Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Well, this is quite the smoke and mirrors from the opposition to really just be going after working people and unions through the guise of talking about housing affordability. I'm absolutely happy to talk about all the work that we are doing to get people into their first home, to realise that dream, and to also make it more affordable for them to do that. But to go after unions, who have consistently improved the lives of working Australians, as a means of doing that is an absolute disgrace.

Getting more Australians into their first home is absolutely one of the highest priorities for our government. The coalition and Senator Bragg have no credibility on housing—none, precisely zero—having cut housing investment while in government and opposing every single housing investment made by Labor. Let's not forget that their only proposal on housing is for people to raid their super to pay for housing, something that they will need in retirement. It's a disgrace that the coalition's only answer to housing shortages is to cut building workers' wages. It's an absolute disgrace.

The only party looking to drive up housing prices in this country is the coalition. Economists have said the super for housing policy—that wonderful thing—could drive up housing prices by more than $90,000 in our capital cities. The facts are that wages have not been driving up the cost of housing prices. In fact, wages costs have grown more slowly than other costs in construction, a fact that those opposite don't want to know about. For 10 years, the LNP complained about the CFMEU but did nothing to clean it up—all words, no action. On this side, we've taken strong action to put the union's construction division into administration and to clean up the corruption, criminality and violence that had infiltrated the union.

As I said earlier, unions have improved the lives of working people. There are fewer injuries on worksites thanks to unions. Workers have better pay and conditions because they can do things called collective-bargaining, which locks in pay and entitlements for everybody. There are more supports for workers through unions. They protect workers against unfair dismissal or wage theft. It's incredible to me that the coalition have a campaign against unions who protect workers from these things. They really don't want workers to get fair pay or protect them from unfair discrimination or wage theft. That's what's really clear about this. Unions also educate workers about what their rights are, which is a really great thing.

There are a couple of things people in this chamber might be aware of where unions have helped in shaping what our national policy is. One is the eight-hour-work day; some people in this place might be familiar with that, maybe. Another is paid leave, just a little something that allows us to take some time off work, recharge our batteries and spend some time with family. You can thank unions for that. Another is superannuation, something that helps us to be comfortable in retirement. Thank you, unions, for that. Another is antidiscrimination laws to make sure that people like me and you are protected in our workplaces. That's just a small list of the things that unions have contributed to our nation, and the attack from those opposite on our unions is a disgrace.

Now I might turn to some of the things that we're doing in housing. The housing crisis has been a generation in the making. For too many Australians, homeownership feels too far away and being a renter feels too insecure. It's why we have put forward a $43 billion plan to make it easier to buy and better to rent and to build more homes. We're expanding the five per cent deposit scheme to all first home buyers so they can pay off their own mortgage and not someone else's. Labor is launching the Help to Buy shared-equity scheme later this year to help first home buyers get into their first home with a mortgage up to 40 percentage points smaller. That is a great thing. We are doing our very best to get people into their first homes and to make it more affordable for them to realise the dream of owning their first home.