Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Here we go again: another day, another political opportunity for the Greens political party to come into this chamber and grandstand about homelessness and housing insecurity. I have to say, I concur with my colleague Senator Scarr: what the Greens are suggesting will just not work. It is just the Greens trying to grandstand. That's what they've done, and to top it all off they've joined with the Liberals and the Nationals and Pauline Hanson and everyone from the Right in relation to stopping and not voting for our housing future fund. For those people out there in our communities who are homeless and who are looking for social and affordable housing, what they need is our legislation supported so we that can commence the build of the homes that are actually going to deal with homelessness.

This political stunt of crying poor in relation to trying to tell the states what to do, knowing full well that the federal government has no power over the states in terms of trying to put a cap on rents. It doesn't work. It won't work. As usual, the Greens want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and they won't support the housing future fund. They would rather just make their own political statements and use it on their social media.

We, as a government, have been listening to the experts, the stakeholders on the ground and those on the social housing waiting list. We are listening to them, and that's why it will be the Albanese Labor government that wants to get on with this job of implementing solutions around housing that actually will work. The Greens believe that they can somehow force voodoo economics on states without their permission—a sign of their voodoo politics. If it is not voodoo politics, it is about trying to create Utopia, which is not real and can't be delivered. They never have to deliver on any policy, let alone on housing.