Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is; it's totally ironic, Senator Scarr. Let's face it: this is not a government that wants scrutiny. It is not a government that takes accountability seriously. It is not a government that wants questions asked; it simply wants to use its numbers wherever it can and use games to get away with whatever it can.

What they've got away with in housing is outrageous: $60 billion. That's your money they're spending. And did you know that this government has built fewer houses each year than the coalition did in nine years? We didn't spend $60 billion to do it either. The home guarantee scheme is an initiative of a coalition government, but it was small, it was targeted and it was done intentionally to help young people that might have great credit risk and be unable to get a deposit together to get to that first rung on the ladder. But it was so limited that it had no effect on housing prices. Labor have taken the lid off and said, 'This is a free for all,' and now we've got Reserve Bank governors, economists and even Treasury warning that this is a policy that will push housing prices up. But they do not care.

At the same time, we've got the Housing Australia Future Fund, the greatest and most expensive white elephant that this country has ever seen, that has not built a single house—not one. But it borrowed $10 billion of your money to do that. Not only did it not build a house; it actually bought—