Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

We can talk until we are blue in the face about the home situation—people getting a roof over their heads, renters, and making sure the economic conditions are right for construction companies—but out there they are feeling a sense of frustration. They have been badly let down by this government when it comes to the housing sector.

You only have to look at the construction insolvencies per financial year to know that what I'm saying is true. In the last full year of the coalition government, there were 351 construction insolvencies in 2020-21. The following year, that number increased to 494, and that was on the cusp of the government changing. Prime Ministers Keating and Howard both famously said that when you change the government, you change the nation. Then, in 2022-23, we see 981 construction insolvencies. The following year, 2023-24, there were 1,409. In 2024-25 there were 1,567. Dare I say, I'm sure that number will sadly, unfortunately, probably be even higher in 2025-26.

I know this from personal experience. My wife, Catherine, was the regional manager of Dennis Family Homes. It was bought out by Simonds Homes in November 2024, and Dennis Family closed their regional operations. Such a pity. It was due to economic conditions. It was due to lack of land availability. It was due to the difficulty of getting people, contractors and product. When I addressed this particular issue of getting product in the House of Representatives, I was talking particularly about the timber industry in Victoria being shut down by the state government, and the then housing minister, the member for Franklin, interjected and said, 'Well, what does timber have to do with it?' Well, it's got a lot to do with it, because you build homes out of timber.

I just heard the member for Solomon talking about what they're doing in the space of the trades, but you cannot find tradespeople—carpenters, electricians, bricklayers and all of those people who are vital in the construction of houses—in regional Australia in particular. If you can, the costs are so very high and getting higher. It's at breaking point—it absolutely is. You only have to hear from the likes of the New South Wales head of the Urban Development Institute of Australia, Stuart Ayres. He's a former New South Wales cabinet minister, and he said there were real fears the construction industry could flatline. He was speaking last year—goodness knows what he might be thinking now. He said:

The rapid escalation of costs for construction businesses has put many construction businesses under pressure and seen an increasing number forced into liquidation.

Developers can't deliver the housing we need without competitive construction businesses to do the building work.

Taxes, compliance and regulatory requirements and a shortfall of skilled labour all have cost implications for business.

With consumers struggling to afford apartments at what it costs to construction them, builders just don't have any margin left to absorb these costs.

In regional Australia it's so difficult, too. We went to the election last year with a good plan to help councils offset water and other amenities to new subdivisions. Of course, we didn't win the election. More's the pity, but working with local and state governments in particular is going to be key to solving this housing crisis. But, first and foremost, we need to get the cost of doing business down. It's going to be about pulling those levers of the economy, to get the cost-of-living crisis sorted, because people simply can't afford to buy a house. They simply can't afford to pay the rent to put a roof over their head. That is the great crisis. Labor have now been in government for near on four years and they can't keep using the excuse, 'It's the coalition's fault.'

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