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

I thank the Greens for putting forward this matter of urgency. It is a matter of urgency that the parliament consider the state of the nation's housing woes. The government brags that it's spending $43 billion on housing. It's actually more like $60 billion over the period of this government. It's $60 billion for what? I can tell you, it's for fewer houses than were built during the last government. I wonder whether the government at times just imagines that the Australian people are all idiots. I wonder whether that's the thought that enters their brain. I don't think people are impressed with the bragging about how much money's being spent, because a lot of it is being wasted. I think what people are looking for is government programs which actually build houses. I think that's what they want. I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation—that taxpayers' funds, if they're going to be used to support the development of housing, would actually result in more houses being built.

The scoreboard shows that we're down to about 170,000 houses a year on average, which is down from 200,000 on average under the last Liberal government. The so-called signature policy of the government, their Housing Australia Future Fund, has been going for two years. It's got $10 billion. It's built no houses. It's been buying houses. Mr Albanese and the good doctor—whatever he calls himself—turn up at auctions and holding up a paddle-pop stick and say: 'Can I buy this house? I've got to put it into my future fund. I need to buy some houses because I couldn't build any.' This is where we're at now in Australia. You've got a monolithic housing fund going around and buying houses because they couldn't build any. Meanwhile this organisation is mired in governance problems. It's got massive turnover. It's got a board which is collapsing. It's going so well down there that the government's appointed an observer to the board. They send someone down from the bowels of the Treasury, they dust off their overcoat or their cardigan, they turn up at the Housing Australia board meeting, and they don't have Christopher Pyne's cup on the wall to listen into what the monkey pod's saying. They didn't get that one. I wish they had Christopher Pyne's cup and the monkey pod. It could be good. But they don't have that. Instead they've got direct access. They're in the board room.

We found out at Senate estimates—and Senator Darmanin and I were able to hear this testimony—that the observer at the board is actually not an observer. They're actually a participant. They engage like a director. This brings the whole integrity of the fund into question. Is this board of Labor Party appointees and political hacks making judgements about housing investments based on what the best outcome for the people is, or are they bringing in their political considerations? I used to be an internal auditor, for my sins, and if I were doing an audit report—