Cameron Caldwell (Fadden, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges that the Government has made Australia's housing crisis worse than ever by:

(a) overseeing a historic collapse of housing construction, with the last financial year seeing less homes built than at any other time during this Government;

(b) expanding the 5 per cent deposit scheme from a sensible and targeted approach, to an uncapped and non-means tested, free-for-all which will push up prices and expose first home buyers to larger mortgages;

(c) creating the failing Housing Australia Future Fund which is buying houses from Australians, not building houses for Australians; and

(d) allowing the criminal and corrupt Construction, Forestry, and Maritime Employees Union to run rampant across Australian residential building sites, pushing up apartment prices by up to 30 per cent; and

(2) notes that:

(a) the Government continues to keep a $24,000 report into poor governance at Housing Australia secret; and

(b) leaked advice from the Department of the Treasury states that the Government will fail to reach its National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million homes by 2029.

The longer you're in this place, the more time you have to reflect. In preparation for my speech today, I reviewed my maiden speech that I gave in this place on 4 September 2023. I want to read part of that speech. I said:

I was fortunate enough to buy my first property during the time of the Howard government, but I fear that the great Australian dream is being snatched away. We must strive, as a nation, to increase homeownership. There is no better way to illustrate the collective ambition of our nation to have individual freedom and responsibility than to have people own their own home. Give as many people as possible the opportunity to have a stake in our nation.

Just over two years on, I reflect on those words and think that that sentiment about homeownership and the opportunities that should be presented to Australians are more important now than ever. Australians should ask themselves, 'Who is the better custodian of housing in Australia—a coalition who genuinely believes in the Australian dream or the Labor Party, who, for the last four years, has had a track record of failed policy, fewer homes, higher mortgages and higher rents?' Sadly, under Labor, the great Australian dream is turning into a nightmare. Minister O'Neil was hapless in home affairs, but she is hopeless with homes.

The first plank of their failing plan is to blame everyone else. They're now framing the housing crisis as, 'forty years in the making,' when, in fact, it's only been the last four, under this Labor government. Its policy is taglines that fit on a corflute but nothing more. Labor's centrepiece, the Housing Australia Future Fund is now under a formal performance audit by the Auditor-General into its design and delivery. When the Auditor-General steps in, you know something has gone badly wrong. In addition, in the last couple of weeks, the chair of Housing Australia has resigned, and Labor has continued to keep secret a $24,000 report into poor governance and wide-ranging issues at Housing Australia.

Labor promised 1.2 million new homes in Australia over a five-year period, but Treasury and industry experts have confirmed that they are likely to fall 400,000 homes short of this target. By the end of today, that target will have slipped by another 220 homes. Just this week, they will have fallen another 1,500 homes short of their target—all this failure is while presiding over one of the biggest population surges Australia has had in decades.

The second plank of their failed policy seems to be to spend more and get less. This motion speaks to a pattern we see today that Labor has spent more than ever to build fewer homes than under the last coalition government. New Parliamentary Library analysis shows almost $60 billion in headline and off-budget housing spend, for fewer homes than were previously delivered under the coalition. Completions are falling year on year despite the cash splash. That is the definition of policy failure.

One of the things that Labor doesn't actually like to talk about is the impact on homelessness, because when there's a housing crisis it hurts everyone. Frontline services report the worst in living memory for homelessness. Monthly service demand is up 10 per cent since 2022—14 per cent for women and girls.

The third plank now, based on the minister's social media this week, is that she's backing in hard the Premier's plan in Victoria. The Jacinta Allan led Labor government now is going to provide the solution to housing in her home state. That shows the lack of judgement that this minister has exercised since she was appointed.

See this speech in context