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

The coalition will get home building going again in this country with our housing infrastructure program. We announced the program a couple of weeks ago. It will unlock 500,000 new homes in Australia through a $5 billion fund. Right now, hundreds of prime housing sites across our country are sitting idle because they don't have the basic infrastructure needed to get the homes built—the shovel-ready elements of infrastructure like water, power, sewerage, telecommunications and access roads. There's just no money at the moment to get that infrastructure built, which means no homes can be built.

The coalition's $5 billion housing infrastructure program has been developed closely with councils throughout our country, large landholders and those who deliver the homes that Australians live in. We are very pleased to have the unwavering support of the Master Builders Association and the Housing Industry Association, who represent tens of thousands of the people who actually build the homes that Australians live in. They agree the biggest impediment to more homes being built in this country is that infrastructure. Sadly, under Labor, we see fewer homes being built. Most economists and housing specialists think they will fall 400,000 homes short of their target. Only the coalition will get the homes that Australians need to live in built.