Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Having been in this House for just over 2½ years now, I know that much of the work that happens here is really important and very serious but also that much of it is performative. And that is what we have had here in this debate. Housing affordability is certainly a matter of public importance, but this debate is purely performative. We know that. Those opposite not only failed to help with housing affordability when they were in government for nine years but also failed to back key measures that we've introduced to help with housing affordability. If you take that as a whole—they failed to act when they were in government and failed to back bills that we've introduced to help with housing affordability—then what can we surmise about this debate? It is purely performative. They are not here to have a serious discussion about what we should be doing to help with housing and affordability.

Let's look at the two policies that they are bringing forward: one is to assist in providing additional funding for supporting infrastructure—no additional funds to build the homes, mind you—and the other is to get people to raid their super funds, their retirement incomes. These are the two policies that they've brought forward. As with all other things from those opposite, they always sit on their hands when there's an opportunity to actually do something. With the cost of living, did they back a tax cut for all Australian taxpayers? No. Did they back cheaper energy bills? No. What have they backed? Lunches for bosses. And we are reminded of the mantra that they use over and over again: if you don't pay for it, you don't value it. They've demonstrated, with their actions when they were in government for nine years and their actions now, that they also don't value housing affordability—helping Australians to get into homes. They didn't back our $10 billion housing affordability future fund.

I note that the previous member talked about homelessness for women, particularly older women. I'll tell you what will help those older women into homes. It's the Housing Australia Future Fund. That fund will be building 30,000 homes, and 4,000 of those homes are going to be set aside for vulnerable women. That is the practical help you can provide as a government—actually building homes for vulnerable older women.

We know that there is a housing affordability crisis. I know it acutely because I live in Sydney. Sydney is considered the second-least affordable housing market in the world, behind Hong Kong. It's a challenge for Sydneysiders. I hear about in my electorate. But it hasn't always been this way, so we have to ask the question: how did we get here? We got here not because of the actions of this government; we got here because there has been a failure by coalition governments at the federal and state levels to take this problem seriously. Housing unaffordability does not spring up overnight. It brews and brews for years and years. Part of the problem is supply. Part of the problem is getting more people to build those homes. Part of the problem is getting appropriate infrastructure. But it is, unfortunately, a perfect storm that has been brewing for a really long time.

We have, unfortunately, had a coalition government that has been completely uninterested in trying to solve it. I'm glad that I'm now part of an Albanese Labor government that is addressing it head-on. While the coalition has spent this entire parliament blocking the Labor government's plan to get thousands of Australians into their own homes, Labor has a simple belief, and that is that ordinary Australians should be able to own their own homes. We're helping more people buy their first homes with smaller deposits through the Home Guarantee Scheme and with smaller mortgages under our Help To Buy Scheme. These programs will help thousands of people get into their own homes sooner. The key part of this is to build more homes. As I said, that is our No. 1 priority—to build more homes.

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