Karen Grogan (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are some comments from this morning I'd like to talk about. We heard the Liberal Party telling us that Labor's housing plan won't build any housing, which is a ridiculous statement. It is only outstripped by the commentary from the Greens, who have said that the housing crisis is so bad that we shouldn't set up a $10 billion housing fund—go figure. It's just ridiculous. They have sat on their hands for a decade and watched the coalition foster this housing situation that we are now facing. And now, because there is a bill before the house with some serious action on housing, the most significant package we've seen in decades, they want to complain.

I am left remembering watching the Liberal Party, the National Party and the Greens party band together a decade ago to vote against the CPRS. That was a climate crisis that they liked to waffle on about all the time. They ensured, between the three of them—the Liberal Party the Nationals Party and the Greens party—that no action was taken on climate change for a decade. Don't do that again. Don't do that to housing. This is ridiculous, just ridiculous. We have had nothing on housing for a long time, and this is a policy, this is a fund, that will make a fundamental difference to those people out there who are struggling. Everyone in this chamber—everyone in the country, indeed—knows that we have serious housing challenges in front of us and that we must take action. This grandstanding, politicising and monologuing to stop any action on housing is ridiculous.