy ideas. The Productivity Commission report in 2023 said:

Rent control is not an effective way to improve affordability for renters.

We know that we're going to give renters a helping hand on Monday. We're actually going to give them a tax cut, we're going to give them a—

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