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

The Albanese Labor government is focused on cost-of-living relief. We are working to lift wages and bring down costs. We are working by offering tax cuts and electricity bill relief. We are working to strengthen Medicare and build more homes.

We know Australians are under pressure and there is much more to do. But we also know that the Liberals and Nationals are out of touch with the pressure Australians are under. You know how we know that? Because those opposite block every single cost-of-living measure. Mr Dutton's feckless arrogance has real costs. His agenda is wrong for Australia, he is wrong for Australia and the Greens are not any better. We see again the Liberals and the Greens voting together to block environment reform, immigration reform and housing reform. There are two more important housing initiatives in the Senate we are all aware of that the Liberals and the Greens are voting together to block—Help to Buy, a shared-equity scheme to help more Australians get into the market, and Build to Rent, which will build tens of thousands of new rental homes in the country.

The government has already invested $32 billion in addressing Australia's housing shortage—