David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

There are already 2½ thousand US marines cycling in and out of Darwin. Are we building housing for the 2½ thousand marines cycling in and out of Darwin? There are already plans to put 700 US troops into the surrounds of Garden Island, off Fremantle, with all their families. How many houses are we building for US troops in Fremantle under this bill? There's already a housing crisis over there.

We say to both the coalition and Labor: if you're going to do another stitch-up on AUKUS, at least have the guts to do it in public. At least have the guts to take this bill to an inquiry so we can find out how many hundreds of millions in Australian taxpayers' dollars are going towards building housing for US troops under the plan from the war parties, Labor and the coalition. AUKUS is already bleeding us dry, with billions of dollars going to Donald Trump and billions more going to Rolls-Royce in the UK. And now, in the first housing bill that Labor brings into this new parliament, they decide to put an unknown number of millions of dollars into building houses—not for people in Australia who can't afford them, but for Labor's mates in the US and for US troops. It's a disgrace. Send it to inquiry.