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

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Wong. On Monday—

Hon. Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Senator Smith is on his feet.

Senator Watt! Questions need to be asked in silence.

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

On Monday, the Labor premier of New South Wales, Chris Minns, lashed your government's housing record, saying that the billions of dollars promised for hitting new home targets offered 'zero motivation for the states to reach their housing goals'. Minister, why are even your own Labor state colleagues now criticising your housing policies?

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

Thank you for the question. I hope all of the states would understand, as the federal government does, the importance of all levels of government responding to the need to increase housing supply. That's certainly the way we have approached it, and we will continue to work with state governments and, of course, continue to deliver the programs we are delivering. The facts are that we know Australia has had a housing affordability challenge growing for some time. We know that this has resulted in many—particularly young but not only young—Australians struggling, particularly renters and first home buyers. Unlike those opposite, who teamed up with the Greens to prevent more investment in Australia's housing supply, we recognise that the Commonwealth does have a role in increasing supply. Increasing supply is the primary way in which you can deal with affordability. There are, obviously, other measures that the government is seeking to put in place, including the Help to Buy scheme. I might be wrong, but are they seeking to disallow that as well? Is that right? Is that what Senator Bragg is doing?

In addition, there is the five per cent home deposit scheme. These are all measures that the government is putting in place because we recognise—unlike the government that was in place and of which you were a part, Senator, over nine years—that we have to work together to do something about housing supply. I remind you, Senator, that the government has a $43 billion housing Australia plan. We are investing more than eight times what the coalition did in a decade. We know that home building is improving, and we will keep working at this over the months and years ahead to deliver more houses for more Australians.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Smith, first supplementary?

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

The Prime Minister promised to build 1.2 million homes by 2029. So far, every state and territory is on track to miss their housing targets. Minister, is your government still committed to this promise?

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

I think the Prime Minister and the minister have both made clear that this is an ambitious goal. We know it is an ambitious goal. We accept that that level of ambition is necessary because of the mess that we inherited. For nine years, we had so little activity in this sector because those opposite—

Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You made the promise. We didn't make the promise.

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

I'll take the interjection from the Acting Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. 'We didn't make the promise,' that's true. You never made that promise because you never saw housing as a priority, so you didn't even bother making a promise or setting an ambitious target. You did not regard housing as a priority. Well, we do, and we are up for the challenge of investing money, investing funds, investing resources and working with the states and territories to deliver more houses for more Australians.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Smith, second supplementary?

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

Minister, the government is failing to build houses. In the last financial year, you fell over 60,000 homes short of your target. Unbelievably, new home completions fell by over 3½ thousand compared to the year prior. Will your government admit your housing accord promise is now destined to be broken?

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

Senator Smith, I think I have said in here before that we have around 5,000 homes completed under Commonwealth programs and another 25,000 in planning and construction across the HAFF and other programs. There's another number which is pretty useful, and that's 373. That is the total number of social and affordable homes built in almost a decade under you. Yes, we do take the responsibility of having a higher target than 373 in a decade. We do that because we on this side understand the importance of housing to people's lives, security and future. We will keep doing what we are doing because we want to deliver more homes for more Australians.