Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've stood in this chamber on many an occasion and proudly boasted about the Sunshine Coast as a lifestyle capital, as the most entrepreneurial region in Australia and as by far the greatest place to bring up a family—all of which is true. As a result of such characteristics, we've seen a burst in population, and it's bursting at the seams. I've frequently been in this place, debating issues of infrastructure, saying that we need to keep infrastructure ahead of the population curve. We need to keep building it.

But I stand today to talk about another issue which has become more and more pressing. It is the issue of housing. The fact is that people simply cannot find a home, and those who do have a home are struggling more and more in the midst of this cost-of-living crisis.

A report was released only this week by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the Regional Australia Institute. The report looked at the movement of people between metro areas and regions. It showed that the Sunshine Coast is by far the most popular destination, representing 14.1 per cent of that net movement. On one hand, I'm proud of the fact that more and more people want to come to the sunny coast—I don't blame them; it's what attracted me to the area—but the impact we are seeing on the ground, due to poor public policy around a lack of housing, is having a very real human impact.

This was borne out by a cost-of-living forum that I hosted only a couple of weeks ago with Senator Jane Hume. We heard from organisations that are on the frontline, dealing with those who are struggling the most, many of whom simply cannot afford the rent. They cannot afford to have a roof over their heads. Many are simply not eating for fear that they can't pay for their rent. Rentals on the Sunshine Coast have increased by around 27 per cent over the last 12 months. People are doing it tough.

As Senator Hume and I walked the beat around the Sunshine Coast, we heard that the government has no solutions to this problem. In the last year, the government has only got rid of a minister who wasn't performing in the hope that a new minister would start doing the job. We will continue to press the case for the sunny coast. We will not stop.