Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing. Australians are suffering, with higher rents and an inability to find housing. Under the Albanese Labor government's 'big Australia' policy, a new person is arriving to live in our country every 44 seconds. Minister, where are these new people supposed to live?

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

Let me just make a few comments off the top about the migration matters that have been raised here. Migration is coming down because of changes that have been made by our government, and we've done this in a system that Dr Martin Parkinson has described as 'fundamentally broken' by 'a decade of wilful neglect'. And, if there is a single person in this parliament who is responsible for that broken system, he sits over here—in the opposition leader's chair.

The Minister for Home Affairs talked yesterday about the fact that there is one gold medal in this parliament for the person who issued the most number of visas in a single year. It wasn't a Labor minister; it was the Leader of the Opposition, who talks a big game. He talks a big game about migration, but we learned something very important about him this week. We learnt that he is an absolute fraud, because, when it came to the chance to address some of the issues that the honourable member has asked me about, the Leader of the Opposition, instead of doing the right thing and helping us take action, went—

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

The minister will pause and take a seat for a sec. We'll hear from the member for Deakin.

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

My point of order is on relevance. We're a minute into the answer, and the minister has not once referred to the question or to the fact that there are migrants arriving every 44 seconds.

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

Order! The member for Swan is warned. The Leader of the House?

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The preamble of the question opened up a discussion of the policy really clearly, and that's exactly what the minister's now engaging in. They might not like for that information to be returned, but it's completely relevant to what was asked.

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

It is directly relevant, but that can't constitute the remainder of the minister's answer. To assist with the member's question, I'm going to invite her to return to the question. She has had a preamble. She's had a minute into the question—

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

I was asked about migration. I was also asked about housing, so I'm happy to move to that.

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

I haven't finished speaking, so, before you take off, if you could assist me to do my job, I can assist you to do your job.

So, if you could just remain silent, just while I assist the House—

Honourable members interjecting—

Order! Whilst you're entitled to go through that, to assist the member's question I'm just going to ask you to return back to the question.

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

Let me say a few things about our government's housing policy. We arrived in office 2½ years ago to find housing in an absolute mess. Let's remember that, for most of the period of time that those opposite were in government, they didn't even have a Commonwealth housing minister. They do not have a leg to stand on. We've taken a very different approach. Our country today is led by a prime minister who was raised in public housing. His access to public housing as a child transformed the entire trajectory of his life. Those opposite don't like to hear it much, but the fact that we have a person who was raised in public housing as our Prime Minister is I think a fact that every Australian should be proud of.

We want to offer the opportunity of secure housing to as many people as we can. We've got a housing crisis in our country that's been cooking for 30 years. We are the boldest and most ambitious Commonwealth in that period to come forward and say we want to help Australians address this need.

One of the main things that we are doing about this is working with the states and territories to build more homes. We are trying to work with the states and territories to build 1.2 million homes over five years. We're working with renters to make sure that they've got better rental rights. And we're trying to get more Australians into that dream of homeownership.

Now, if only we had a parliament that actually wanted to work with us on this issue that affects millions of people. Instead, what we have is an opposition that knows only one word—'no, no, no'—to every single proposition that's put before it. And, unfortunately, for people on the crossbench, the Australian Greens, who talk a big game about housing, when it comes to making real change for real people they say no too. Who would have thought the far left and the far right had so much in common in this country? Despite that opposition we will work hard to make sure that we meet the housing needs of people in this country.