Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. I'm very happy to withdraw.

Th e ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Thank you. Please continue.

The Greens political party's campaign has been utterly self-indulgent from beginning to finish. I saw posters in my neighbourhood that said the housing crisis was Labor's fault. We've been in government for 12 months, big structural issues there, and what is the nature of the campaign? It is a carping, negative, utterly self-indulgent campaign. And the consequence of this cynical manoeuvre today will be 30,000 fewer homes. We are for social housing; they are for social media, and social media has never built a house yet. No matter what advances there are in artificial intelligence, I can tell you that social media will not ever build a home.

What is the government setting about doing? Two billion dollars to build, maintain and repair social housing was announced on Saturday, along with working with the states and territories in a cooperative way to unlock the supply challenges and deal with the challenges of housing. No doubt this will be opposed in every suburb where there are Greens councillors. Not in not in backyard is now not in Max's backyard. There will never be Greens support for development.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT : Senator Ayres, please resume your seat. Senator Waters, on a point of order?