Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Freeze on Rent and Rate Increases Bill 2023, which is potentially one of the worst bills I have seen come before the Senate in my very short time here. It is policy on the run that will likely compound the problem that it is looking to solve.

Another reason that this is a bad bill is that the Greens currently have an inquiry running in the Community Affairs References Committee, on which I sit and which a Green chairs, where public money and Senate time has been expended and there have been a substantive and intense series of submissions and public hearings. This process is not yet complete. As recently as a fortnight ago we travelled to Melbourne to hear more evidence, spending public money. The tabling of that report is due within the next few weeks, yet for some reason the Greens have decided that they are not going to wait for the outcome of that inquiry and are going to run with this bill instead. They are not going to wait for the outcome of that inquiry. In my view this is disrespectful of the Senate process, but more about that later.

I was reading this bill. I got through the first four items and I thought to myself: 'This isn't too bad. There's not much to see here. It's just tweaking some definitions and some titles. There's nothing really out of the ordinary.' Then I turned to item 5. It is here where we see the true colours of the Greens coming through, akin to the scary red flag of Stalin. Again, I'll have a little bit more on that later.