Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Western Australia) Share this | Hansard source

The member for O'Connor; said

I'm sure there will be a bit of leeway to allow people to press ahead and get their projects underway.

He actually said that the six-month deadline doesn't apply. I'm not sure that's actually true, but it's what he's been telling his constituents, which is a huge concern when people are making huge investments in their homes and building them up. It's a very worrying trend from this government.

One of the final things I want to talk about is that it is essential that every Australian has somewhere to call home. We've seen the congratulations from those opposite. They've allowed people to improve their homes—those who have maybe saved a few dollars here and there—but there was a very important report released by the member for Macnamara last week which talked about the housing crisis in Australia. I want to quote from that report. It says:

There’s always been a false narrative around people choosing to sleep rough. Anecdotally, it is common to hear that homeless people are choosing that lifestyle, but this is completely wrong.

People may choose to live on the street rather than use temporary housing that they can access, because a well-lit street under a CCTV camera can often be safer than an overcrowded and dangerous rooming house.

If we look at what's happened in my electorate over the last few years with increases in visible homelessness and a tent city having been erected, we see that there is indeed a crisis that this government has failed to confront when it comes to investing in social housing.

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