Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for COAG) Share this | Hansard source

Mine is actually doing quite well, thanks. Minister Evans made the observation in his response to my question that everyone assumes that if there is not a new measure in a budget you are doing something wrong. I want to correct that misapprehension by Senator Evans. It is not just the budget that has persuaded us that this government is doing something wrong. Try for example, as I said in my question, the fact that 2011 was the second straight year in which dwelling commencements fell in this country in four consecutive quarters. Even those opposite should be able to work out that that means eight consecutive quarters. We have a housing shortage currently at approximately 186,800, but that is set to go beyond 300,000 by 2014, and a government that apparently thinks the best way to deal with housing affordability is to rely on the Reserve Bank. So it is unsurprising that it is not just the budget that persuades us that there is something wrong but, more importantly, the government's approach on all of these issues.

This budget has done nothing to boost housing supply or housing affordability; it has done nothing to further reduce the risk or incidence of homelessness. You only have to read the minister's press release from budget night to persuade yourself of that. We have building activity down, we have rents that are rising faster than inflation and we have from this government no vision for the housing sector. If you throw into that mix the carbon tax, which is going to increase the cost of building an average home by at least $5,200 even after compensation, according to the Housing Industry Association's figures, it is no wonder that we and the sector and most of the participants in the sector are seriously concerned about the approach that this government is taking.

I will leave housing there for the moment because I do want to make some reference to the answer from the minister on the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the performance by Senator Feeney on that issue. This is one of the few policy proposals put forward by a pretty desperate government that has had bipartisan support, and I congratulate my colleague Senator Fifield for the work that he has done across the sector, across Australia, to engage with stakeholders and to work constructively on this issue and have some capacity to understand how important it is. Clearly, from the paltry offering of Senator Feeney, they over there do not understand this issue. Senator Feeney's dismissal of the idea that the matter is important enough for this parliament to have a jointly overseeing parliamentary committee, his wave of the hand and his suggestion that this was somehow a fanciful idea, is indicative of his contempt for the issue we have been discussing this afternoon following Minister Evans's answer on the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

It is what the government promised but has not delivered that should embarrass this government. I am not sure that I can understand the logic of them saying they have delivered 25 per cent of what the Productivity Commission recommended and brought it forward a year, so somehow that means they have done a good thing. The Productivity Commission's report on the National Disability Insurance Scheme was one of the most thorough and comprehensive approaches to this particularly important issue for Australians that could possibly have been taken. The government, by showing contempt for that report and that initiative, is selling itself and Australia's people with disabilities short. They have let down Australians with a disability, they have let down their families and they have let down their carers.

This will not address anywhere near the number of people the Productivity Commission proposed it should, which was 400,000 Australians. The government's announced scheme will only extend to 20,000 Australians. One hopes that there will be an explanation from the government—an adequate explanation as opposed to the inadequate one we were offered this afternoon—as to why they have taken this approach. We hope that they will do the sector the courtesy it deserves by offering that explanation not just to the parliament but to them. Based on the budget figures, as Senator Fifield said, there is no way that full implementation of the scheme by 2018 will happen. (Time expired)