Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to take a moment to talk about the housing bill that has just passed this House. The Greens have now secured $3 billion in extra funding for public and community housing through our negotiations. But I've got to ask: has Labor become the party of the big banks, property developers and speculators? From our negotiations with them over the last nine months, I'd have to say yes.

We had to fight tooth and nail for nine months to get this $3 billion. We mobilised, going door to door, talking to thousands of people, putting all the pressure on Labor that we could, and we got $3 billion and we're proud of that. That's thousands more Australians with a secure, affordable place to live.

But you have to wonder, because Labor resisted putting this money into social housing every step of the way, but they seem perfectly content to hand $313 billion to the very wealthy in the stage 3 tax cuts. There is still nothing for renters. There is no freeze or caps on rents, little ongoing funding for social housing and no relief for mortgage holders. Why? Because Labor's policies simply do not address the fundamental inequities of a system in which housing is a wealth-building tool for speculators and bankers at the expense of those desperately in need.