Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Day for that question. Let me just say right up-front, so that there is no misapprehension: the story in The Australian Financial Review today that, somehow, the government is retreating from various budget measures is wrong. The government remains committed to all of its budget measures and, indeed, many of our budget measures have already passed the parliament. We will continue to work with the Senate in relation to the important structural reforms required, for example, to ensure that our welfare system is put on a sustainable foundation for the future, and also that our budget is on a sustainable foundation for the future.

Having said that, we of course do recognise that housing affordability is an important policy issue. We also recognise that Senator Day has a particularly strong interest in this, and that he lives in a state with a particularly bad state Labor government which—like Labor governments are always known to do—goes for cash grabs wherever they can, including through the particular body that he has mentioned, in his question and before. Our focus here is this: our focus is on building a stronger, more prosperous economy, where stronger growth can, of course, create opportunities for people to get ahead and to get access to the housing market—but we are also mindful of the need for state and territory governments to do their bit as part of that cause.

It is difficult to see how housing construction can be part of closing the gap completely, because housing construction is already in the middle of an upswing, with dwelling investment forecast to grow by 7½ per cent in 2014-15. All states and territories have agreed to implement the recommendations of the Housing Supply And Affordability Reform report, which aimed to make development and other regulatory processes more efficient. We certainly call on the South Australian state government to do their bit in implementing those recommendations.