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

I've said this before and I just have to say it again. I am constantly amazed that the opposition can come into this place at question time and other times and, without any hint of irony, complain about the cost of living and the economy. I've reminded them before where the current wave of inflation actually started. It started with them. It started with their nearly 10 years of absolutely no action on anything. In recent years, the peak of quarterly inflation was reached in March 2022. Now, let's think about who was in government in March 2022. That's right; it was those on the other side. They created this crisis. They had almost a decade of wasted opportunities and inaction when they were in government, and then they have the absolute gall to come in here and demand that we fix everything yesterday.

Unlike those opposite, we are actually doing something about it. Let me tell you about just one example. After almost a decade of failure by those opposite to tackle the housing crisis, we are taking action by providing more social and affordable homes for Australians and helping more Australians own their own home. As for the coalition's policy on housing, they had this thought bubble the other day. I'm not quite sure who had it, but the thought bubble was about allowing people to access superannuation for housing. Saul Eslake, in a very recent report, has found that it would make homes more expensive, hinder the homeownership aspirations of young Australians, reduce retirement income and lead to significant long-term costs for the budget. I will quote Mr Eslake. He said, 'If super for housing was introduced, it would be the worst public policy decision in the last six decades.' In the last 60 years, it would be the worst public housing policy.

You've got to stop and think, 'What do they really stand for on the other side?' We know that they don't want to support our housing policy and we know that they've got this strange alliance with the Greens and the Greens don't—well, I'm not sure where the Greens stand on our housing policy, to be honest, because I think they actually agree with it; they just don't want to show people that they agree with it. And that's why earlier this week we had that quite strange debacle where people were running all over the chamber and the Greens and the Liberal and National parties voted together to delay our housing policy. The Greens do not care a hoot about people living rough. They don't care that families are being broken up. I know this for an absolute fact. I've had people call my office. I've been and talked to people that were living in tents who then contacted me to say their kids had been taken into care, the mother had gone to a shelter and the father was couch-surfing.

And what do the Greens do? They vote with the coalition to delay the implementation of our housing policy. They would rather put at risk virtually every aspect of a person's life, including a sense of safety and social support, not to mention life expectancy and overall health issues, by leaving people homeless so that they can campaign against us. That's what it's about. It's about them having something to mobilise on. That's why the Greens don't want to support our housing policy. Truly, if they have the courage of their convictions, why don't they come in and vote it down, not just vote to delay, the same as they did when we put up the HAFF legislation earlier? They're happy to leave people, including children, open to violence and victimisation, let alone the trauma of living rough. The Greens are the party that say they care. Give me a break. They would rather kids be traumatised by having to live in tents or having to be split up from their family and their parents than actually have the courage of their convictions to come in and vote our legislation down. They are happy to delay it. 'Oh, yes, we care about people, but we'll delay it until the end of November.' What an absolute disgrace.

As for the coalition, we're just pretty used to them saying no to everything. That's why they're called the no-alition: because everybody knows that everything we put up they say no to.