David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Just this week the Prime Minister said, 'I have a National Cabinet meeting on next Wednesday, with all the premiers and chief ministers.' Apparently he was going to use this meeting to ensure they're all on the same page with something the community is crying out for, and, in the Prime Minister's words, when he puts the pressure on, 'They'll fold like tents.' If you guessed it was doing something about the rental crisis, though, you would be wrong. It's not about the cost of living either or interest rates or even the climate crisis. What's the Prime Minister showing national leadership on? It's about fighting for a new public holiday for the Matildas. We've long argued that more public holidays are good things for workers, and I think we all agree in this place that the Matildas' efforts at the World Cup so far have been extraordinary. But why does the Prime Minister's force of conviction, this resolve to bring the premiers on stage and get them to fold like tents, only apply to a sports team and not to the rental crisis that millions are currently facing across Australia?

This morning I was briefed by Everybody's Home, who told me that four in five renters they surveyed were in housing stress. That's millions and millions of people across this country. And they, like us, are looking to the Albanese government to do something more than crow about a sporting victory—as inspiring as that is. They're looking to the Prime Minister to use leadership, to drag the premiers and the territory leaders across the line and to finally use his power and the authority of the Prime Minister's office to deliver for renters.