Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

I tell you what, it was quite amazing this week and last week that there was a big conversion from those opposite. They're talking about housing like, suddenly, in the last 12 months, housing became an issue for young people. If you believe the logic of those opposite, it wasn't an issue at the last election because they didn't want to change the tax settings when it comes to housing in the last election. That is a circle that they cannot square. None of them could explain how they went to their communities 12 months ago and said, 'Nope, we're not going to change the tax system. It's all working fine,' and then suddenly, today, everything is tough.

Of course everything is tough, but have the courage to talk about it and change it 12 months ago, if you were going to do that. But there's a reason that these changes were not proposed last year by the Prime Minister and by the Treasurer. The first reason that they didn't want to change it was that it will not actually help young people. It will deliver less housing for the Australian people. The tax changes in this budget will deliver less housing for the Australian people. Don't take my word for it, look at the budget papers that say it will deliver 35,000 less houses. These tax changes in the budget paper will deliver 35,000 less houses. It's in the budget paper.

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