I move:

That this House:

(1) condemns the Government's housing failures, which under this Government has seen the housing shortfall increase to 400,000 persons, roughly the population of Canberra;

(2) highlights that home building has fallen to around 170,000 homes a year under the Government, down from around 200,000 homes under the previous Government;

(3) recognises the Opposition's plan to:

(a) restore the Australian dream of home ownership by freeing up housing stock and beginning to fix the housing shortage; and

(b) cut back the 2,000 page National Construction Code, giving Australians the ability to build cheaper safe, secure, and good homes;

(4) acknowledges the Opposition's commitment to overhaul our skilled migration intake so that Australia brings in people with the skills that businesses desperately need;

(5) further recognises the Opposition's plan to establish a $5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund to unlock up to 400,000 new homes, including in regional Australia; and

(6) calls on the Government to adopt practical policies that make it cheaper, easier and faster to build new homes.

Sadly, the great Australian dream has turned into a nightmare under this Labor government. Across Australia, people are standing around barbecues, simply asking, 'How are our kids going to get into a home?' It's the question that mums and dads are asking. It's the question that young Australians are asking. And, after four years of this Labor government, it's becoming harder and harder to answer.

The government has delivered a trifecta of failure on housing: fewer homes, higher rents and confidence in the market smashed. Home values have fallen month after month. First home buyer mortgage pre-approvals have fallen, and rents remain higher. Construction costs are higher. Labor's track record so far is that renters are struggling because rents have gone up 22 per cent. Australians deserve to ask a pretty basic question after all of the billions of dollars and all of the announcements: where are the homes? Labor had what they called an 'ambitious' but I would say 'delusional' target of 1.2 million homes over five years. As I've said in this place before, that requires 60,000 homes to be delivered every quarter for five years. Every quarter, this carrot that they're holding out is further and further away from Australians.

This government will say that the housing crisis has been 40 years in the making when really it's just four—four years of fewer homes, four years of higher rents, four years of higher construction costs and four years of Australians watching homeownership move further and further out of reach. It's time for this Labor government to front up to Australians and be honest about how they're tracking, because they're failing each and every Australian. At the centre of this failure is the Minister for Housing. I've said it before in this place, and I'll say it again today—the minister was hopeless in Home Affairs in the last term of government, and now she is hopeless with homes.

This week, Australians received a new contribution to the housing debate from the Minister for Communications and the Minister for Sports, Anika Wells—Ooshies. Are you serious? Apparently, Australians who cannot afford a home need a cabinet minister to explain supply and demand to them with children's supermarket toys, Minister Wells told Australians that both the Ooshie market and the Australian housing market are dictated by supply and demand. Australians understand supply and demand because they understand it every time there's a rent renewal. They understand it every time a first home buyer misses out on another property. And parents understand it when their adult children tell them they cannot afford to live anywhere near the community that they grew up in. Australians don't need to be patronised with Ooshies; they need homes.

If anyone wants to see the difference between a Labor housing announcement and actual delivery, look at what happened in Victoria last week. Minister O'Neil was there. So was the special envoy for housing, Josh Burns. There was an announcement of $144 million for 237 crisis and transitional homes. It is a great initiative on paper because these are homes for vulnerable Australians—women and children escaping family and domestic violence experiencing or risking homelessness, for example. A journalist asked the big question, possibly the most basic question: 'How long will it take to build them?' What did the housing minister say? 'Who wants to take that? Is it Nick or Josh?' She stepped away from answering it. The Victorian housing minister gave Australians the answer: by 2029. It was reconfirmed by the special envoy, Josh Burns. That's extraordinary. A housing crisis announced in 2026, with delivery in three years time. 'Cynical Cameron' would think that this might have had something to do with the Victorian state election coming up, but that is not helping the women who are escaping family and domestic violence.

The coalition believes in something fundamentally different—we must restore homeownership as the centrepiece of the Australian dream:

We must strive, as a nation, to increase homeownership. There is no better way to illustrate the collective ambition of our nation to have individual freedom and responsibility than to have people own their own home. Give as many people as possible the opportunity to have a stake in our nation.

That was from my maiden speech, on 4 September 2023, and I still believe it today.

Is there a seconder for the motion?

