Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, I congratulate you on your election to the office. I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

With Labor having a commanding majority in the House of Representatives, a very cosy relationship with the Australian Greens and plans to legislate for additional senators from the territories, Western Australians are on a 'GST watch'. Senator Wong, in question time today, said that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese came to Western Australia and said that WA's GST is safe under Labor. Well, Western Australians want Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to go to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart and Adelaide and tell the rest of Australia that he's sorry but WA's GST deal is safe. The key element of that GST deal, delivered by a coalition government in 2018, is the preservation of the 75c floor, which guarantees Western Australia no less than 75c in every dollar.

Western Australians are on a GST watch because, in last year's budget, the Infrastructure Investment Program delivered to Western Australia a drop in revenue. The GST watch that Western Australians are on is not just to watch over the preservation of the 75c floor; it's to watch over Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and make sure that he does not work to undermine Western Australia's federal revenues by stealth. Last year's budget showed that the Infrastructure Investment Program's contribution in Western Australian will fall from $1.4 billion to just $370 million by 2028. So, when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese comes to Perth, goes to Kings Park, with its majestic views over our city skyline, and says that he wants his federal WA Labor MPs to be bold and stand up for the WA GST deal, he is saying to Western Australians, 'Look over here, because I've got a plan for something different for federal revenues that come to Western Australia.'

Let us be reminded that federal Labor MPs were slow to join the very loud chorus of noise coming from Western Australian voters who were arguing for a better GST deal many, many years ago—so much so that it was the Labor deputy premier and now premier of Western Australia, Roger Cook, who had to call out federal Labor MPs in Western Australia, asking them—demanding—at the time to take the GST issue seriously. In 2017, the West Australian newspaper reported:

To date, WA Labor members in Canberra have done nothing about the GST other than grumble the system is a rip-off.

At the time, the Sunday Times reported that federal Labor representatives had let WA down on the WA GST issue.

This government, elected 11 weeks ago, has a commanding majority in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, it will govern with the support of the Australian Greens. It has a well-known, public plan to increase the representation of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. Increasing the representation of territories in the Senate diminishes the representation of every other state. Those three things together will give Prime Minister Anthony Albanese permission to change the GST arrangements and to continue the reduction in federal funding of Western Australian roads, health and education services.

Western Australian federal Labor MPs that have come to this place this week are on notice. Western Australians will hold them accountable to stand up and to be vocal in their defence of the GST arrangements that were put in place by previous coalition governments.

Jana Stewart (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy President, I also congratulate you on your election to the role. I always appreciate the opportunity to stand and talk about the economy and the changes that we've already delivered for every single Australian that mean that Australians today are keeping more of what they earn. We cut the taxes of every single Australian taxpayer. What did those on the other side do? The coalition opposed cutting the taxes of every single Australian. They opposed Labor's bigger tax cuts for 11½ million Australians, including for those people earning less than $45,000, who would have got absolutely nothing if Peter Dutton had got his way. It's an absolute shame on them.

I thought it might be useful to reflect on the contribution of coalition MPs when it comes to Labor's tax cuts for all Australians. Here is just a bit of a serving of the words that we heard about the tax cuts. Coalition MPs said that tax cuts for all Australians were 'an egregious error', 'a betrayal', 'treachery', 'trickery', 'absolutely shameful', 'class warfare', 'a war on aspiration', 'a war on hardworking Australians', 'a lifetime tax on aspiration', 'divisive', 'regressive', 'morally bankrupt', 'bad policy', 'a handful of dollars', 'small fry', 'a big tax grab', 'inflationary', and 'Marxist economics which will crush confidence, obliterate opportunity and undermine the strength of your economy'. I'm keen to hear from everyday Australians about the extra money they've now got in their pay packet and whether they associate those words with keeping more of what they earn. I don't think that they will.

We know that the coalition want to jack up income taxes for every single taxpayer—why else would they oppose our tax cuts? That is their plan for you. They want you to pay more tax. On our side, we are cutting taxes for every single Australian taxpayer. Our tax policies haven't changed on this side. Our focus when it comes to tax is delivering tax cuts for every taxpayer, improving tax compliance, ensuring multinationals pay a fairer share of tax, changes to high-balance super, changes to the PRRT, and incentives to support small business and encourage investment in areas like housing and clean energy. We are absolutely putting more money back in the pockets of everyday Australians like you. We know that people are feeling it. They are feeling it in the grocery aisle, at the petrol station and when their bills come in. And we know that it's real help that makes a difference.

