Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There is no doubt that housing is the biggest issue for young people in my community of Casey and all across the country. It is harder today to buy a house as a first home buyer than it's ever been. But, unfortunately for the Australian people, for young people, like in so many other policy areas, the Albanese Labor government is big on spin but shallow on delivery. Even this debate we're having is not needed, because it's not new legislation coming in. It's just an opportunity to go through their talking points. This motion, like so many others, fits the standard definition of ALP policy and their housing policies: big on spin, low on delivery. I spoke about this last term. I was hoping that, with a new term, the government might change their ways, but it ticks the box of 'big number over a long period of time'.

Let's look at some of the facts about the housing policies and the delivery—the most important thing—for the Australian people on housing under this government. Their big announcement was their target of 1.2 million homes. They talk about that 1.2 million a lot. What they don't talk about is the fine print: 'by 2029'—over five years, over a long period of time. They don't talk about that, because the 1.2 million sounds impressive. There are a few problems with this 1.2 million target. It's a marginal increase on what was actually being delivered under the coalition, so it's actually not that ambitious at all.

Let's look at the facts the Minister for Housing and the government don't like. Under the coalition, 200,000 homes per year were being built. Under the Albanese Labor government, 170,000 homes per year are being built. Under this government, we are going backwards. The target was marginal—about 40,000 homes extra a year to achieve that—and they are failing. They are failing because it is all about spin for this government. We've got to the new parliament, and this government are completely out of ideas and need to take coalition policy and rebadge it as their own. In fairness—I'll get to it—they did the same thing last term. It's politics 101 for the Prime Minister.

They've announced the freezing of the National Construction Code. It's a good announcement—credit is it's due—but, as they say, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. During the campaign, the coalition announced that we wanted to freeze the National Construction Code. They've literally taken the coalition policy, fabricated a three-day talkfest that was a productivity roundtable, then became an economics roundtable and went back to being a productivity roundtable when the Prime Minister flexed his muscle because the Treasurer was getting a little bit ambitious about his leadership opportunities. This was all so they could announce a coalition policy as their own. We knew they were going to announce it as their own, because of those pesky leaked Treasury documents a week and a half before that had gone to the cabinet and had this as one of the announcements afterwards. One of the big questions is: who was actually leaking that from the cabinet? Who wanted the Australian people to know that the fix was in?

But the other thing about the National Construction Code—let's look at what the Minister for Housing said when the coalition announced the policy during the campaign this year. It was 'a blunt force instrument', and there was concerns if you needed to address 'urgent safety and consumer issues'. The member for Chifley, who was a member of the executive at the time and no longer is, accused the opposition of condemning Australians to live in 'shoddy' homes that could result in a 'Grenfell Tower inferno'. So six months ago we had the Minister for Housing and a member of the executive criticising this policy, saying it was going to lead to shoddy homes and there could be safety issues and consumer issues—criticising it outright. Six months later, apparently it is the solution and it is great. That tells you two things about this minister. She's out of ideas and she's prepared to say one thing six months ago and the complete opposite six months later. That is unbelievable.

And it gets worse when we're looking at the code. In 2022, the ALP expanded the code. They put more regulation, more requirements, on housing. The code is now over 3,000 pages and references over 150 Australian standards, adding complexity to housing in 2022 and taking coalition policy in 2025 and rebadging it as their own—a complete admission of failure by this housing minister and this government. They have made it harder for Australian people to buy a new home, by making it harder to build a home.

We then move to what we're talking about here, the homeowners scheme—like all good policies from the ALP, taken from the coalition. I want to read from a press release from the Hon. Michael Sukkar MP, who was the Minister for Housing and Assistant Treasurer in the last coalition government. Again, let's call out the Minister for Housing. She talks about how the coalition didn't have a minister for housing in the last government. Awkwardly for her, I'm holding a press release from that Minister for Housing. I'm going to quote the then minister about the Liberal Party's First Home Loan Deposit Scheme:

The Scheme will help first home buyers enter the property market sooner, by providing a guarantee that will allow eligible first home buyers on low and middle incomes to purchase a home with a deposit of as little as 5 per cent.

That is literally the policy that the government has been praising today and yesterday. It is proof that all this government can do is borrow coalition policies that were working, reheat them and put a new name on them. Again, it's all about spin, not about delivery.

But the beautiful irony of that and the beautiful irony of the government wanting to bring on this motion is that, every time a member of the government, including the Prime Minister yesterday—I was in the House for this—praises their own scheme and talks about how great this scheme is, they are praising and giving credit to the former minister for housing, the former member for Deakin, the Hon. Michael Sukkar MP. I want to pay credit to Mr Sukkar, the former member for Deakin. This government is so impressed with his policy ideas that it has stolen them and it's now praising them. We do know how loved and respected the former member for Deakin was by those opposite, so I'm sure they will continue to enjoy praising the former member for Deakin! I think the new member for Calwell will be up next. I'm going to look forward to his contribution paying respect and homage to that former minister. I know he was in this House in another role last term. I'm looking forward to that. It was great to be here yesterday when the Prime Minister paid so much respect to Michael Sukkar, the former coalition government and Prime Minister Morrison.

That's the reality of this government. It is the Australian people that are being let down by their political spin. The Prime Minister and the Treasurer have spent so long here in this House—either as staffers or as members of parliament, they have been here their whole lives—that they think that playing these games, stealing ideas from the coalition and rebadging them will be the solution. Whether it's housing, whether it's energy or whether it's the cost of living, political spin in this House doesn't get it done. You have to make tangible differences. You actually have to change what is happening at the source. For three years, this government has failed—failed to address cost of living at the source, failed to address energy prices at the source and failed to address housing at the source. They continue to spin and spin, but time has run out. It will continue to run out. And the saddest part about this spin and lack of delivery is that the Australian people are paying the price. My community in Casey, and communities all across the country, are paying the price for the failures of the Albanese Labor government. It's only going to get worse and worse as they continue to fail to deliver for all Australians.

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