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

The main point in this matter of public importance is that the taxpayer is underwriting a $60 billion housing scheme across the board, across the Commonwealth, in which the government is building fewer houses than were built under the previous government. Who could believe that you could conjure up a way to waste $60 billion of taxpayer funds to get fewer houses than we had before? Now, we have the largest population that we've ever had, and we have, per capita, the largest drop in completions. What we also have is a lot of bureaucracy, a lot of government programs and a lot of dodgy accounting. In fact, one of the most extraordinary elements of all of this is the way that the government has set up these housing schemes. A lot of them are off budget. So, even though we've already seen 10 years of red ink, that doesn't take into account the fact that some of the kooky schemes, like Help to Buy, are all off budget.

What you've seen under this government is the breaking down of the integrity of Australia's public finances. If you look for the overall picture in the final budget outcome, it doesn't tell you the overall picture. All it tells you is what they've got on budget. It is extraordinary to me that this quantity of funds has been allocated to housing to produce fewer houses.

I think it is important to note that, no matter how well intentioned the programs are, the central agency of the Housing Australia fame has been a bureaucratic quagmire. The Housing Australia Future Fund, for example, which has been in business for two years, has $10 billion and has so far built no houses, but what it is doing is overpaying for proposed new dwellings. Now, the average cost to build a new house in Australia is about $500,000. But how much is the future fund paying? It's paying $1.2 million and $1.3 million in some cases. That is not good value for money. That is why we welcome the Auditor-General's independent investigation into the spending of this agency.

I think there are significant probity issues. Because of this government's addiction to secrecy, we haven't been able to get to the bottom of the meetings that were conducted by the Treasurer and the Minister for Housing with the major investors, who have become the biggest beneficiaries of this scheme—the major super funds, the Labor Party's best friends. They've received 2.8 billion bucks from the Housing Australia Future Fund. The same people that I suspect helped the Treasurer design the payment scheme got the cream at the end. This is a matter that the Auditor-General will have to investigate—because why should the taxpayer be paying $1.2 million to $1.3 million per house? It would be easier to pay that half a million dollars and set them up as public housing. Why do we have to pay these investors this premium?

That is why we will seriously consider making a referral to the Anti-Corruption Commission—because this is a matter of great integrity. We want public finances to be well managed. We want conflicts of interests to be disclosed and properly managed. Because the government redacts all of the FOIs and does not provide the documents that were ordered by this Senate, we can't get to the bottom of things. So maybe it is the case that the government has totally emasculated the Senate. Maybe it is the case that we'll never see the Briggs review. Maybe it is the case that we'll never see the documents ordered in relation to the Home Guarantee Scheme. Maybe that is the case. Maybe we have seen the emasculation of this chamber. Maybe there's no point coming here anymore.

The Australian people would say, 'Surely we send you people to Canberra to get good value for us.' Surely, if the majority of this chamber has ordered the production of a document, the Australian people should be able to view that document. It's a pretty basic standard. The government have failed it. They've wasted $60 billion on housing, to build fewer houses. It's been a disaster, and I regret that very much.