I want to take a moment, with the brief time that I've got left, to talk about our new cost-of-living measures that were introduced on 1 July and what they actually mean for people. These changes aren't abstract. They're not numbers on a spreadsheet; they are real. They benefit all Australians. From 1 July, more than three million workers got a pay rise—finally above inflation. For so many families, that extra bit in their pay packet makes a real difference. It's about $1,670 a year for full-time workers on the minimum wage. That's groceries, uniforms and one less thing to worry about. It means parents working night shifts or young people starting out are seeing more in their bank accounts, and that is a good thing. They're not just getting by; they're starting to get ahead. These Australians are now getting more in their pay and are paying a bit less on their bills. It's funny what happens when you have a government that actually cares about what is happening for Australians. On top of that, as the icing on the cake, we've knocked $150 off your energy bills.

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Likewise, Mr Deputy President, I congratulate you on your election to your role. It's wonderful to see you back in the chair.

This is the first opportunity I've had to speak in the new parliament. I think Australians were watching very closely what happened during question time today, and, indeed, I was listening very carefully to what happened during question time today. When Australians switch on the television to watch question time, they want to know whether their government is standing up for what's important to them and standing up for our national interests, our values and our future. They want to know whether their government is making sure that it has good control of the economy and that it is doing everything it can to make their lives easier. They want to see leadership. Right now, at least based on the display that we saw in question time today, I don't think that Australians would have seen the leadership that they deserve.

We know that Labor has won the election. Now it is time for us to see whether they are going to keep their promises and whether they can actually deliver better outcomes for Australians. Frankly, based on what I heard here in question time today and based on the three years of Labor government prior to this, my hopes are not high. Labor can't handle the economy. Labor can't build more houses, despite the fact that that's what they promised Australians they would do. My fear is that this government will continue to let Australians down at every turn, because you certainly weren't getting a straight answer to the questions that the opposition asked of the government today—not a straight answer at all. There were no facts; it was all spin. Well, here are some of the facts—particularly in relation to questions about housing and questions about the economy.

The Labor government's Housing Australia Future Fund has been one of the greatest failures in public policy in recent history. The government promised to build 1.2 million new homes by 2030, and now we know, because of advice that has been produced by the treasury department, this promise will be broken. For the government to build 1.2 million new homes by 2030, the maths says they need to build 250,000 homes a year. So far, they are barely hitting 170,000 homes a year. That number is significantly down from the 190,000 new homes that were built on average every year under the previous coalition government. That's something that I know that many people on this side of the chamber, on the opposition benches, are incredibly proud of. But it is saddening and disappointing for Australians to see that a government that promised so much in this regard—like I said, they promised to build 1.2 million new homes by 2030—doesn't look like it is going to get there.

We talked a lot about homeownership during the election campaign and during the three years prior to that. We in the coalition want to see Australians achieving the dream of owning their own home. Indeed, we had plenty of election policies that addressed that very issue. But all we have from Labor is a promise for something that we now know they are not going to achieve. Australians deserve honesty; they don't deserve spin. As I said earlier, there was an awful lot of spinning going on from the government here in question time today.

Here are some more facts about the economy. Under Labor, the economy is stalling, and households have gone backwards. Households are in recession, business investment is falling and productivity has flatlined. The economy only grew by a lacklustre 0.2 per cent in the March quarter, while annual growth is stuck at 1.3 per cent, which is less than half the long-term average. These figures from the ABS have completely obliterated Labor's pre-election claim that the economy had turned a corner. Treasurer Jim Chalmers's response is that any growth is a good outcome. It is clear that this Labor government has a very low ambition for Australia's economy, and we will continue to ask questions about that ambition throughout this parliament. (Time expired)

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor makes no apologies for having an ambitious housing target. We need an ambitious target, given the scale of the problem we inherited when we came to government in 2022. I take note that those opposite, the coalition, in their decade of power, did not actually have a housing minister for at least six years of that decade. When we came to government, we found absolutely no movement in social and affordable housing and no plan to increase housing supply, so we had a situation where we had demand chasing an ever-shrinking pool of housing right across the country. Of course, that just drove up rents and house prices, putting the great Australian dream further and further out of reach out of young people.

We all understand the scale of the problem, but I find it incredibly disingenuous that those opposite would challenge us on our track record when they had the temerity in this chamber to delay key housing bills not just once, not just twice, but at least three times. The Housing Australia Future Fund was an election promise in 2022. I know it well because I spoke to thousands of people in Higgins, along with Senator Stewart, who accompanied me on doors and on the phones, describing to those constituents what we were offering. I described in detail the Housing Australia Future Fund, and they liked it. They responded to it because they felt that we needed a legacy reform that would outlive, frankly, any government, good or bad. The Housing Australia Future Fund, a $10 billion investment in 55,000 homes, was just that vehicle.