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

It takes a certain amount of nerve for the coalition to come into this place and lecture the government about housing. Australia's housing shortage did not appear overnight; for decades, we have failed to build enough homes. In the nine years of the former coalition government—the whole time they were in office—they didn't have a housing minister. Now they have apparently discovered housing; better late than never, I suppose! But Australians do not need another political motion; they need homes. Young people are working hard and wondering if they will ever own one. Parents are watching their kids face a much harder path into homeownership than they did. Renters are lining up with dozens of other applicants and watching rents rise again. There is one basic fact in the centre of this debate: we need to build more homes.

But building homes is not about just about laying bricks; you need roads, you need power, you need schools, you need sewerage and, particularly in Western Australia, you need water. Perth can no longer rely on rainfall alone. Streamflow into our dams has fallen by around 80 per cent compared with historical levels, and desalination now provides the majority share of Perth's drinking water. In 2006, Western Australia opened its first large-scale seawater desalination plant, in Kwinana. At the time, it was derided by some, and those opposite, as a white elephant. It turned out to be one of the most important pieces of infrastructure WA has ever built. Then we built a second one, and Western Australia is now building its third desalination plant, in Alkimos, because a growing city needs infrastructure to support that growth.

There is a lesson in that. Good governments do not wait until the tap runs dry before they build the infrastructure, and we should not wait until the housing shortage gets worse before we build the homes and services Australia needs. After years in which the Commonwealth largely walked away from housing, Labor has put the Commonwealth back at the table. We have a $47 billion housing agenda focused overwhelmingly on supply. We have agreed with the states and territories on a national target of 1.2 million new homes. More than 660,000 homes have been built nationally since Labor came to office. And we are seeing progress. Building approvals in the June quarter of 2026 were more than 26 per cent higher than two years earlier. New home commencements were more than 15 per cent higher in the March quarter. Construction-cost inflation, which reached 17 per cent under the former government, has fallen substantially.

Nobody on this side is pretending the job is finished. But if the opposition genuinely believes Australia needs more homes, perhaps it should stop tearing down the programs that are building them. They have opposed build to rent. They've tried to scrap help to buy. They have opposed the Housing Australia Future Fund and the five per cent deposit pathway for first homebuyers. You cannot spend Monday complaining that Australia does not have enough homes and then spend Tuesday trying to dismantle the programs building them. That is not a housing policy. It is a contradiction with a press release attached.

I know personally what getting a foothold in the housing market can mean. I bought my first home in Perth when I was a fourth-year electrical apprentice. I was not working in the mines. I was working in Perth, earning apprentice wages, and I was still able to buy my first home. That should not be a story from another era. A young apprentice today should still be able to think, 'If I work hard, save and stick at it, I can get there.' So should a nurse, a teacher, a retail worker, a firefighter. But for too many young Australians, that pathway now feels much further away.

That is why we are tackling both sides of the problem. We are building more homes and we are making it easier to buy one. Eligible first homebuyers can now purchase with a five per cent deposit, and the government has already supported more than 270,000 people into homeownership through the scheme. Single parents can continue to access the family home guarantee with a deposit as low as two per cent. Homeownership should not become something reserved for people with wealthy parents or very high incomes. If I could buy my first home as a fourth-year apprentice working in Perth, we should be doing everything we can to make sure the next generation gets the same shot.

Only a Labor MP could come in here and talk about both sides of the housing debate and then mention two aspects of supply. It is absolutely beyond every member of the government that comes into this place to mention the unspoken element that's caused the problem, and that is their failure to control Australia's migration program. At the end of the day, tax settings didn't cause Australia's housing crisis. Super settings didn't cause Australia's housing crisis. But the complete failure of this government to manage supply and demand at both times has actually caused Australia's housing crisis.

At the end of the day, they've made a complete mess of the situation by mismanaging migration and constraining supply. That came to a head with their budget where we saw, on top of that, anti-aspirational and antihousing taxes absolutely smash confidence in the market. It's almost like our Treasurer, who studied Paul Keating and holds a doctorate of spin, missed the years 1985 to 1987. That's when the Labor Party last went after negative gearing and caused house prices to fall, rents to skyrocket and housing confidence to collapse. Well, here we are, 20 years later. Rents are skyrocketing, house prices are falling and confidence in the market has been smashed. You really would think that they would learn from history rather than repeating it.

The member for Moore mentioned some aspirational targets they have and their propensity to release press releases and media stunts, but the numbers don't lie. Labor is already more than 100,000 homes behind their own 1.2 million home target—100,000 homes behind already. They will miss that target by more than 220,000 homes on their own government's numbers.

