Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by the coalition today.

I asked a very good question about housing and the fact that, in this country, we have major issues with housing affordability and housing availability. No matter where you go in this country, you will find that there are shortages. It's not just in our cities; it's not just in our regional towns. It's also in our more remote areas. No matter where we go across this country, we find that there are shortages.

The government, when in opposition, committed to many things in the last election. They said they were going to fix these sorts of problems, including the problems around housing, but we're seeing, with the data that's coming out across the country, that very little progress has been made. In fact, really none at all has been made.

I asked the Minister representing the Minister for Housing about housing affordability and, indeed, the construction levels. We've seen that we're at the lowest level of construction since 1989 and that housing affordability has fallen to its lowest point since 1996. I asked a very direct question about that, and all we got was deflection in the answer that was given. In fact, the deflection went to the point of actually blaming us for the problems that exist in this country.

The logic that they present in this place is absurd. The logic that was presented in this instance is, because we didn't support their housing bill or because we're not supporting their other Help to Buy bill, that somehow that's our problem. But the bill in relation to housing actually passed the parliament. It actually passed. It's now law. So how is it our fault that a bill they enacted, that they saw pass with the support of the Greens and the others in this place, is not working when it passed the parliament? The logic is absurd. It's because their policies are failing. Their policies are poorly constructed and are failing the Australian people. As I said, it doesn't matter where you go across this country, it is failing.

All Western Australians know the housing crisis in my home state of Western Australia is very real for people of all economic statuses. In Greater Perth, the new residential property listings were 14.3 per cent lower in the year to 23 September compared to the previous year. And have a listen to this. If this doesn't send shock waves through the people listening and if it doesn't completely bell the cat on how poorly constructed this government's policies are, then this is one thing that will get you. The average wait time for social housing in Western Australia is 150 weeks. That means people are literally sleeping on the streets. That means people are literally going from couch to couch in other people's homes. That means people are literally sleeping in cars. We have instances of people sleeping in tents and caravan parks, and out in the bush and out in the national parks. This is absurd. We have families sleeping rough. We have mothers with children sleeping rough. You have to wait longer than you ought to wait, and it is because of the poorly constructed policies of this government. Don't come in here and blame us. Yes, we didn't support your policy because it's a dud policy—and the evidence of that is that we're not seeing any houses built.

I asked whether or not there were any houses being built. Not one single house has been built, as we revealed in Senate estimates a fortnight ago. Not one house has been built. They haven't even built a doll house. They haven't even built a cubby house. There's nothing. There's no house that anyone can put over their head. There's no roof that they can point to that's over the head of any Australian who is struggling to deal with this issue.

The Property Council of Australia predicts that in Western Australia we will face a 25,000 home-deficit increase by the end of 2027. Some serious action is needed. Australians need real solutions, and only the coalition government, under Peter Dutton, can see the results that we need in this country. We need houses to be built. We need to unlock the equity that people have so they are able to build their own homes, and not just have the largess of taxpayers and government to provide the solutions. Let's see Australians deliver it and let's get behind all Australians.