Helen Polley (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to discuss the Housing Australia Future Fund, a policy we took to the last election—and at that election we actually won. I know those opposite don't understand the meaning of 'liberal' or 'conservative' anymore, but, to those opposite who still believe in principles of strong representative government: why don't you support this bill, or at least these principles, and allow the government to get on with delivering for the Australian people? I note that the Greens also, for weeks and months now, won't get out of the way and let the government pass these reforms to solve the housing supply problem, to help ease homelessness and address that crisis across our communities, with our states and our territories. The idea that governments can be formed in the House of Representatives, and mandates will not be supported by those opposite and minor parties, displays how our democracy is weakened by those opposite and the Greens. People lose faith in politicians when they stand in the way of good policy, policy which would ensure the build of 30,000 extra homes across this country, with up to 1,200 as a start in my home state of Tasmania.

Those opposite come into this place pretending that they didn't lose the last election, pretending that in some parallel universe they are still in government. The reality is very different. We see the arrogance of the Liberals and the Greens, who will clearly do whatever dirty deals they need to do to destabilise our democracy and our government, which is trying to achieve good policy outcomes for the people of Australia. We really have reached a new age in politics in this country, a reckless age of wreckers who are taking deliberate action to feed their base, politically, off the stalemate that they have created. They are doing this at a cost to those who need social and affordable housing. They're doing this at a cost to those people who are homeless. They are doing it at a cost to those families that are living in their cars in car parks and in parks. They're doing this at a cost to those people who are living in tents in showgrounds and outside courts in my home city of Launceston.

The Greens party's base are warriors who want to live in utopia. It's either their way or you get on the highway. That's the Greens way, and that's why they are still trying to frustrate this government, because they really don't care too much. If they really had concerns for social and affordable housing and the need that we have in this country to address the growing epidemic of homeless people, then they would support this legislation. But they're driven by their own political survival and rank political opportunism. All they're about is increasing their own political base, at the expense of those who need this support the most.

It has been a very cold winter. It continues to be. But, the longer those opposite and the Greens stall, the longer Australians—and, in particular, my fellow Tasmanians—will go without a secure place to call home. I am at a loss in terms of the tactics of those opposite and the Greens. We have a majority in the House of Representatives. We have a mandate for the Housing Australia Future Fund, and yet there is no respect at all for that mandate. I call on those opposite and the Greens to rethink and put the Australian people who are most vulnerable and are homeless before their own political self-interest. I get very emotional about this, because it's quite disgusting that those opposite and the Greens would put their own self-interest above everyone else.

But I want to give a big shout-out in relation to another initiative that we have delivered in my home city of Launceston, with the urgent care clinic opening on 31 July in Launceston, giving anyone who turns up—seven days a week, with extended hours of operating—the opportunity to see a doctor. The only card that they need to access that good health care will be their Medicare card. I know that those people who are really interested in providing better outcomes for all Australians—and, in particular, those of my colleagues that are in this place listening to me—know that we can do so much more around delivering better health, which is what the Albanese Labor government is doing, unlike the state Liberal Party government in Tasmania, who are running the health system and workers into the ground.