Speaking of their own government's numbers, the budget itself forecasts fewer homes being built under the tax changes that this government introduced. It doesn't take a genius to work out that when you are blowing your migration targets, budget after budget after budget, and when you are seeing fewer homes built, falling further and further and further behind your supply targets, the market will get further and further out of reach for young Australians.

The one thing I absolutely would agree on with the member for Moore is that it should not be beyond young Australians to dream of owning a home in this country. Indeed, from our founding father Robert Menzies, the Liberal Party has always believed in homeownership as a key tenet of being an Australian because it gives you a stake in our country worth conserving.

We see the government failing to take action on unlocking that supply, whereas the coalition has a clear alternative with our $5 billion infrastructure fund to unlock—through sewer, power, road and water infrastructure—land that is zoned, flat and ready for development today. One-third of that fund, $1.5 billion, is quarantined for regional electorates like mine and, indeed, that of the member for O'Connor, who I know will be speaking shortly on this very important issue.

That is what the difference is today when it comes to housing, because the coalition has a clear plan to slash the red tape that's holding back these new homes. The National Construction Code is some 2,000 pages, which the member for Calwell was recently carrying around. It's a document that started at 200 pages and it's got to 2,000, telling builders how to build homes. Does anyone in Australia today seriously think that our builders need 2,000 pages of instructions to tell them how to do their jobs? They don't. They need a government that's prepared to slash red tape and get out of the way, and that's exactly what our plan does.

Not only will we have that infrastructure to unlock new land, and not only will we scrap the red tape and regulation that is holding builders back and causing woke palaces to be built at great expense to young Australians, but we will also tackle the other key aspect of this debate in getting on top of migration. Our plan is to have fewer people come to Australia and to raise the standards of those coming, because we want to welcome people to Australia where we have the capacity to. That means having homes for them to live in, schools for their kids to attend and hospitals to look after them when they're sick. This is an issue of great importance to Australia, and only the coalition's plan will solve the problem here.

We welcome this motion by the member for Fadden because it gives us the opportunity to compare our record with the coalition's record and our plan with the coalition's plan. As the saying goes, don't threaten us with a good time, because it's a contest we'll win every day of the week.

We on this side recognise the importance of stable, secure and affordable housing. It's a foundation for being able to thrive in life. It's so important for health and mental health, for engaging in education and employment and for being able to put down roots and become part of a community. There are some who make calls for housing to be recognised as a human right. Those are important calls, but at the very least we can all recognise that housing is a fundamental human need—the need for shelter. Some people choose to invest in housing, and that's fine, but governing is about priorities, and we prioritise having a home of people's own somewhere, as I said, where people can build a life and become members of the community.

Our record on housing is that we have the largest housing agenda of any government since World War II, with $47 billion dollars focused on increasing supply. A lot of that is through the National Housing Accord, our ambitious target of 1.2 million homes across the country. Those opposite criticise the ambition of the National Housing Accord. They criticise the ambition of these targets. But I've met with the Property Council and the Master Builders Association—both important organisations, peak bodies that are representing the property industry and the people who work in the building industry—and they welcome our focus on housing and these ambitious targets.

The National Housing Accord has us working with states and territories, and we're incentivising the reduction of red tape. Of course, there's a patchwork of different housing standards and approvals across the country, so it's important that we work with the states and territories to reduce the amount of administration. We recognise that that's an important part of what we need to do to speed up building approvals and to speed up constructions. That's work that is already underway.

We're also investing in last-mile infrastructure. Now, the coalition, those opposite, have also made some commitments around last-mile infrastructure. That's part of the motion the member for Fadden has moved. But we have already, in the last budget, increased funding for last-mile infrastructure by a further $2 billion for things like sewerage, electricity and plumbing. That takes our total commitment of last-mile infrastructure to $6.3 billion. So we've already exceeded what those opposite claim they're going to deliver as part of their plan. They're already way behind. And we know as well how our record compares with their record: for most of the nine years that they were in government, they didn't even have a housing minister. They completely vacated the field on housing. We know that this crisis in housing has been building for a long time, but I tell you what: completely doing nothing on housing at the federal level for almost nine years will only exacerbate that housing crisis. So they have to take their responsibility for how far behind we are in housing supply.

But that's something that we're absolutely addressing. We're addressing increasing supply because we know that's the surest way of increasing the affordability of housing. We're also making sure that we're looking out for the more vulnerable members of our community through things like the Housing Australia Future Fund, which will build 55,000 more social and affordable homes for people who need it most. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to get into a home. We know some people need a bit of a leg up, need a bit of help to be able to have stable and secure housing. As I said, it is very important for helping people get back on their feet or making sure that they're able to build a life. And so we're investing in this really important infrastructure—essential infrastructure in a lot of ways—to make sure that people in difficult situations are still able to get into the housing market.

