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

I want to touch on something that's been said throughout this debate by members opposite. We hear all of these different stats about the government building homes or the government not building homes. Governments don't build homes. It's businesses that are building the homes. Let's just be very, very clear about that. Businesses will only build the homes, and they'll only build the homes effectively, if they can operate under economic conditions that encourage them to be productive. That is part of the issue that we're seeing under this Labor government. The economy is tanking, there is an absolute lack of business confidence and we're seeing an environment in which businesses are not encouraged to build homes quickly. We're also seeing a shortage of people who are actually able to build homes. We're seeing a lack of adequate investment in the next generation of Australians who can build homes. Let's be very clear about that.

The other thing that I want to speak about is this. The motion says:

this total investment—

which Labor is very proud of—

is more than 50 times what the Opposition invested in housing-enabling infrastructure after over almost a decade in office

The prime minister over the last 15 years to build the most houses per day was a Liberal prime minister. The one in second place was also a coalition prime minister. In fact, despite being in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and a housing crisis, this prime minister doesn't even come in the top three.

They're speaking about having committed $80 billion to date. Who knows what more is going to be broadcast in announcements and fancy openings. They've committed $80 billion to date to build 30,000 fewer houses per year than the coalition delivered when we were in office. Let's actually be honest about these figures and honest about these facts. If that's what those opposite are actually celebrating—that they're spending more to deliver less—then there is something seriously wrong here. I wanted to make those two points.

What we're seeing is a government who, quite frankly, maybe through no fault of their own, don't understand how to manage this economy. I don't think they understand how to drive up supply and actually deliver more houses. At the end of the day, this is a supply issue. What we're seeing is a government that is not prepared to make the tough decisions. They're not prepared to divorce themselves from the CFMEU and the unions, who are pushing up the costs of building new properties. They're not prepared to actually invest, as we've announced in the opposition budget reply, in the enabling infrastructure. When we speak to developers and when we speak to the businesses, which, again, are the ones that are delivering houses in this country, their biggest issue is that they are not able to deal with the upfront costs in new areas. This is something that we've addressed through our $5 billion fund, which Angus Taylor, the Leader of the Opposition, announced in his budget reply speech.

Young Australians, in particular, but also older Australians are frustrated by the changes that this government has made because not only are we not building houses effectively under this government but the government is also making it even harder for young Australians to build. I just had passed to me earlier that we've had, post the announcement of the budget, the CGT changes and the negative gearing changes, nine per cent lower clearance rates across the country over the last weekend. Are we actually supporting Australians to get into their first homes? Are we actually encouraging them to do so? No. What we're seeing is a government that is absolutely invested in one thing, and that is crushing aspiration.

They're doing it across the business sector, they're doing it across the economy and we're seeing it here in the housing space as well. Young people in my electorate and across the country are not experiencing what those on the government side of this chamber are saying is the reality. They are not experiencing an environment where young Australians, or even older Australians, are able to actually purchase their first home. They're seeing rents that are skyrocketing. We're seeing that all over the Gold Coast. We're seeing not enough houses being built. Under this government's policy, when you're building a new house, they're now going to be pitting investors against first home buyers, who are going to be bidding against each other because of this government's changes to negative gearing. This is a shocking budget that we have seen. It does absolutely nothing to encourage investment in new houses or to help people get into the housing market.

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