Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of government answers to questions. I have sat here not for five weeks, Senator Collins, but for three weeks. There have only been three sitting weeks in this term of government of the 48th Parliament. I'm not sure where we got five weeks from; it might feel like five for some people, but we've only been here three.

All week I sat across the chamber and watched Senator Bragg ask some of these questions. His hyperfixation on wording was so evident this afternoon towards the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister Wong, in relation to housing. I admire his persistence, if you'd like to call it that, in him wanting to get a particular answer. In fact, I think the word 'laserlike' fits the way he approaches his questioning during question time.

To see the reality of it, let's share some statistics. Labor is delivering 55,000 social and affordable rental homes, and 28,000 of those are in construction and planning stages. Over 4,000 have already been completed. As at 30 June 2025, contracts have been signed to support 18,650 dwellings under the first rounds of the $10 billion HAFF. This build is quite significant in investments across the $2 billion Social Housing Accelerator payment, and the $1 billion National Housing Infrastructure Facility, and a range of other programs, by which together we will boost the supply. Supply is the key word here. It is the word of the day, so take note: that's the supply of social and affordable housing in Australia.

I note the interjection of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Cash, and the rabble in what's going on across the coalition here. Don't forget there's a tinge of teal in that, because we also saw in the 47th Parliament the Greens gang up with the 'no-alition' around blocking the housing bill. So there's no shame from that end of the chamber either.

This housing mess has been 40 years in the making. It's nearly as old as I am. Last Friday, I took the opportunity to go down Pier Street, and I invite Senator Cash to go down there and have a look. I was on the 11th storey of a wonderful apartment building that is being built under this very fund that the federal government, the Albanese Labor government, is delivering alongside the WA state government. I was joined by my wonderful colleague and friend the member for Perth, Patrick Gorman, and also our WA state housing minister, John Carey, to talk about what we're going to do. That building alone will be 29 stories of apartments in central Perth, close to services and close to transport for Western Australians. We are delivering on our housing commitments.

But it's not just that apartment building in the electorate of Perth. There are 14 others that we are delivering just in Western Australia, Deputy President—and I know that, just like me, you're a proud Western Australian and that you know the housing crisis is a life-defining challenge for lots of Australians, millions of Australians, in fact.

We hear. We are listening to the challenges that young people are having. Young people tell me, when I speak to them, that they feel they will never be able to afford a home. Our investment is the most ambitious and the boldest of an Australian government ever. Because, before, we've always left this to the states and territories to basically do the work, and now we are doing that in the postwar period. We are making sure that's the investment that the Albanese Labor government are going to deliver on in this term.

Our $43 billion that Senator Collins mentioned—our agenda is part of three things, which are building more homes, making it better to rent and making it easier to buy. That's why just this week we implemented our Help to Buy scheme—our first national shared equity scheme—to deliver on the five per cent deposit guarantee for every first home buyer. I know that, if that were the conversation happening in this chamber during question time, the faces of the young people in this chamber would've lit up—instead of that stuff. (Time expired)

Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During question time, I asked the government to explain why electricity prices have gone up by, now, 40 per cent under their watch, despite coming to power promising to lower them. It was pretty clear there was no answer from the government to explain this dichotomy that somehow the government could promise for years that, by investing in solar and wind power, they'd reduce power prices. Before the 2022 election, infamously, the Prime Minister said almost 100 times that he would lower the power bills of Australians by $275. That has not come to fruition.

Everybody that gets a power bill understands that, over the past three-and-a-bit years, they've continued to go up and up. This week we've had additional data confirming that. Yesterday the Australian Bureau of Statistics released their consumer price index data, which is effectively the measure of inflation on a monthly basis, and that showed that, despite the government's repeated claims in recent years—less repeated these days—electricity prices went up another 13 per cent over the past year. In just three years of this government, the increase is now at 39 per cent, rounding up to 40 per cent. It's quite an achievement to have power prices go up by 40 per cent in just three years. It's a sad indictment. It's a terrible tragedy for many families that are doing it tough and for businesses that cannot afford these crushing, skyrocketing increases in energy prices.

It's still quite an achievement to have such a surge in power prices over just a three-year period—fast outpacing inflation and fast outpacing any explanation or excuse the government previously had about the Ukraine war. For the first couple of years when power prices were going up, the government would come in here and constantly tell us: 'It's not our fault that your power bills have gone up. It's Vladimir Putin's fault. It's because he has invaded Ukraine, and gas and coal prices have gone up. That's why your power bills are high.' Well, gas and coal prices are back down to levels they were at well before the Ukraine war, yet your power bills have stayed high. What is the explanation for that? And that's the direct question I asked.

They say and promise that renewable energy is the cheapest form of power—I constantly hear that. It's a constant refrain, almost a mantra, from the government to say that renewable energy is the cheapest form of power. We just heard in this debate that the government has installed massive amounts of renewable energy. I think I heard 18 gigawatts—anyway, a lot of renewable energy, a lot of solar and wind, has been installed by this government. So, if solar and wind power are cheaper than the coal and gas they're replacing, wouldn't that lower power prices? You'd think so. I mean, I don't know. I am an economist, but I don't think you need to be an economist to understand that. If they're saying this thing is cheaper than that thing, and they're going to do more of this thing, that should lower prices. Why haven't they come down? I think the Australian people deserve an explanation for why their government promised them this massive bounty from their election. The government haven't delivered on those promises.

The Australian people deserve an explanation for why things have gone so wrong. This is not just an academic exercise. This is a big contributor to why Australian families have been suffering. They've suffered the biggest drop in their standard of living in the developed world. A big reason for that is the surging power bills, which don't just affect what you get every quarter from your power company; they also affect pretty much the cost of everything—in the supermarket, at the petrol pump. Pretty much everything is affected by the cost of energy. Australian businesses use four times the amount of power that households use. It is now affecting our manufacturing sector. There are 17,000 jobs in North Queensland at risk if our copper industry falls over, which is on the brink. Our aluminium industry is asking for significant assistance. Our steel industry has already got a multibillion-dollar bailout, as have the lead and zinc industries as well. We can't keep going on like this. We need a solution. Today I asked the government, 'What is your plan now to lower power prices?' and there was nothing. There was no plan. The government has waved the white flag on lower energy prices for the Australian people. I don't think we should do that. We've got the world's best energy resources in the world. We should use them. We should not give up.

Question agreed to.