Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens have an amendment to the report. Just for clarity, it's a revised amendment that has been circulated recently. For the benefit of the chamber, I'll just make it very clear that this is in relation to the Housing Australia Future Fund Bill 2023, the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council Bill 2023 and the Treasury Laws Amendment (Housing Measures No. 1) Bill 2023, which the report proposes be referred immediately to the Economics Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 22 March. Our amendment is simply an amendment to the date: it's proposing to change the reporting date from 22 March until 22 April.

My understanding is that this is not going to be supported by government. I want to make the point here that this package of bills is the government's keystone response to a massive housing crisis that exists in this country. We have a situation in this country, particularly for renters, where if you're lucky enough to find a place to rent you are paying exorbitant rents. We have the Reserve Bank jacking up interest rates and smashing not only renters but mortgage holders. People are really doing it tough at the moment, and the government's response is a wholly inadequate response to the rental and housing crisis in this country.

That's why the government wants a quick and dirty inquiry into its legislation, because it doesn't want the absolute inadequacy of their legislative response exposed. The Greens want a longer inquiry because we know there are significant improvements that could be made to the government's legislation. But the government, very instructively here today, is not going to support the Greens' call for a longer inquiry, and the reason they're not going to do that is because they know very well that their response to a massive housing crisis for renters and mortgage holders in this country is not going to be satisfactorily addressed by the bills that they're proposing and by the broader package of responses that the government is proposing.

We know these bills can be significantly improved. We want a proper inquiry so that we can hear from a range of people out in the sector—from people who are doing it tough in the rental market at the moment, so that we can hear from them about what they actually need from government to address this significant crisis in our community.