Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've played cricket for as long as I can recall. Usually, I open the batting and Wayne Carter of Wagga Wagga is one of those very few bowlers who I've hit for four on the first ball of the innings. Wayne is a builder in Wagga Wagga and he has now been hit for six—and this is about the New South Wales government, I must say—by the new seven-star energy rating from October 2023. That's going to add $30,000 to the cost of building a new home. Wayne says: 'It's been on the table for a while and we've all been shuddering waiting for it to be adopted. It means it's going to cost so much more to build a house and that's a cost which the local people who want to own homes can ill afford.'

When in government, the coalition realised electricity price drops of five per cent in 2021 and one in four homes with rooftop solar—the highest in the world. Thanks to the member for Deakin and his and our policies, there were 135,000 new home projects backed by HomeBuilder. We were the parties of making sure that people got their first home. But of course when you add the rising mortgage interest rates, the lack of action on cost of living by those opposite and this seven-star energy rating it's another hit to people who want to get into their first home. It's difficult. What's the government doing about this? We want action and we need it now.