Catryna Bilyk (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last night many Australians were sleeping rough in tents, in cars or even in doorways. Yet the Greens, knowing the urgent need for government investment in affordable and social housing, chose to side with the coalition earlier this week to delay legislation that addresses that very problem. We've had the Greens housing spokesperson, Max Chandler-Mather, actually declare that the government's plan to build one million homes over five years from 2024 is a complete joke. To the people waiting for a roof over their heads, it isn't. It's not funny at all to them. The Greens have been too busy grandstanding, too busy trying to get on social media, too busy playing politics and too busy trying to grab a headline to care about those they purport to represent. With the Greens, too often, it's their way or the highway, and that's not the way we go about it. The grandstanding by the Greens makes me wonder if we should all club together to buy them a ladder to help them reach the moral high ground that they purport to be from. I tell you what; it must be pretty cold and miserable up there, but not as cold and miserable as last night was for those unfortunate Australians who didn't have a home to go to.

So why do the Greens refuse to support the government's plan? Let me be very clear that it's for pure political benefit, pure political gain. They're more concerned with differentiating themselves from Labor than with helping needy Australians. I'll just remind the Greens that they're not here to get their own way and bolster their own power. In this place we very often work on collaboration, compromise, perspective and empathy—all qualities that go a long way to solving the problems that the country faces, which, after all, is why we're all here. I want to explain to the Greens, in regard to the rent freeze suggestion— (Time expired)