Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I do not believe that I've spoken on this, and I would be absolutely delighted to speak on this reference. Again, I commend Senator Bragg for the work that he is doing as the shadow minister for housing. Senator Bragg, like everybody in the coalition, actually wants more houses to be built in Australia. Sadly, under this government, as I said, when you look at the Housing Australia fund, it has got billions and billions of taxpayer dollars, but it failed to build any houses in the whole year of 2025-26. How can a government get up every day and tell the Australian people that they have a plan for housing, that they have a plan to make their lives better, when the actual reality of the lived experience of Australian people is that, under this government, it just doesn't matter how hard they try. They can't get into the housing market.

But what's worse is that they have to live with the fact that this is a government that makes a huge announcement when it comes to the Housing Australia Future Fund—as I said, $10 billion of taxpayers' money was put into the Housing Australia Future Fund. They told the Australian people. They stood up proudly. They fronted the cameras. They issued the press releases. They said: 'Guess what? We're creating this fund, and this fund is going to build tens of thousands of homes.' When you look at the budget papers, the reality of what this government has done with this fund is that, in the financial year of 2025-26, it failed to build any houses. That is an absolute disgrace. As I said in a previous speech, what is worse now is what is next to that figure of zero. This is not me making it up and this is not Senator Bragg making it up but in the government's own Treasury portfolio budget statement—it is there in black and white, right next to the big zero for number of houses built—says the target is now at risk. Let's translate to plain English for people. What that actually means is this: the government have basically sold you a pup. They have completely misled you. They have taken $10 billion of your hard-earned money and they have put it into what is now a dysfunctional agency with little-to-no transparency. The government themselves have had to send in an observer to watch the board and what they do. But that doesn't change the fact, does it, that they made an announcement that this fund was going to build tens of thousands of homes, yet in 2025-26, in that financial year, an entire year, how many new homes did it build? As I said, it is there in black and white—zero.

But what is worse, as I said, to compound this last night, to add insult to injury, despite the Prime Minister looking the Australian people in the eye and promising 50 times prior to the election that he would not touch negative gearing or capital gains tax, last night he did both. He didn't bend the truth, he didn't stretch it, he snapped it in half and threw it in the bin. Fifty times he looked the Australian people in the eye. In fact, he snapped at journalists when they dared ask him the question: 'Prime Minister, if you are re-elected, will there be any changes to negative gearing or capital gains in Australia?' And he snapped at them—the audacity of a journalist asking the Prime Minister such a question—and said 'no'. We are not allowed to say that word in the Senate—it begins with an L, ends in E and has an I in the middle of it—but that is what the reality was, fairly and squarely 50 times over.

But to add insult to injury is what is said at page 158 of the government's own budget paper No. 1. You see, the government are trying to deny this because they don't want Australians to know what the actual reality of the broken promise is. This is the reality—I'm reading it out: '… the increase in supply over the next decade' is 'expected to be … around 35,000 dwellings fewer compared to no tax policy change'. Do you know what that actually means? It means there are going to be 35,000 fewer homes built in Australia as a direct result of what the Prime Minister is running around with his Treasurer today and saying is a great reform in Australia. In black and white, there it is: 35,000 fewer dwellings. How in God's name does a government bring in a policy that puts a stake in the heart of aspiration but, worse, actually has the impact on the ground of 35,000 fewer dwellings? As I said, it is there in black and white in their budget papers—not more homes, fewer homes. They broke their promise to deliver a policy that their own numbers say makes the crisis worse. You literally can't make it up.

And as we know, that was compounded last night. Again, there in black and white in the budget papers for all Australians to see. Over two terms, the Albanese Labor government will have presided over the arrival of an additional two million people to Australia—two million people. I want everybody in this chamber to actually think about that. How many times are you actually creating Canberra? If you're bringing in two million people, how many more Canberras has this government created over its time in office? But do you know what the problem is? It actually hasn't created Canberra, because Canberra has infrastructure. There is no infrastructure associated with these additional two million people.

This is not a migration intake. This is a transformation of our fantastic nation of Australia. It has been undertaken by Albanese Labor, despite Australians begging him to slow down the mass migration into this country and begging him for a plan to deal with mass migration coming into this country. And he laughs at them. He makes announcements—'I'm going to build more houses'—and then his own budget papers show that, actually, the government's tax policy and what it's just done is going to build 35,000 fewer.

