Zhi Soon (Banks, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Housing, Minister for Homelessness and Minister for Cities. How is the Albanese Labor government helping Australians into homeownership? What other options into housing is the government being asked to consider?

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Banks for this fantastic question, and I want to acknowledge the huge contribution that he is already making to the thinking going on in this parliament, even in just his first year in this chamber. We have housing challenges confronting our country that have been building for 40 years. Our government listens to the Australian people. That's why we have created the boldest and most ambitious housing agenda that a Commonwealth government has had since the postwar period. With $45 billion, we're building more homes, we're getting renters a better deal, and we're getting more Australians into homeownership.

The honourable member asked me about homeownership. We have just ticked over helping 230,000 Australians into their first home. I don't care what your politics are; this is a massive number of people for our government to have assisted, and I want every single one of them to know that it is a Labor government that saw their aspiration and helped them realise it. I was asked about alternative approaches. Do you remember the terrible 'super for housing' policy that those opposite took to the last election? Because you're not going to believe this. If you've forgotten about super for housing, let me refresh your memory. This was a policy created by those opposite that would have smashed the retirement savings of younger generations around our country. It would have radically lifted house prices around the country and not built a single home.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! There are always consequences for actions; it doesn't matter what time of the day you're warned. The member for Goldstein knows he was warned. I was crystal clear. Don't look at me as if you're surprised. The whole House heard me say it. So you'll leave the chamber under 94A. You can't be on a warning because of disrespectful behaviour and then think you can just keep interjecting. It doesn't work that way. Take the hint. If you're warned, it's a good opportunity not to say anything. Everyone else gets it.

The member for Goldstein then left the chamber.

The minister was asked a question in silence, and I'd like the respect to be shown to her as well.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Housing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you so much, Speaker, for that strong action. I think we all feel we can breathe a little bit fresher air now that that shadow minister has gone. Now, let me come back to it. Super for housing was one of the most dud policies that anyone could have come up with. In fact, the economist Saul Eslake memorably said that, if this were implemented, it would be one of the worst public policy decisions of the 21st century. That's quite a feat. It looked like the shadow minister for housing and homelessness had read the overwhelming evidence about this. He told the ABC earlier this term they won't have that policy again, and, in a moment of uncharacteristic accuracy, said that he saw that it could make the problem worse. But here's something that will not surprise the House. There is dissent and disunity in the Liberal Party of Australia.

The shadow Treasurer had been in his role for mere moments before he was bounced up into the ABC studio, and he undermined his own shadow housing minister. He said that the real problem with their super for housing policy was that it was 'too timid'. I want, Speaker, to understand that the shadow Treasurer not only wants to privatise Medicare but believes that work from home is apartheid, he does not believe in paid parental leave, because he says it's not his fault that women have children, and it looks like he now wants to jack up house prices and make younger generations poorer. The chaos in the coalition continues. They may have changed their leader, but they cannot change who they are, and that is a political party without a single sensible thing to say about housing, which is one of the biggest challenges facing our country. (Time expired)