Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Everyone should have access to a house. That is true, and I think that that's something everyone on both sides of this House recognises. One of the things you have to also have a look at is megatrends, the way that things happen over a period of time, and how long it takes to change some megatrends. The truth is the coalition government weren't really interested in housing. In fact, I think it was the Abbott government who got rid of the housing minister, because the fundamental thing is they don't really care about housing.

The thing I would say is that when the Albanese government took over we stepped into, I'm going to say, multiple crises happening at once. We have a plan, and the plan will take time, but this is something that we're actively working on. This is something that will actually work. This is something the federal government should be looking at.

There are so many reasons why we are in this situation at the moment. If we have a look at the policy details that have been released by the coalition, I think the member for Reid was saying not one single dollar will go from the coalition to actually build a house. I'm sorry, but Australians are pretty clever, and they know if a federal government is serious about housing they're actually going to put dollars into bricks and mortar, as opposed to this other made-up stuff where you've got to do it out of your retirement funds, which is—

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