But affordable homes are also for those who in previous generations might have been able to get into the housing market—people like nurses and teachers, who on their wages now, because the price of housing has outstripped wage growth by so much, will have real difficulty getting in. In my community in Box Hill, we've built 102 social and affordable homes. They're already delivered in Menzies. We've got another 11 under development. And how does that compare with the coalition's record? In their nine years in government, they built only373 homes. In my electorate alone, we have almost as third as many as the total number of social and affordable homes that they built. That really demonstrates their lack of recognition, and even in this motion there's nothing on social and affordable homes.

Australia's housing crisis is not confined to our capital cities. It is being felt just as acutely in our regional communities, where families, workers, first home buyers and local businesses are struggling under the weight of Labor's failed housing policies. For many regional Australians, the dream of homeownership is moving further out of reach. Communities that have traditionally offered affordable housing and a better quality of life are now facing housing shortages, rising rents and increasing pressure on local infrastructure. This Labor government has failed to deliver on its own housing commitments. Labor's headline promise was to deliver 1.2 million homes by mid-2029, yet they are already more than 100,000 dwellings behind this schedule and are projected to miss their own target by more than 220,000 homes. Under the coalition, around 200,000 homes were built annually. Under Labor, that figure has fallen to approximately 170,000 homes per year. At a time when Australia desperately needs more housing, construction has gone backwards. For regional communities like mine, the consequences are severe. Teachers, nurses, police officers, aged-care workers and small-business employees are increasingly unable to find affordable accommodation.

Labor's tax changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax are making it unattractive for regional workers to invest either locally or where they ultimately want to live and raise their families. Employers across regional Australia report that housing shortages are preventing them from attracting and retaining workers. The escalating cost of building in the regions, combined with the changes to capital gains tax and negative gearing, is disincentivizing private-sector investment in regional housing infrastructure.

Not only are Labor's budget measures reducing housing supply and undermining investor confidence in building the homes Australians need; their migration policy is not aligned to housing supply. Australia has always benefited from migration, particularly skilled migration. Regional communities like mine rely on skilled workers in the health-care, childcare, agriculture, construction and hospitality industries. However, migration levels must be managed responsibly. Under Labor, annual net overseas migration has averaged almost 400,000 people, while housing construction has fallen significantly. The result is that demand has raced ahead of supply. According to the opposition, Labor's housing and migration settings have contributed to a housing shortfall of between 350,000 and 400,000 people, roughly equivalent to the entire population of Canberra.

The coalition offers a practical and achievable solution. Central to our plan is a $5 billion housing infrastructure fund that will help unlock up to 400,000 new homes across Australia. Critically, at least $1.5 billion of this funding will be specifically allocated to regional, rural and remote Australia. This is important because housing developments cannot proceed without the necessary enabling infrastructure. Too often regional housing projects are stalled because there is insignificant investment in roads, water systems, sewerage networks, electricity connections and other essential infrastructure.

My local councils know where housing can be built. Developers are ready to invest, and families are ready to move. But without supporting infrastructure, those projects remain stuck on paper. The coalition plans to address that problem directly. By investing in enabling infrastructure, we can unlock land, accelerate housing developments and create new opportunities for families seeking affordable homes in regional Australia. Regional Australia is not just part of the solution; regional Australia is the solution. In a nation as large as ours, it makes little sense for housing growth to be concentrated in a handful of metropolitan areas while enormous opportunities exist throughout regional communities. By supporting growth in our regions we can ease pressure on our cities while strengthening regional economies and communities.

The coalition will also cut unnecessary red tape by reducing the complexity of the National Construction Code while maintaining essential safety standards. The coalition estimates that this could reduce the cost of building a new home by up to $70,000. For many regional families, that could mean the difference between being able to buy a home or remaining locked out of the market. We will also ensure migration is linked to housing completions so that population growth does not continue to outstrip Australia's capacity to build homes. At the same time, we will prioritise skilled migrants, including construction workers and tradespeople, who can help increase housing supply across both metropolitan and regional Australia.

Labor's approach has delivered fewer homes, missed targets and growing housing shortages. A re-elected coalition will restore the great Australian dream of homeownership for Australians who work hard, save hard and want a place to call their own.

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.