Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to the urgency motion put forward by Senator McKim. Once again, we have to contend with the Greens political party's range of fantasies about the way in which the economy operates. Labor believes in real solutions for all Australians, not dramatic and impractical action. We need to use an evidence base, and evidence shows that rental freezes simply don't work. Yet that is one of the profferings from Senator McKim for consideration by the Senate, and it should be rejected.

To Australians I say: the Reserve Bank is independent, and it's at arm's length from government. There's a reason it was constructed that way, and it remains so. But that doesn't mean that, as a government, we don't understand what's happening for real Australians. We understand that both renters and mortgage holders are feeling the pain right now. They're feeling it, absolutely. That's why we'll focus on real solutions—not fantasies in another world that doesn't exist but real solutions to address the real concerns of Australia in a fiscally responsible way. Regulation of residential tenancies is, frankly, not a matter for federal governments. It's a matter for state and territory governments, and the Commonwealth can't actually require those governments to freeze rents. So the motion falls over completely on its face just with that one point.

In contrast, Labor is absolutely focusing on increasing the supply of new houses in the market. We are helping to increase supply through our $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, which will deliver 30,000 new homes in the first five years alone. The future fund is only one part of our very ambitious and much-needed reform agenda to make up for nine lost years under the Liberal and National parties. We're striking a new National Housing Accord between all levels of government, investors and industry to build affordable homes our country really, really needs. We need to boost the supply of new houses. We're widening the National Housing Infrastructure Facility, with up to $575 million available to invest in more social and affordable homes right across the country, with many projects already announced. The Regional First Home Buyer Guarantee was brought forward by three months. More than 2,000 places have already been taken up, with hundreds of Australian families now in their new home. These are practical outcomes. That's what people need, not pie in the sky that you make up as you go so you can get a headline on the way through.

Help to Buy, a new program brought forward by the Albanese government, is here to help Australians get their own homes sooner. We are establishing a permanent National Housing Supply and Affordability Council. It is hard to believe that there wasn't one, but there wasn't. For nine long years, this whole space has been profoundly neglected. The interim council that we established, as a Labor government coming in under Prime Minister Albanese, has been operating since 1 January, providing independent expert advice to government. We're also developing a National Housing and Homelessness Plan, because everybody knows that that is at crisis point in our country.

The gentrified Greens over there in the corner so often appear to be nimbys. They have never seen an affordable or social housing project that they haven't opposed. In my own home state of New South Wales, the outgoing Greens member for Balmain, when a candidate, campaigned against a plan for a mere six apartments. There were six apartments, and the Greens opposed it. Three of them were designated as affordable housing. The site is 180 Darling Street in Balmain. To the Greens, one new affordable housing apartment being built is like a disaster. One new home for a middle- or working-class family is one entirely too many. They come in here with ideas that are absolutely implausible and impractical. They're out of touch. The Greens political party need to understand that increased supply will drive down prices. If that political party actually cared about reducing rents and prices, their councillors and candidates across Australia would stop opposing reasonable new property developments. They have to be reasonable. There's got to be new stock built. You can't just stop everything. You just can't do it.

Inflation is a worldwide problem caused by Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. Supply chains are strained by war and global pandemics. We've got to get inflation under control, and we're helping with cost of living, child care, medicines, direct energy bill relief, minimum wage rises and fee-free TAFE. That's real. That's practical. That's Labor. That's Australia's government.