Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the Prime Minister bought his first house in Marrickville, it cost $146,000, about five times the average income. Now a house in Marrickville costs $2 million, about 20 times the average income. When the Prime Minister went to uni, he did so for free, graduating without a student debt. Now uni students cop massive student debt, and often it rises faster than they can afford to pay it off. When the Prime Minister grew up, governments used to build enough public housing so that a worker who needed it could move into a good public home and build a good life. Now there is a shortage of 700,000 public homes and people often have to wait 10 years to get one. When the Prime Minister bought his first house he did not have to compete against property investors that used the capital gains tax discount to bid up the price of housing. Now, property investors will get $39 billion in tax handouts this year alone from this Labor government.

People are not upset that the Prime Minister got these opportunities; people are upset that a Labor government, in a country far wealthier than it was in the eighties, is denying those same opportunities today. People are upset that its Labor government is refusing to scrap student debt and make university free. People are upset that Labor is refusing to scrap tax handouts for property investors denying millions of renters the chance to buy a home. People are upset that Labor is refusing to fund a mass build of public housing the way governments used to when it could. The government should listen to people right now who are frustrated with a group of politicians who got so many good opportunities when they grew up and are denying them now. (Time expired)