Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

It is such a privilege to be able to get up and speak to this motion, because homeownership is central to the vision we should want for our nation. When I think about the enduring strength of our country, all the way to its modern foundation, one of the key pillars that led to our foundation was the idea of the democratic ownership of our country. It has endured in comparison to European settlement, where many people came from the United Kingdom and they inherited a hereditary system of governance and land title and ownership based on privilege, based on your blood line. One of the great promises of this great country was that we were not going to be a nation where you were going to have your life determined based on who your parents or grandparents, all the way back through generations, were. The promise of this great nation, the promise of Australia, was that we were going to be a nation where, through hard work, sacrifice and effort, you could own a share of it for yourself and your family as the foundation of your security and your future success.

That continues to be the promise of this great nation today. The importance of homeownership is the greatest manifestation and reflection of it, as well as the family unit. That's the basis that I stand for, fight for and will continue to fight for into the future—homeownership. It is the very embodiment of the Liberal ideal. The Liberal vision of this country is that families will come together and own a chunk of this nation not just as the foundation of their security but that will become the wellspring of their future economic success, their security to be able to go on and contribute to the rest of their community and then to become part of the pillars and the foundation of the success of our nation. That's why homeownership matters so much. It's why it has always been one of the great cleaving points of our national political debate.

At the end of the Second World War, when soldiers were coming back, the Labor Party faced a great big choice. The question was: how do we build the homes for returned soldiers who have sacrificed so much in defence of our country? The solution the Labor Party wanted at the time was to build homes so that returned soldiers could forever rent off the Australian government. The socialist vision has always been one of dependence. The socialist vision and the Labor vision has always been one where they control the people of this country.

The Liberal vision, by comparison, was always one where we wanted a nation of homeowners. We wanted to build the homes of the nation so that returned soldiers and their families and the future generations of this country would go on to own their own homes. That was the clear choice then, and that remains the clear choice now. That's why, when the Prime Minister and the members of this government get up and speak about the virtues of what they claim they're doing in homeownership or in housing, they are so often explicitly focused on how they can control the population—how they can build housing so that they can control how you live your life. This is why, on this side of the parliament, we do not believe in so much of what they're trying to achieve in housing policy.

We don't believe that housing policy should be a mechanism to control the Australian people. We believe that housing policy should be focused on how to empower the Australian people. At the centre of the Labor Party's agenda, there has always been a mechanism to control the Australian people. First, it's Labor wanting people to be dependent on welfare so that they can then control the recipients. Then it's superannuation through industry super funds so that their unions can control your retirement and your destiny. Or it's through the mechanisms of work so that they can control how much you're paid, when you're paid and how you work. They want to control you. But, more than anything else, Labor wants to create a nation of renters controlled by superannuation funds under their control so that the renters will always be dependent on housing stock that Labor directly own through the government or that they own through superannuation funds—so that they can control you.

The Liberal vision is completely different. We fundamentally believe in empowering Australians. We want young Australians to be able to get a good education so they have the best chance they can have to go on and get a good career. We want to keep their taxes low so they can then be in the best position to save and get ahead so they can form a family and go on and buy their own home. We believe in homeownership because we believe it is the foundation of future economic success and security. From that, one day they will be in a position to be able to do things like form a small business and be independent and empowered all the way through to their retirement. They will be in a position to choose their own destiny. There is a clear choice between the Labor vision of control and the Liberal vision of empowerment. This is why it is so important we stand in this parliament, despite the protestations of the Labor government—they always want to find a new mechanism and a new lever to control the Australian people. That's why, no matter how many people they have in this parliament, we will never surrender and we will never back down, because at the heart of the Liberal vision is the success of the Australian people.

This is one of the big dividing lines of Australian politics. People in school groups and everywhere else across this country ask, 'What is the difference between the political parties these days?' The differences are manifest, but, more than anything else, the Australian Labor Party celebrates the success of this country through Labor's success. The Liberal Party celebrates the success of Australia through the success of the Australian people, and that is the difference. Our success is lived through 26 million people, every day, waking up and living out the success in their own lives. We do not want to decide your future. We do not want to decide your destiny. We want you to have choices about how you live your life and to be fully empowered to make choices about your family and your future. That is the key difference. When Australians are going about living their best lives and living how they see fit, they are living and breathing, every single day, the full manifestation of the Liberal vision of this country.

That is why the housing debate is so important. It is the catalysing moment in so many Australians' lives about how they can have prosperity, security and, of course, the opportunity of living out their best Liberal life. This is an important debate because we absolutely want homeownership to be central to the foundations of this country. We don't want the Labor vision of control for this country. We don't want young Australians living a life of dependence and thinking that the only way they can get ahead is through either their blood line or their proximity to power. That is a central part of the control mechanism that the Labor Party has always wanted. They love a system where it's based on proximity to power and whether you pay your tithe to the union—and, of course, whether that union is then in a position to tax their take along the way—because, when they do that, they set up a cartel arrangement where they're able to get the maximum benefit for themselves and those closest to positions of power. We utterly reject that proposition because it is not a system that is focused on empowering the Australian people. It has only one vision, then, when you achieve that.

That vision, the Labor vision, is to feed those people closest to positions of central power and make them first in line at the trough. That is the problem with the Labor vision for this country. It is about themselves and their own success at the expense of the Australian people. The only objective of the Labor vision is how to fill the trough up for themselves as fast as possible, sacrificing the future and the opportunities of the Australian people along the way. They don't care whether you own your own home in the process, because your house is their political weapon for their ends.

We will stand here and fight every step of the way for the Australian people to empower the Australian people—whatever it takes. So long as there is breath in my body, the vision and the dream of homeownership in Australia must be fought for because it goes to the heart of who we are. It goes to the heart of our vision for the country. It goes to the heart of what we want for the future and the ambition of this great nation.

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