Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

State governments, like the state government in South Australia, could decide to release more land. They could decide not to sit on the land that they currently hold and have already developed in order to try and maximise profits. They could just release more land into the marketplace. If the state government in South Australia and state governments in other parts of Australia decided to do that, it would have a material beneficial effect on housing affordability.

Beyond that, we do need to have a mature conversation in Australia about why it is that in Australia it is significantly more expensive to build a house than it is in the United States, for example. Why is it significantly more expensive to build a house in Australia than in the United States? I know that the Labor Party sneered at the Treasurer yesterday in the House of Representatives when he made the point that the coalition's abolition of Labor's carbon tax did help bring down the cost of construction— (Time expired)