Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Hansard source

I hear some murmurs from those opposite, and I will remind them that our government invested more just in our last budget than in the entire nine years that those opposite where in office. Our government also recognises that we have a good long-term solution to this problem but we are in crisis right now. That is why our government has made the biggest increase to Commonwealth rent assistance in 30 years—two back-to-back increases to Commonwealth rent assistance that will see Australians get up to 40 per cent increases on those payments.

We have two really important initiatives that are part of the puzzle here sitting in the Senate—one which will help more low-income Australians get into the housing market and one which will help build more rental homes for our country. Would you believe that both of these initiatives are being blocked by the Liberals and the Greens in the Senate? One of my observations is that there is a hell of a lot of politics being played in this debate by people who are seeking to get a political outcome. My goal and the government's goal in this debate is to make sure that we focus not on the politics, not on the politicians and not on the personalities but on the fact that we have a generations-long housing crisis in this country—and our government is here to help.

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