Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition has proposed this matter of public importance because it is of great public interest that taxpayers have funded the talkfest held here in Canberra in the last week, which has resulted in a canful of housing policies and maybe the prospect of improvements to the economy in the future, but all of that is very unclear. What is clear is that the government have continued on their merry way of being the government for vested interests, where they spend more time thinking about what is going to line the coffers of their mates rather than what is going to support Australians to get out of the terrible housing crisis the nation is in, help small business and help families get ahead.

So far, from this taxpayer funded summit, we have seen three ideas. Firstly, there is pausing the National Construction Code for a handful of years, the same policy that Labor, at the election just a few months ago, said was terrible. In fact the then industry minister, Mr Husic, said that it would result in there being 'shoddy hotboxes'. Similarly, the Minister for Housing, Clare O'Neil, said last week that they were very proud of the 2022 changes to the construction code. This is the very same iteration of the code which has made home building a nightmare in Australia, because builders are encircled with Labor's red tape. This is a government that has delivered 5,000 new regulations, 400 bills, which are costing Australians $5 billion in compliance. Now the government say they want to freeze the NCC, which was the policy they pooh-poohed at the last election because it was our idea. So that's one idea—and guess what? They didn't have to have a summit to learn this policy. All they needed to do was to read the coalition's policy document from the last election.

Secondly, there is the expansion of the Home Guarantee Scheme, maybe one of the most bizarre ideas I've heard in my time in this Senate. The Labor Party want to subsidise the children of billionaires so they can buy their first home with no income cap and no means testing. The wealthiest Australians are now going to be subsidised by the taxpayer to purchase a first home. I don't understand why this is a priority. We're already running 10 years of deficits. We cannot afford the programs that are already in the budget. And now the government is saying, 'Oh, we're going to fund the first houses of middle- and higher-income earners.' That's the role of government, they believe. The contingent liability here is likely to be tens of billions of dollars. Why are we subsidising the first houses of the children of billionaires? Again, you didn't need to have a summit to have that idea.

Then there's the Treasurer's favourite idea: how he can help his mates at the big super funds become the corporate landlords of Australians. Instead of fighting crime, which ASIC is hopeless at doing, the Treasurer has forced ASIC to commence a consultation so that the super funds can cover up the stamp duty fees that they pay to their members so it can make their investments into Australian property look more attractive. This is the government for vested interests. I've always said that. And this summit has shown that their priorities are totally warped. They're trying to support the wealthiest Australians to buy their first home—bizarre priority. They're adopting the coalition policy from the last election, which they said was terrible. Again, I'm very confused.

Finally, they're supporting the idea that big corporations own houses, not Australians. On this side of the House, of course we have disagreements from time to time, which is normally healthy. But one thing we all agree on is that individual Australians should own houses, not big corporations. And it's not just trying to bodgie up the numbers in member disclosures; it's also the government's whole agenda on build-to-rent, trying to give foreign investors a tax cut so that they can buy up and build Australian houses—houses that Australians will never own.

So I say to you, Acting Deputy President: the government is confused. It says it wants to cut red tape, but then it says it wants to be the nation's biggest mortgage insurer. It says it wants to cut red tape, but then it says it wants to be a massive housing developer with massive bureaucracy. This government is confused at best, and it really needs a lot of help.