Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Faruqi. I reject the suggestion that our government is doing nothing to assist students or low-income earners generally. In fact, it wasn't that long ago that, for instance, we brought the parliament back to support legislation to support price caps on coal and gas prices and provide energy price relief for low-income earners, including for the very students we're talking about. Of course we, the Albanese government, also delivered cheaper medicines, which started on 1 January this year, which students and many others, including pensioners, would benefit from. As I recall, it was the first reduction in PBS prices, if not ever in Australian history then certainly for a very long time. That is in addition to a much broader range of cost-of-living relief that the government is providing.

One of the things that you pointed out, Senator Faruqi, was that many of these students are renters. I certainly remember my renting days as a student, when you don't have a lot of money. As I've pointed out on a number of occasions this week to the Greens, there's a very simple thing that the Greens could do to assist us to meet the need for more social and affordable housing in Australia, and that is to back the Housing Australia Future Fund that our government is putting forward. The hypocrisy of the Greens is yet again on display when it comes to housing. On one hand, they're out there claiming that we need more social and affordable housing, that we need support for renters and that we need more housing for renters, and then, on the other hand, when there's a government that's actually prepared to do something on this topic, what do the Greens do? They say, 'No, it's not good enough.' They vote against it again. It is actually within your power to do something about this—about support for affordable housing—to bring down the cost for students. But, instead, you'd rather have a protest out the front and yell at people. That's not the way to help people.