He says, 'I've taken $10 billion of taxpayers money and I've put it into the Housing Australia Future Fund and it's going to build tens of thousands of homes.' Again, their budget papers show in black and white that, for 2025-26, the numbers of homes built by this agency was zero. Two million people came in without a plan, without the infrastructure to support them and, what is worse, without an honest conversation with the Australian people. Quite frankly, the Australian people deserve nothing less than credible answers to the two questions they're now asking. Two million people have come into this country over the two terms of the Albanese Labor government. The first question the Australian people ask is: where are you going to put them? There has been no answer to that question.

But what is worse is this. This is for those living in their cars. This morning, with your family, you woke up in your car in a car park, whether it was in a suburb of Western Australia, a suburb of Sydney, a suburb of Melbourne—anywhere in Australia. You used to live in a house, but your cost of living got so high under Mr Albanese that, sadly, those 15 interest rate rises meant you just couldn't afford your mortgage anymore. Your wages were going backwards. Inflation was killing the family budget every time you went into the shops. So you had to move your family out of your house and into your car.

The bad news is I don't have an answer as to where you're going to live, because under Mr Albanese the houses are not there. But I can tell you that, tomorrow night, in the budget in reply, there will be an answer. The numbers are too high and—we have said it plainly—they must come down. We must put housing Australians front and centre of any government policy. The numbers must come down. When you bring in two million people over two terms in government and you do not have the housing supply to house those immigrants, let alone the Australians who are waking up in their cars every day, you have to acknowledge that the numbers must come down.

But, sadly, this is a government that just doesn't care. So the reality for Australians, in black and white in the budget paper, is that if you've had a mortgage, you're about $32,000 worse off per year under this government. But what's worse is what Mr Albanese is saying to younger Australians. He's trying to tell them that this is a budget for them. Sadly, the reality is that it's actually just not. What this government did last night was intergenerational fraud. They have pitted young kids against their parents. They have said, 'Your parents were able to get a house, but we're going to make sure that you can't.' They have pulled the ladder up on every young Australian who is trying to get ahead. You can't buy a home, young Australians. You know that. Everybody knows that.

You're doing the responsible thing. You're saving money, you're putting money into shares, you're putting money into ETFs, you're putting money into crypto and you're putting money into a managed fund. You're trying to build something for yourself because the housing market under Mr Albanese has shut you out, and guess what? This government's policy last night—its broken promises on negative gearing and capital gains—has just whacked you for it, because the reality is that the capital gains changes don't just hit property. Don't believe the 'intergenerational' argument. This is intergenerational fraud. The capital gains changes don't just hit property. They hit everything—everything you own, every investment that you have made.

You're saving and you're putting money into shares, ETFs, crypto or a managed fund. As I said, you are trying to do the right thing to get ahead under this government. And what did the government do to you last night? They whacked you. They whacked you with their changes to capital gains. Go and do your research. Go and talk to an accountant, because the busiest people in Australia are shortly going to be the accountants, quite frankly, trying to work out what in God's name is going on because of the Albanese government's budget. But capital gains changes don't just hit property. They hit everything. Every single asset you own and every investment that you have made is now going to be whacked with the Albanese government's broken promises.

We'll go back to where we started, back to Housing Australia. The agency's a wreck. Zero homes have been built. Billions have been wasted. The boss was forced out over a secret report. A quarter of the staff are gone. There are workplace safety complaints. A government observer is on the board because the government don't actually trust their own agency. The government's housing target—well, guess what? The budget papers now say it's at risk. But, worse than that, the Prime Minister, who looked all of the Australian people in the eye prior to the election and said, over 50 times, that he wouldn't make any changes to capital gains or negative gearing, did that last night. This is a government that has spent billions, built nothing, broken every promise and, sadly for Australians, made the housing crisis worse.

Australians deserve a government that builds homes, not bureaucracy; that keeps its promises and doesn't break them; that rewards hard work and doesn't punish it; and that treats your money like it matters, because it does. That's the point of this motion.