Marielle Smith (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on this motion. I am pleased to have another opportunity to contribute to the debate that we have had over many years in this chamber on housing. Over many years our government has brought in attempt after attempt to try to increase supply and make a meaningful difference to the housing situation in this country. Over years and years, we have had the opposition, working in partnership with the Greens political party, block those attempts. But no-one can say we haven't been trying to come in here with a full agenda to make a meaningful difference on housing in this country.

We do that because, in our communities, we are seeing and feeling the experience of this housing crisis every single day. I know for members of my community in Adelaide that the increase in the cost of houses and the lack of supply in housing has had a material impact on the quality of life that they've been able to provide for themselves and their families. For young Australians, in particular, this is a question of intergenerational inequity. It's a question of being able to see what their parents and grandparents were able to achieve and looking at the kind of lifestyle and opportunity they can provide their own children and not being able to deliver that. That hurts. It's extremely painful for a family and a parent to not be able to provide that same level of opportunity or, indeed, a greater standard of opportunity and a greater standard of living than their parents or grandparents were able to provide. These are real emotions driven by a real problem, and it's a real problem that we are trying to fix.

This budget tonight, I know, will be focused on housing, focused on supply and, as we have been over the entire course of our government, focused on what we can do to make a meaningful difference on housing. For my generation and for Senator Walker's generation, this is the issue which is defining us. It is defining my peers. It is defining opportunity. It is defining family life. We need to do something about it.

But our government has been the only party in this chamber over the years that has consistently brought in a plan to do something about it and has consistently focused on supply. The opposition let this sit idle for almost a decade. They didn't even have a housing minister for most of their time in government. And One Nation bring motions like this, but they actually didn't turn up to this chamber when there were plans, policies and legislation on the table which would have had a meaningful impact on housing supply in this country. They either voted against it or did not show up. It's not okay for them to come into this chamber and seek to rewrite history on legislation for housing and on the government's plan for housing and what we have actually considered and had before us in this chamber over the years which would have made a difference and which would have made a difference sooner. It's what we see from One Nation, time and time again. They seek to sketch out a picture of our country which ignores the facts. They seek to sketch out a picture of our country which ignores the history and the contribution of migrants. They seek to sketch out a picture of our country which ignores the facts, like the kind of nonsense we have in here around foreign ownership and the competition for housing which just isn't resembled in the facts we have. They try to sketch out a version of our country, they try to sketch out a version of policy which belongs in the non-fiction section, and then they try to sketch in ideas and falsehoods which are just not true. The thing about this place is it keeps its receipts, because how you vote in this place is reflected on the record.

I urge those people who are supporting One Nation at the moment to go and look at their voting record. Go look at when they turned up in this chamber when we were debating serious legislation that had serious money on the table and when we had serious plans to fix the challenges we have in housing. Check if they were there and check how they voted.

One Nation sketch in falsehoods. They sketch out the real truth and history of our country, and they sketch out the real contribution so many people, especially migrants, are making in our country. They sketch out the facts on housing. They sketch out their participation in what has happened in housing over the last years, and their lack of engagement on the serious policy, their lack of engagement in the serious legislation. They sketch themselves in as people who have a solution yet offer no detail, no meaningful reform, and actually aren't at the table as serious players when it comes to public policy in this place.

Our budget will address intergenerational inequity, something I have been talking about since I was elected to this parliament. It is something many of us in this chamber care very, very deeply about. I have seen it experienced in my generation as my peers are having family and are unable to provide that backyard, that certainty of housing. Senator Walker's generation is experiencing it on a whole new level, feeling completely locked out. Our government is working to change it, and we are working to change it through legislation, policy and the budget tonight.