Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to Senator Green for her question, and thank you for your two-minute statement, which went through a recent announcement about more housing in Cairns in your home state of Queensland. Our government's priority is helping all Australians with the cost of living. We've delivered tax cuts for every taxpayer as well as energy bill relief, and we're delivering cheaper medicines, cheaper groceries, cheaper child care, fee-free TAFE, HECS relief and more homes, because that is what makes a difference to Australians' cost of living. This week we've tried to deliver even more homes for 40,000 low- and middle-income Australians. Labor's Help to Buy plan is action that helps Australians who've worked hard and saved but still can't afford a deposit.

But what do these Australians hear from Mr Dutton and the Liberals? Well, it's the same as always: 'No. No no no.' Liberals don't want to help Australians with the cost of living. They think that, if they make the problem worse, it will be better for them politically, which is why they've tried to block every cost-of-living measure we've introduced and then come in here and complain about cost of living. They've offered no help, no plans for people struggling, just more negativity—and then they cuddle up to the Greens to help push urgent housing reforms down the track.

Remember: these delays were deliberately engineered by Mr Bandt's Greens party and Mr Dutton's Liberal Party. They were deliberately engineered because they don't care that it means Australians on low and middle incomes now have to wait longer to buy a house. It doesn't affect them, so it doesn't matter to them. Mr Dutton and the Liberals created the housing crisis. The Albanese government is trying to fix it, and the Liberals and the Greens are deliberately getting in the way.