Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I believe Minister Ayres yesterday spoke to the Senate about the performance of housing construction over the last few years, and I think he made the point that almost 660,000 homes have been built nationwide since Labor was elected. more than 6,000 homes are being completed with Commonwealth investment, and over 23,000 are in planning and construction phases. He also said—and this was the figure I was asking my staff to find, and I thank them for their assistance—that new home starts are up 26 per cent compared to a year ago.