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

Over the past few days, we've seen the Liberals come to the dispatch box here and ask questions of the government on housing. Their questions always imply two things. Firstly, the Liberals imply that the housing crisis we are in today only started two years ago. Secondly, they continue to shamefully link current migration numbers with a housing crisis that we know has been decades in the making. Those two implications are not only offensive but are wildly incorrect. With the record that the Liberals and Nationals have in their decade in government, it takes some gall to come in here and blame the current government for the housing crisis those opposite helped make worse. In two years, you cannot solve a housing crisis that has been decades in the making. In two years, you cannot fix the under-investment in social housing that occurred under the Liberals. And it takes a lot longer than two years to unpick the ill-thought-out and half-baked policies which have contributed to the housing crisis we face today.

During their time in office, the number of new social homes built was the lowest in over 50 years. Under their watch, homelessness rates soared—a fact starkly illustrated by the latest census data. The Liberals made significant cuts to funding for social and affordable housing, especially the National Rental Affordability Scheme. The NRAS was supposed to offer affordable rentals for low- to moderate-income earners, but its cancellation has contributed to the housing crisis we're in today. In 2014, they abolished the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, which was essential for monitoring housing supply and affordability issues and provided advice to government on how to meet challenges. Without it, policy decisions were made blindly, devoid of expert advice.

No policy demonstrated that lack of expert advice better than their housing policies during the pandemic, or one in particular—their HomeBuilder program. Nearly every expert was saying that, to sustain the building industry, government support should go to supply. Instead of providing more supply, and instead of providing more homes for renters, all HomeBuilder did was drive up the price of housing. Instead of building more homes, HomeBuilder helped people already with homes to renovate their homes.

It's clear that the former government failed on housing. They have the gall to come in here and accuse this government, saying we haven't had time to clean up their mess in two years. Well, of course, we haven't finished that. In two short years, I can tell you, Deputy Speaker Claydon, we're actually doing something about supply. Unbelievably, the Liberals have voted against all efforts to fix the housing crisis we're in today—every single one. The Liberals weren't interested in finding solutions then, and they're not interested in finding them now.

Unlike them, our government understands that too many Australians are facing serious housing challenges. We have an ambitious goal of building 1.2 million homes by the end of the decade through our Homes for Australia Plan. The most recent budget includes $6.2 billion to boost housing supply, bringing the total of the Homes for Australia package to a whopping $32 billion. Our $9.3 billion National Agreement on Social Housing and Homelessness will double homelessness funding. We're committing $1 billion for homes for women and children fleeing violence, and we're expanding fee-free TAFE places to address construction skill shortages. We're taking immediate action, including the Social Housing Accelerator and initiatives to support renters and homebuyers, such as the Home Guarantee Scheme, the Help to Buy Scheme and our incentives to build 160,000 rental-only properties, which is currently being blocked in the Senate by the Liberals and the Greens.

We were elected to help with the housing crisis, and at every opportunity the Albanese government has built on our broad and ambitious housing agenda, because we recognise the seriousness of our nation's challenges. Our government understands we cannot afford to aim low on housing. That's why our housing reforms are the most significant in a generation. Those opposite want to stand here and claim that our government isn't taking action on housing, and that's absolute rubbish. They had an opportunity to address the housing crisis, and they sat on their hands in their decade in government. Instead of tackling these issues head on, they choose to play politics, they choose to blame migrants, and then they team up with the Greens political party to block or vote down more housing supply. We are committed to ensuring every Australian has a safe and affordable place to call home, and, despite the efforts of the Liberals and their mates in the Greens to derail these plans, we were elected to get on with the job and will continue to do so.