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

I rise today to speak about the recent visit of our shadow minister for housing and homelessness and former shadow minister for productivity and deregulation, Senator Andrew Bragg, to my electorate, on the southern Gold Coast. As the government continues to ram through policy without meaningful community consultation or engagement to ensure its decisions are fit for purpose, Senator Bragg's recent visit to our community is a great lesson for this government and this prime minister on the value of listening to communities when shaping national policy.

During his visit, Senator Bragg and I met with a cross-section of local businesses, educators and industry leaders who are contributing to Australia's economic future but who are also being held back by regulation, skill shortages and policy failures. We began with a visit to Suburban Security Screens, in Currumbin, a local manufacturer that has supported builders and housing delivery, including social and affordable housing, for more than 25 years. I congratulate Dale and the team on their contributions to housing and security across our community. Their experience is a familiar one: strong demand, the need for skilled workers and a desire to grow, all constrained by unnecessary red tape and regulatory complexity. Cutting red tape is not ideological. It is practical and it directly impacts productivity and housing cost and supply.

It was fitting that, when we visited the Gold Coast Trades College next, their messaging was similarly unambiguous. To address Australia's housing crisis, we need tens of thousands more tradies—and we needed them yesterday. This outstanding training provider puts more than 400 young people through trade pathways each year, yet it told us the system is making it harder, not easier, to train the workforce Australia desperately needs. We also visited RE/MAX Regency, in Robina, and heard firsthand about conditions in the southern Gold Coast housing market. Homeownership, the opportunity to build a life and put down roots, is slipping further out of reach for too many Australians. This government is falling behind on its housing targets, and the consequences are being felt across the entire housing ecosystem.

To round off the senator's visit, we held a meeting with tech startup founders from across the Gold Coast who embody the sheer strength of the Gold Coast's growing tech sector. These local entrepreneurs spoke about innovation, productivity and the rapid emergence of AI. What is clear is that this sector does not need government overreach stifling its advancement; it needs government to understand it, keep pace with it and remove barriers so that innovation can thrive.

The shadow minister's visit reinforced the value of having access to a national coalition team that's ready to listen—one that ensures local communities like mine contribute directly to the development of national policy. This is what effective government does: it enables rather than stifles, it listens rather than lectures and it backs aspiration, enterprise and hard work.