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

For the first time in a long time I tuned in to Q&A this week to listen to an important discussion on housing. In and amongst some honourable contributions by the New South Wales housing minister, Rose Jackson, there was an absolute shocker by the member for Griffith. Get this; he said that the planning system had nothing to do with the affordability of housing. Now, anyone who knows anything about housing knows that what the member for Griffith said is absolute A-grade rubbish. To the member for Griffith and those who orbit in his alternative reality, let's get real: the best way to deal with housing affordability is to deal with housing supply, and the best way to deal with housing supply is through planning reform. For the member for Griffith to be so dismissive of the role planning has to play and then to mansplain to the housing minister about the housing affordability crisis tells you everything you need to know about him and his political motives.

Unlike the Greens, we believe that planning reform can make a difference. Not only have we asked the states to reform their planning systems but we're incentivising them to do so—$3 billion will go to state governments that reform their planning systems and increase housing supply. More supply will lead to better housing affordability. Labor knows that we are in a housing crisis. Unlike the Greens, who play politics, and the Liberals, who vote against our policies, we're actually doing something about it.