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

I'm happy to speak on this MPI to do with housing. I think it sets out nicely the differences between the coalition and the government. We had the member for Hume spend 10 minutes talking about manufactured fear. Then we had the member for Deakin spend five minutes of manufactured outrage about something. And we had the housing minister, who offered practical solutions and hope, because we are the party of hope. I'm delivering this address aimed squarely at my 19-year-old son because I fear for him and his generation in terms of what chance they will have. Thankfully, the housing minister laid out plenty of practical solutions and a clear plan. I note that we don't have anyone from the Greens political party here for a debate about housing. I guess that is that dangerous interplay that we've got.

Whilst we're an old party, we're all about new ideas. We're a very old party. Those opposite saw Menzies investing millions of dollars in social housing. That's what Menzies, the founder of the Liberal Party, did. He invested a lot of money in public housing. Now they have basically deserted that. As I said, we're an old party, and we're called the old party by the Greens as if that's a slur. The Greens have been around for about 50 years, but they're still pretending that they're the young party. Really it's mutton dressed as tofu, isn't it? They are an old party, and they have joined with the Liberal Party and the National Party. It's incredible. I think the Prime Minister touched on this. If the leader of the Liberal Party and the leader of the National Party stop housing any longer, they'll have to have a double-barrelled surname. They really will. What would it be? Would it be Proud-Dutton? No, that doesn't work. Or would it be Little-Dutton? They'll have to have some combination if they're going to keep blocking housing like the Greens do. That's what they'll have to do. They'll need to get a double-barrelled name of some sort.

We are providing national leadership when it comes to housing and more importantly $32 billion. We're training more tradies so that the Australians of tomorrow can build those houses. We've also had to bring in a few skilled tradespeople, as those opposite would know if they actually spoke to people in the building sector. They get scared by the idea that they might run into someone from the CFMEU. I'll give you a clue: the housing sector is not a heavily union regulated business. Go and talk to the people in your suburbs. Do you know what their No. 1 concern is? Getting skilled people to work on their building sites. That's why investing in training is a great thing—the fee-free TAFE and all of those things. We're delivering the biggest investment in social housing in more than a decade—$6.2 billion in direct budget investment. We are committed, in a fair dinkum way, to building 1.2 million homes.

The opposition and the Greens—the missing sector of the parliament—have combined in this unholy alliance to block a sensible policy that will deliver homes for 40,000 people. You might say, 'Well, that's not a lot, in terms of percentages,' but, I'll tell you what, that will make a difference. As we heard from the Minister for Housing, through the individual story she related, it does make a difference. It gives people a roof over their heads. It gives security, and so many other benefits come from having secure housing. We know that it's difficult. I've been an MP for 17 years and I have never seen as many homeless people as I'm seeing now. Before I was elected, I was on the board of Kyabra Community Organisation, which actually builds housing—yes, Greens, there are people that build housing. In fact, if people build more houses, we'll have more houses. The Greens keep saying, 'You're on the side of developers.' Well, people like Kyabra and the Brotherhood of St Laurence build houses.

I know the leader of the Greens combated a housing development built by those evil developers the Brotherhood of St Laurence. We need people, like the Brisbane Housing Company, to build more housing. That's what we need, and this policy will give 40,000 eligible Australians a chance to buy a home, with either 40 per cent of the purchase price for new homes or 30 per cent for existing homes. It's in Greens electorates, and it's also in coalition electorates around the nation. Get on board.

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