Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the shadow minister for his contribution. The government won't be supporting the amendments that he's moved. There's a simple reason why we have a housing shortage in Australia and it's that the previous government didn't invest in constructing new social and affordable housing in Australia.

There was no investment in additional housing supply under the previous government, and this government is having to clean up that mess through policies such as the Housing Australia Future Fund, Help to Buy and others, and it's working. This coming 12 months, 13,500 thousand new social and affordable houses will be constructed under this government's Housing Australia Future Fund allocation.

As to the core occupation list, I reiterate the point I made earlier that the core occupation list, as recommended by Jobs and Skills Australia, has been put together after a thorough process of consultation between businesses, in particular, unions, workers, state and territory governments, employer associations and industry associations. The list responds to the needs of industry. Again, that is what the government is doing. We have brought in close to 11,500 skilled building workers over the last 12 months, which is more than were brought in under the coalition in its final year. In fact, it's double the numbers under the coalition in its final year.

We're responding to the needs of industry, we're ensuring that we're bringing on that additional supply in the housing market, and this bill, with its specialist skills pathway for those who are working at trade level and above and its core skills pathway for trades occupations, ensures that we get the right labour that we need in Australia to meet those demands into the future.

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