You'd think that winning a seat like Higgins would send a message to the coalition—the first Labor member in this blue of blue-ribbon seats, a seat of leaders, a seat of four previous Liberal prime ministers. You'd think that that would send a message, but, of course, it didn't. It fell on deaf ears because in this chamber those opposite delayed the Housing Australia Future Fund for at least 12 months. When it was finally passed in September 2023, we scrambled to get agreements out the door. Currently we have 28,000 homes that are in planning stages or under construction as a result of passing that legislation. Full credit goes to the Minister for Housing in the other place, who has done her level best to get these deals done and signed and out the door. We as a government have invested $43 billion in homes for Australia. That is the most any Commonwealth government has invested in living memory.

It's not just the Housing Australia Future Fund; there is also the Home Guarantee Scheme. This was a coalition legacy, and, because it was a good policy, we retained it and we improved on it. It allows entrants a five per cent deposit and eliminates lenders mortgage insurance. What we found was that it was taken up, so we expanded the remit of it. We allowed not just first home owners but their relatives—for example, parents, guardians, friends, de factos and so on—to help the first home buyer into the housing market, expanding its eligibility. What we found was that, in a relatively short period of time, over 100,000 Australians entered the housing market through the Home Guarantee Scheme.

As a result, we went to the May election expanding that even further. We increased the income caps and the price caps on the homes people could buy. Essentially, we said to first home buyers, 'You can enter the housing market with as little as a five per cent deposit,' and, 'We are ring fencing 100,000 homes at a cost of $10 billion just for you—for first home buyers and not for anyone else.' And Australians responded to that policy.

But that was not all; we also have the build-to-rent reforms. These were delayed by several months in this chamber—unconscionable, in a housing crisis. Build-to-rent is another housing model. It will increase housing supply by around 80,000. Of those homes, 10 per cent—8,000—will be social and affordable homes. And build-to-rent is different; it has security of tenure. Five-year leases— (Time expired)

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Deputy President, I add my congratulations for your election to an important role in supporting the chamber. It hasn't taken Labor all that long to slip back into their old habits. We see the same thing again and again and again. Rather than take responsibility for their policy failures and the things they claimed they were going to do, they simply try to fob them off, blame somebody else, deflect or talk about something else.

Even when taking note of answers, we've had the government talking about things that are completely separate from the questions that were put to them by coalition senators. I will give Senator Ananda-Rajah credit for actually addressing the housing issue, but what she and the government have failed to do is acknowledge what Treasury did when it belled the cat—that they are not going to build the 1.2 million homes that they've promised. They can talk all they like about their aspiration, but there are some practical realities out there in the market that they are not going to meet. In fact, they're going to build fewer houses than were built in the five years prior to 2025. They will build fewer houses than the coalition built in its last five years in government. So they can talk all they like about what we did or didn't do, but one thing we did do was manage to get new houses built.

It's not just me saying this. Last Saturday night, the leader of the Labor Party in Tasmania said during his post-election speech that new builds are at some of the lowest levels they have been at for many years. This is the Labor leader in Tasmania, in his speech on election night, saying that new builds are at their lowest levels for many years. This verifies what Treasury has said and what we've been saying—that this government will build fewer houses in the five years to 2030 than we did in our last five years. They spent two or three years faffing around with the policy.

You cannot believe what this government says. We've seen it before. We remember the $275 reduction in energy bills that was promised by the Labor Party. It was never delivered and never will be. We just see increases in prices. They promised a lower cost of living; well, the cost-of-living crisis is still with us. They live in this fantasy world where everything will be fine if they get up and trot out their talking points. That's not what the Australian people want. The Australian people want the government to deliver on its promises.

They need to have sensible promises, they need to have policy that will deliver on those promises and they need to not do what they did in the last parliament, which was to put in place a whole range of reforms which are working against the economy and working against the promises that they've made. I talk to people in the construction industry, the industry that I spent 25 years in before coming to this place, and they lament what this government has done to them—inhibiting their capacity to build houses. Building houses is what the government wants!

It is about time this government actually started telling the Australian people the truth. It's about time this government started keeping its promises to the Australian people. The Australian people cannot believe a thing that this government tells them. Those opposite make all these promises. They come in here with their spin, their deflection and their blaming of somebody else, but this government was re-elected on the basis of a whole range of promises as to the things that they were going to do. They didn't deliver on their key promises in the last parliament, and what we will continue to do is to make sure that they keep the promises they made in the lead-up to this parliament, because that's the least they could do for the Australian people.

Question agreed to.