Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are some problems that this place deals with that are complex and require special, concerted effort, and housing is one of those. It's a problem with supply-and-demand issues. It's a problem with workforce challenges. It's a problem which requires action at all levels of government and in the private sector. There are some problems that this place deals with that are long lasting and that evolve over long periods of time, as the first speaker on this side pointed out. And, again, housing is one of those.

Housing has characteristics that have evolved over decades—decades of inaction at various levels of government, decades of underinvestment and decades of supply-side challenges. When we deal with problems of this nature, the Australian public expects serious responses from this chamber, serious responses from the national parliament and bipartisan approaches. What I'm going to argue is that, when one looks at the two sides of this chamber and at the two offerings that are going to be put forward at the next election, one of them is a serious, genuine policy offering which we've seen evolve over the last three years, and the other is cynical politics. One is based on serious policy development, and the other is based on non-serious, populist offerings that no serious commentators support.

Let me first look at the issue of those that are most challenged in the current market—first home buyers. This government has put forward targeted schemes like Help to Buy and the Home Guarantee Scheme, which help first home buyers pull together a house purchase even when they're struggling to pull together the deposit and which put first home buyers in a better position even when they don't have enough equity to put the transaction together. These are policy offerings which will assist hundreds of thousands of households over the next three years. What we have from those opposite is cynical politics, having voted against every single program that this government has put forward.

In addition to that, what we have been offered from those opposite are non-serious, cynical, populist politics which are not supported by any serious commentators. The early release of superannuation, which is their central offering to help first home buyers, isn't supported by a single serious macroeconomist. It will not do a single thing to build an extra home, and it will only bid up the price of existing homes in a way that will not help first home buyers at all. In addition to that, it will undermine one of the key policy rationales of our superannuation system, preservation, in a way that will make it all the more difficult to satisfy our long-term attempts to deal with the ageing of our society. Those opposite don't have a serious offering and, in a cynical, political way, have stood in the way of everything that this government has put forward.

Let's look at other key supply-side measures, such as the Housing Australia Future Fund. We have invested $32 billion of funds in a range of measures, such as the Social Housing Accelerator and all of the investments in the last mile. All of these measures are opposed by those opposite, who are delaying the implementation of critical schemes which have been absolutely important to increasing supply of housing in this country. At the same time, those opposite are intimating that they're going to be cutting public sector resources all over the place, but in an incredibly dishonest and cynical way. They're not saying where they're going to cut. They're intimating that the Housing Australia Future Fund is going to be hollowed out and intimating that all sorts of other schemes to support housing supply are going to be cut, but without giving any details. So they've blocked the passage of our legislation and now, at the next election, are strongly intimating that they're going to be cutting further funds.

Another critical supply-side measure from this side has been free TAFE for those wanting to enter the trades. Thirty-five thousand people entering the trades is a key supply-side measure, with all of the key players in this sector agreeing that workforce issues over the last few decades have been a key hindrance. Those opposite, again, reject that measure and attack any measure to help reduce the barriers to participation in TAFE by saying, 'If you don't pay for something, you don't value it.' Those opposite, with this complex issue, have offered nothing. (Time expired)

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