Maria Kovacic (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I'm going to repeat something that Senator Whiteaker said, 'Young Australians fear they will never be able to own their own home.' I didn't just memorise those words now; they're my words. I've been saying them over and over again in this chamber for two years, and I'm very happy to see the government have now adopted my lines, but we would like them to actually do something about this housing crisis.

Where are the houses? I'm going to say it again: where are the houses? Thank you very much for the five per cent deposit guarantee. Where are the houses that these young Australians are going to buy? Not only do they have to battle out there in this cost-of-living crisis with skyrocketing rents, skyrocketing groceries, skyrocketing electricity prices and everything else going through the roof. They now have to compete with the federal government, who are also buying those houses, because it's been very, very clear that they're not building them. No-one actually really knows.

At the recent Senate estimates, Housing Australia confirmed the HAFF had completed just 567 homes. This flagship $10 billion fund of taxpayers' money—not government money—has so far completed 567 homes. We don't know if that's renovated or whether that's modified. We're not quite sure because last year in Senate estimates, finance minister Katy Gallagher revealed that the HAFF had built no homes—zero homes, zip, zero, none whatsoever—and that they had acquired 340. That's 340 homes that Australian first home buyers couldn't buy because the Australian government bought them instead. This is shameful. I sat on a Senate inquiry on the rental and housing crisis. It is abundantly clear from that, and from everything that we have seen since, that supply is a problem, and that this government has been an impediment to that supply.

All we ever hear from the government is why the opposition, the Greens or the crossbench are a problem for them. I have a news flash: you are the government. It's not your first day. You're in your fourth year and you are still blaming those opposite for your inability to do your job. It is unbelievable. And you say that we are the ones that are constantly undermining what you are trying to do. I tell you that it's not just us. Things are so bad with the HAFF that the Auditor-General has confirmed that a performance audit into its design and delivery has commenced. Is that our fault too? Did we have something to do with that? Are we responsible for that as well, or will the Albanese Labor government put their hand up and actually take ownership of that problem?

I can't not mention the other issue here in our construction industry that is hampering the supply of housing in our country, which is the endemic problem of the corrupt and criminal conduct of the CFMEU. I want to be clear. I'm not talking about rank-and-file members who work hard and expect their leadership to deliver on the dues that they pay them. I'm talking about the people at the top of this organisation who are protected by the Albanese Labor government. We are seeking a Senate inquiry into the CFMEU and the impacts of the administration on stopping that corruption and criminal conduct, which has an impact on housing supply in this country, and yet they refuse. They're pretending that there's nothing to see here. If there is nothing to see here, then why won't you allow the Senate inquiry? It's because there is plenty to see here.

We know that there is a 30 per cent CFMEU tax on the construction of apartments in our country. That's 30 per cent more that young Australians will have to pay to purchase that new apartment, on top of the additional cost of the demand driven by this five per cent guarantee scheme, because this government is protecting the CFMEU. That is absolutely egregious. And they're blaming Senator Bragg for that. Well, he will keep bringing this up, and we will keep standing up to support him until we hold this government to proper account for the fact that they've been unable to build the houses that we— (Time expired)