Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday, during question time, the Prime Minister was twice asked directly to guarantee that the housing market in Australia wouldn't tank, and twice he refused to do so. I rang a number of real estate agents in my electorate this morning, and I spoke with them. I'm going to record into Hansard what three of their comments were. The first one was: 'Interest has certainly softened. Inquiries are down to around COVID levels. It's like someone has turned a tap off to our industry.' The second one was: 'This week, I've had three appointments for inspections. They simply didn't show up. I'm worried for my business, and we can't sustain this. Scotty, you've got to get rid of this bad government so that our business can survive.' The last one was: 'Scotty, it's like a perfect storm of despair for us—continued interest rate rises with more to come, government policy designed specifically to devalue the family home and crippled consumer confidence. If the government wants to give kids a hand up, why don't they try building homes to suit the kids' budget? Don't raid the single largest assets of families by devaluing the family house.' These are comments from real Australians, from real estate agents and from business owners who employ people in my electorate. They deserve better. The Labor Party can't come in here and say that they're doing everything. They're not. They're crippling our country.