Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

What a great speech! I agree with Senator Bragg that Senator Ciccone's speech was exceptionally good and one that people should take a great deal of note of. I'd also reach out to Senator Bragg and those on his side of the argument and say that they should also take note of what Senator Ciccone had to say, because what's quite clear is that they have been consistent on the opposite side. They've been very consistent. We've just had criticism of having the Social Housing Accelerator going forward. Not only did they vote, with their mates from the Greens, against having a bill to bring 10,000 homes, and not only did they vote against ultimately bringing 30,000 homes into the market to make sure that we start putting pressure back on the housing crisis, but they are also now criticising the fact that we're trying to take important steps, with the premiers of the country, to start dealing with the incredibly important area of social housing. Because, for 10 years, they did so little; they created this crisis. They failed for 10 years. They threw our kids out of the opportunity to get homes, they reduced their wages, because the Liberal and National parties are the low-income parties, and they also want us to continue their agenda—don't have social housing and housing affordability for people within this country.

I heard a lot of people from all political parties speaking at the 'yes' campaign. I've been a strong supporter of the 'yes' campaign. I congratulated a number of those people privately, and they're more than welcome to say it publicly, if they like. Many of them I didn't mention publicly. But you can't come in here and vote one way when it comes to the referendum and then argue another when we're trying to get social housing support for the most disadvantaged people in this country. Because housing in this country is a critical piece—