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

My question is to the Minister for Housing. Yesterday the minister apologised for referencing Treasury modelling on build-to-rent that didn't exist, then seemed to claim the 160,000 figure came from Property Council modelling of Labor's scheme, which is also not true. In fact, the Property Council says Labor's plan won't build any extra housing. Experts say build-to-rent overseas sees big corporate landlords use rent-maximisation strategies by algorithmically coordinating rent hikes and keeping properties vacant to drive up rents. Why does Labor want to give money to developers to hurt renters and drive up rents?

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm not surprised by the nature of that question. Doesn't it say it all? Questions like this are not going to help us build a single new home for a single person in our country. And I want the parliament to really hear this. Labor has a $32 billion Homes for Australia plan that we are implementing, and when we think about what we are doing in this policy space, we're thinking about these childcare workers who are sitting up in the gallery. Those are the people that have every entitlement to deserve the support of government to own their own home. We are thinking about homes for Australians, not silly debates in Parliament House like other parties in this parliament.

Let me say a little bit about this build-to-rent scheme which is in the Senate at the moment—a really core and integral part of Labor's commitment with the states and territories around this country to build 1.2 million homes desperately needed by Australians. I spoke to parliament yesterday about some of the terrible implications of the housing shortage that we have in this country. We have got millions of Australians whose lives are fundamentally affected by the fact that they cannot get the housing they need. The answer to this problem, to the rental distress, to the housing unaffordability and to the rise in homelessness that we are seeing is that we need to build more homes. That's why our government has supported this ambitious target to build more homes for Australians.

When we look at our rental market in Australia, there's a unique difference between the way we're doing things here and what we see overseas. One of those differences is that we do not see this particular type of rental—build-to-rent, as it's known in the sector. We want to assist Australians to have lots of different rental options. What the research shows and what the experts show is that the scheme in the Senate will build more homes. There is dispute about how many homes, but it will be tens of thousands of additional homes. If we want to stop success and progress on this matter then we should play politics—business as usual. We should continue to have the Greens building this unholy alliance with the Liberals, who dropped the ball on this for an entire decade. We'll continue to see them come into the Senate and say that they care but block progress and play politics instead. I can tell you that through all of this debate, our government will have a single focus: more homes and more affordable housing for more Australians, and that's our commitment to our citizens.