Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of all answers to coalition questions during question time. I had to pause for a moment when I was listening to the questions from Senator Bragg in relation to the HAFF and the CFMEU. We are in a housing crisis in this country. We have been for a number of years. One of the most significant inquiries that I sat on in my committee work for the Senate was the housing and rental crisis inquiry, where I heard the stories of people unable to afford somewhere to live or to have a roof over their heads. That's the Australian dream—to own your own home—and I don't think it is an unreasonable dream, either. I think it's fair to suggest that, if you work hard, you do all the right things and you choose to buy your own home, you should be able to do that.

What really bothered me was the fact that the CFMEU announced the other day that they're going to be expanding into New South Wales. I was sitting here wondering, 'Is there any other organisation or entity in this country that has actually expanded whilst it's in administration?' I couldn't think of anybody. I could be wrong. I thought it was extraordinary that, just before the end of the last term, the CFMEU went into administration because of all the things that were wrong and their significantly egregious behaviour, particularly in Victoria—and we heard some stories recently in Queensland. They went into administration, but guess what? They said, 'We'll expand into New South Wales now so that we can broaden the damage, we can harm more people and we can ensure that the reasons we were put into administration in Victoria can be spread further around the country.'

The madness of what I'm saying and what I'm suggesting is that it's real. This has actually happened. What did the New South Wales CFMEU boss Michael Crosby say? He said:

… we are looking at large multiple complex residential construction—

and that it may 'push up costs'. So they are coming into large-scale residential construction in NSW with the knowledge that it may increase the costs—not 'may' but will likely increase the costs—of those dwellings when we have a housing crisis. When people already can't afford the cost of dwellings, they're going to make them even more expensive.

We know from the information that my colleague Senator Bragg has shared with us many times that those costs are around 30 per cent more. Let's have a think about that. Paying $800,000 for a unit in Sydney is probably entry level in many places. Add 30 per cent to that. That's an extra $240,000. That takes that unit's cost from $800,000 to $1,040,000. Let's go one step up: a $900,000 unit. An extra $270,000 takes the cost to about $1.170 million, just under $1.2 million. That's the cost of having the CFMEU participate in what they call 'large, multiple-complex residential construction', and we're going to sit here and say that that is okay. I don't understand.

This threatens to kill off homeownership for millennials completely. If young people weren't already so disheartened by the fact that they may never own their homes, this is a further nail in the coffin of that dream. That is under the watch of the Albanese Labor government, because they cannot hold the CFMEU to account. The government cannot stop the CFMEU from spreading their damage across our country. We should not stand by and allow that.

When the union was placed in administration in August last year, the Prime Minister said:

… there's no place for corruption or intimidation in the building industry.

Yet it is there plainly for all of us to see. Yet it continues. It continues with the further infiltration of the CFMEU into New South Wales despite the damage that they have caused in Victoria and Queensland. This Labor government has no interest in probity. It has no interest in transparency, and it has no interest in stopping the CFMEU. (Time expired)