Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to take note of answers provided in question time today, I will be taking some time to reflect on many of Labor's broken promises over their last 2½ years in government, but I want to particularly reflect on something that I don't even think can be described as Labor's broken promise; it's Labor's delusion where, every time they come into this chamber, they say, as Senator Urquhart said in her contribution earlier, that the buck stops with them. Sure, they're well within their rights to say that the buck stops with them. They're the federal government, so you'd certainly hope that the buck does stop with them.

But, in the very next breath, rather than taking responsibility for the issues that are facing this country and rather than taking responsibility for the concerns of everyday Australians, they pivot very quickly to blaming anything but themselves for these issues. Their No. 1 suspect in blaming something for their problems is always the opposition, the coalition, and everything that apparently happened while we were in government. We know they like blaming the RBA for the economic situation that they find themselves in. We know that they like blaming the war in Ukraine for the rising cost of living.

I think it is frankly remarkable that time and time again this government comes into this place—and I know they're out there in the community doing exactly the same thing—talking about the fact that they're the grown-ups and they want to take responsibility for all these problems but that they then start the blame game so quickly. I know that Australians, particularly Tasmanians, are sick of that blame game. They are sick of this government not seriously considering the issues that are facing Australians and coming up with solutions for them.

My colleague Senator O'Sullivan today asked some fantastic questions of the government about how they have failed to address the housing crisis in this country. We know that Labor has failed to deliver on its core housing election commitments. We know that its target for 1.2 million new homes under the National Housing Accord is set to fall short by at least 260,000 homes, according to the Housing Supply and Affordability Council. We know that the opportunity to co-own a home, through the government's Help to Buy scheme, has been so unpopular because it has failed to pass this parliament.

Particularly, in this place today, we heard about the failure of the Housing Australia Future Fund to actually make a single disbursement or build a single home. It's something that this government doesn't want to address. They do not want to come in here and front up to the fact that their housing policy has failed. They made a big song and dance about this at the last election, but the reality is that their policies in this area have done nothing to move the dial when it comes to improving housing supply in this country.

I think, as a youngish Australian, that that's really sad. I know many people my age and younger that want to get into the housing market, and it is just so difficult for them to be able to afford to do so. This government has apparently listened to those concerns and done nothing to fix them. In the coalition we understand that homeownership is essential to the Australian dream and that owning your own home provides economic stability and economic security. Again, when I speak to young Australians and young Tasmanians, they want to be able to afford a house. The sad reality is that, because of this government's failures, they can't. Labor doesn't understand the essential value of that Australian dream and how owning your own home plays into that. The government's policy agenda has prioritised corporate homeownership and will see Australians rent in perpetuity.

We are committed to backing the aspirations of Australians through our housing policy. I think that the policies that we've released in recent weeks to reduce the cost of headworks to be able to commence housing developments has been received incredibly positively throughout the electorate. But, frankly, this government's economic mismanagement is killing the Australian dream. They are failing Australians time and time again.

I didn't get much time to touch on the government's other broken election commitments, but, certainly, many other times in this chamber I've mentioned their hesitancy to talk about taking $275 off everyone's power bill. This is a government that is letting Australians down time and time again.

Question agreed to.