Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

He missed by only 29,900-and-something. That is an abject policy failure on the part of this government. They are failing the Australian people, whom we agree desperately need to get into homes. And yet all Mr Albanese did—it's a great headline: urgency, integrity, ambitious and bold. But the reality confronting the Australian people, which, as I said, we're going to remind them of every single day between now and the next election, is that Mr Albanese is failing them.

Worse than that, though, is that Labor like to fudge the figures. What an insult to the Australian people! A few hundred homes have been acquired and converted. Hold on, the whole point was to build new homes. You actually add to additional housing stock in Australia. That's what a new home is. You build it and you add a home to the housing stock in Australia. Remember, the promise was 30,000. We're at around 17 after two years, but the problem with Labor is this: they still treat the Australian people as if they're mugs. This is how Labor fudge the figures: they increase them by saying or pretending that, when you acquire or convert an existing home, that's a success. Well, let me tell you what happens when you use Australian taxpayer money—because that's what this is; it's Australian taxpayer money that was meant to be invested in new builds to add to housing stock—to acquire or convert. Say I'm an Australian person and I'm out there hoping to get into that home right there. Do you know what the government does? It sweeps straight in, it purchases the home and it says, 'There's another Australian successfully in a home.' Well, quite frankly, enough is now enough, and we are going to expose the government for its continuous misleading of the Australian people.

So let us be clear: the Australian Labor Party under Mr Albanese, despite their promise to the Australian people and the billions they've invested in this—and, shortly, we'll get to how much has actually been spent—are not creating housing stock. You create housing stock; you create new homes—that is how you get people who currently can't get into a home into a home. The Australian Labor Party and Mr Albanese are bidding against first home buyers. So I'm speaking to any young Australians out there who voted for the Australian Labor Party because they thought: 'I like their announcement. I like their plan. I love the title, Housing Australia Future Fund. I love their target'—in fact, it wasn't even a target—'I love what they said, that they would deliver 30,000 new homes.' When you are at the next auction or the next open home, just remember that Mr Albanese is with you. The Australian Labor government are with you every step of the way, and the bad news for you is this: you thought you had enough to actually purchase this home. You thought you'd done the right thing, you'd saved up the deposit and you would be getting into that house. Well, guess what? Mr Albanese and the Australian Labor Party are swooping in and they are actually bidding directly against you. That is not policy; that is an absolute disgrace. That is performance art and nothing more. It is a reality. Australians cannot live in a press release or an aspiration, and they certainly can't live in housing stock that's not newly built when they're trying to actually get into the market, and all Mr Albanese is doing under this scheme is swoop in and outbid them.

Let's also have a look at the statistics, though. Mr Albanese stood up in front of the Australian people and said that the Housing Australia Future Fund would invest $10 billion for the future of housing in Australia. That was—what?—two years ago now. Again, this is not the coalition speaking. These are the figures that you get via the estimates process. The estimates process is when the opposition parties are able to question the department about what Labor said to the Australian people. Let's now talk about what they've actually done. There's $10 billion in investment for the future of Australian housing, but, after years of spin, at 31 March this year, $233 million had been spent. What's worse is that under the legislation there is a mandated annual commitment. For those who don't know what a mandated annual commitment is, it's this. People don't necessarily like being told they have to do something, but it's even worse when government has a mandated commitment to deliver on behalf of the Australian people, because government should be delivering on it. The legislation provides that half a billion dollars each year must actually be spent. But no, only $223 million has been spent from this fund. Let's be very clear. The rules are crystal clear. Half a billion dollars must be spent each financial year. We know they haven't met that, they can't meet it and, in fact, some might say they never had any intention of meeting it. They got the headline, they conned Australians and they're back in government.

We asked them where the additional $277 million had gone. It was meant to be spent before the 30 June deadline. I would have thought that, on behalf of the Australian people, who were promised something by Mr Albanese, they would want (a) the half a billion invested on their behalf or (b) forget the 17 homes; they'd want progress towards the 30,000. I think it's a fair question in behalf of the Australian people. The government were meant, by law, to invest half a billion dollars of our money to create additional homes, new builds, that young Australians and, in particular, women fleeing domestic violence could get into. They haven't, so what have they done with the rest of the money? The bad news for the Australian people is that Labor won't tell us. They actually won't tell us where your $277 million has gone. I mean, seriously! Anyone listening in the car should start dreaming up where you think the Albanese government could have spent the $277 million—your money—that they haven't spent on the housing that they told you that they would build, and they have not.

Unfortunately, the reality for the Australian people is that, yes, they voted the Albanese government back in, but they voted on the basis of promises that have now turned out to not be true. They voted on the basis of headlines which they believed. It is a fact that, under this government, they are not meeting their targets, they are not making the investments and Australians are still struggling to get into homes. The Housing Australia Future Fund is not a fund for delivering homes. It has been proven now by the evidence, two years after it was legislated, to be nothing more and nothing less. This is really sad. It's a familiar headline. I would have liked to have stood here and said that there is substance to it, but there's no substance to this at all.

I want to ask the Albanese government questions that they should be answering. How many young families have actually received a set of keys to a new build, not one of your conversions and not one of the ones where you've outbid an Australian trying to get into the market? How many single mums waiting in a motel have been told, under this fund, 'Your home is ready'? How many First Nations families on the 10-year waiting list have been told that, under this fund, 'Help is on the way, and you will be moving in'? What we have instead is the slow suffocation of the great Australian dream by a Labor government—a government long on promises but short on delivery. As I said, this bill responds to a failure of policy, a failure of government and, quite frankly, a failure of ethics. Shame on those in the chamber who want to stand by the headline and not listen to the substance.