Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

What is important is that the government address the matters that are within its realm. As I said, they go to overall economic policy, unemployment, real wages and interest rates, which we have been addressing. There are responsibilities that state and local governments need to address. We have brought in things like the First Home Owners Scheme, and that is important. But you have to be very careful not to unduly stimulate demand for housing if there is not a capable, automatic and ready supply side response. It is no good artificially inflating demand for housing through various subsidies if you do not have the capacity for the supply of land and housing to respond to that. The supply of land and housing is totally within the realm of the state and federal governments. Various federal government ministers are working closely with their state counterparts and exhorting them to respond to ensure that the supply side of the housing market does work, because that is where the fundamental failing is. We will continue to exhort our state ministers to do so.