Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Why won't the Prime Minister admit that his decision to let in a record 547,000 migrants last year has been a significant reason for his homegrown housing crisis?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Assistant Treasurer will cease interjecting. The Prime Minister is going to be heard in silence.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Deakin for his question. Of course, the figures that he referred were what occurred under the system that we inherited. A system that we inherited and a system that we are fixing—

Hon. Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Minister for Home Affairs and the member for Deakin will cease interjecting.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a system that we are fixing, because what the three reviews that have been undertaken into our migration system have shown is that the migration system that we inherited was broken. It was a mess. You had people coming in, allegedly to do study, that were not actually doing any training. They were just ticking that box off and then they were continuing to work here and engage here.

Now the figures show as well—and this point must be made—that the projections that were there under the former government were for a higher population than we have in Australia now. And when it comes to housing, that I'm also asked about, what we know is that we inherited a system where there simply wasn't—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Deakin has asked his question.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They'd never seen a social housing project that they supported! That's one thing: their opposition to the Housing Australia Future Fund. But they've also opposed, along with the Greens, just during this sitting fortnight, the build-to-rent tax incentives. And their justification for opposing this is that developers build housing. That's the justification. So they're against public housing, and they're against private rentals. But, in opposing the Help to Buy scheme, they're also against homeownership.

Honourable members interjecting—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme will cease interjecting, and so will the Minister for Home Affairs so I can hear the member for Deakin on a point of order.

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Social Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The point of order is again on relevance. It can't be relevant to the question for the Prime Minister to critique the opposition, given it was his ministers boasting about the number of visas—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Resume your seat. The question was about the Prime Minister's decision regarding a migration number and if that was a reason to deal with the housing crisis now. The Prime Minister is obviously not agreeing with that proposition brought forward, so he's outlining his reasons as to why that is the case. He'll just need to make sure his comments are directly relevant to the question. He can't stray into other areas of policy topics, because it was specifically around housing. I will ask the Prime Minister to return to the question.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I'm certainly talking housing, because we want more social homes. That was deferred by those opposite. We want more private rentals. That's currently blocked over in the Senate. And we want more homeownership, and that's still being blocked by those opposite as well. So I'm not sure what form of housing they want, because they don't want public housing, they don't want private rentals, and they don't want homeownership. All three have they opposed.

But I'm interested to note that the Queensland LNP have come out with an election policy. Do you know what it is? It's shared equity. David Crisafulli has come out with a policy saying that he will have a shared-equity scheme if he's elected in Queensland. Here they're against it; up there they're for it. (Time expired)