Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before coming to this place, I had the pleasure of spending 10 years in local government. In that time I learnt that, for elected officials to address our housing crisis effectively, every level of government must work together—no politics, no partisanship, just progress. We've had politics on housing for so long, and these political battles have made the housing crisis worse. In my time as mayor, New South Wales was governed by a state Liberal government, and throughout that time the Liberals would say affordable housing was a priority but then do little it. And the same thing is happening here in this parliament today. The Liberals complain about the housing crisis, yet they actively oppose policies to address it. They voted against the Housing Australia Future Fund and, yesterday, against Labor's Help to Buy scheme. Disgracefully, they are choosing to blame migrants for their 10 years of policy failures on housing.

It is now incredibly disappointing that the Greens political party have joined forces with the Liberals on housing. While they may say different things, their intentions are identical. I say to the Greens and the Liberals: you can't say you want to help renters when then you oppose policies to address housing supply. I say to the Greens and the Liberals: you can't say you want more people to own a home when you then block the Housing Australia Future Fund and Help to Buy. On housing, the Greens and the Liberals are putting politics ahead of progress, and Australia has had a gutful.