Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion because the Australian dream of homeownership is slipping further out of reach under this government. Labor's appalling housing failures are all the proof you need to see that they have no idea what they're doing on housing or the economy more broadly. Labor talk a big game on housing, but the reality is that their backwards policies are in fact taking away from supply and driving up property prices, further disadvantaging first home buyers.

In just three years, the government has presided over the biggest boom in Australia's population since the 1950s while overseeing an historic housing construction collapse. Despite their $60 billion housing investment, they're spending more than ever to deliver fewer homes than the previous coalition government. Labor's flagship housing policy, the Housing Australia Future Fund, is one of the greatest public policy failures of our time. Ten billion dollars of taxpayer money is tied up in a fund, yet no member of the government was willing or able to tell us how many homes it's actually built. At Senate estimates, we discovered that Labor is not even building homes; they're buying homes. You can't make this up. The government is competing with its own people to buy up existing supply, driving up prices. Australians don't need their government bidding against them at weekend auctions; they need their government building more homes.

Nearly $60 billion of taxpayer money has been poured into housing schemes that are failing to deliver results. Labor are spending more, building less and blaming everybody but themselves. Labor know the key to increasing housing supply is through deregulating the industry, but instead they bow down to their union mates to pile on 5,000 new regulations and 400 new laws—nearly 3,000 pages of construction codes. They smother builders in paperwork and then wonder why fewer homes are being built. We've seen an historic collapse in building completion, with close to 200,000 homes built each year under the coalition compared to the barely 170,000 today under Labor. At the same time as construction has fallen, Labor has presided over the biggest population surge since the 1950s, driving up demand while strangling supply through red tape and poor policy design. What's the result? Families in my electorate are paying more, they're waiting longer and they're falling further behind.

As the housing crisis deepens, the minister hides a $24,000 report into bullying and mismanagement at Housing Australia, one that Treasury admits exists but refuses to release. This is a government that's addicted to secrecy, allergic to accountability and incapable of delivery.

Labor's reckless expansion of the Home Guarantee Scheme is another example of good intentions, bad economics and worse governance. The coalition created this scheme to help low-income Australians with small deposits. It was a targeted, sensible policy. Labor has turned it into a $60 billion uncapped, non-means-tested, free-for-all system not targeted to those who need it. The Reserve Bank governor has already confirmed the obvious. This will push up house prices and leave first home buyers with larger mortgages. Labor's policy helps no-one except the banks, the unions and super funds all lining up for a share of taxpayer backed housing debt.

No discussion of housing under this government can ignore the elephant on the building site: the criminal and corrupt CFMEU. This union has been allowed to run rampant across construction sites, driving up apartment prices by as much as 30 per cent. It's unconscionable that taxpayer money is being funnelled through this fund to enrich the same union whose conduct has driven so many builders to the wall. The coalition's bill before the Senate would ban the HAFF investments tied to the CFMEU's financial arms. If Labor were serious about integrity and housing, they would support it.

For generations, Australians have believed that if you worked hard, saved carefully and contributed to your community you could own a home and, therefore, a stake in your economy and your country. But that social contract is breaking. Instead of enabling Australians to build their own future, Labor continues to fuel dependency. We must restore government as an enabler not a provider, a partner in people's ambition not a replacement for it. We must restore the great Australian dream of homeownership, because a government that cannot house its people is a government that has lost its way.

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