My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Housing, Senator Ayres. Renting has never been less affordable in Australia, with rental stress at record highs. New data today tells us that 78 per cent of Australians back limits on rent increases. People are in real pain, but Labor has done nothing for the one-third of Australians who rent. Too many households are just one rent increase away from eviction into homelessness. Median rents are now an incredible $717 a week. Renters are crying out for help. Minister, how bad does it have to get before Labor takes the initiative to work with the states to cap rents?

Thank you to Senator Pocock for that question. I think it is absolutely the case that many Australians in rental accommodation are experiencing rental prices that are too high by historical standards. For young Australian's trying to find a place in the rental market, that is harder for them than it should be. That's also the case for first home buyers as well.

I think that's a reasonable proposition to put into a question, but it is not a reasonable proposition to say that this government has done nothing about those questions. We've taken national leadership on renters' rights. We've worked with the states and territories to harmonise and strengthen rights and protections through a better deal for renters, agreed at National Cabinet level. That includes having a nationally consistent policy on when it's unreasonable to evict a renter from their home, banning rent bidding, phasing in minimum quality standards for rental properties and moving towards a national standard of no more than one rent increase per year. Some key reforms, such as banning soliciting rent bidding and strengthening protections for tenants—where is Senator Babet?—experiencing family or domestic violence are now in places across all states and territories.

We have delivered those across the states. It is delivering real change across the real estate sector. It is making real progress. We've delivered greater levels of financial assistance through the first back-to-back increases in Commonwealth rent assistance in 30 years, lifting it by over 50 per cent since we came to government. Tax incentives are in place to encourage investment in build to rent. The list of effort from this government is bigger than any previous government in our history. We've got more work to do, and fundamentally what it is about is building more homes. (Time expired)

Senator Pocock, first supplementary?

Minister, rents keep rising while real wages under your government are going backwards. Record high rents are forcing people to choose between groceries and paying their rent. Ninety-four per cent of renters want some type of rent regulation. That's almost all renters in the country. Minister, why do you care more about landlords and property investors than you do about renters and their dire circumstances?

For a party that's professed so emphatically to want to make things easier for renters to buy a home of their own, the Greens political party has put up roadblocks at every turn in here. And in every community—hello, Woollahra—where Greens senators live, they have been out there campaigning against housing development. They are for more housing but against housing development here and in the suburbs where they have bottom-of-the-barrel campaigns to try and oppose housing being developed—real homes for real people.

There is, I think, more work to do in this area. We will continue to do that work. It is hard work. It is meaningful work. It's well beyond the slogans and the platitudes and the memes. It's real substantive policy work for renters.

Senator Pocock, second supplementary?

Minister, your Housing Australia Future Fund, the HAFF, has built a measly 1,432 homes. Half of them actually were purchased; they're not even new. Of the 40,000 you promised, it's a drop in the ocean. Polling today also shows that three-quarters of Australians want Labor to spend a lot more money on public housing. Minister, will you commit to expanding public housing to 10 per cent of housing stock like we had 30 years ago?

You talk about polling, Senator Pocock—really? I mean—

Minister Ayres, I ask you to direct your response through me, thanks.

I think that's an extraordinary proposition. We have increased rent assistance by more than 50 per cent. We are in the process of building 55,000 social and affordable homes, delayed only by Senator Pocock and her colleagues. The assertion that you put into that question you know to be incorrect. You know it to be a way of deceiving people about the way that scheme is unrolling. It's just as dishonest as what Senator Bragg says about it, and people should stop doing it, because it's incorrect and it's deceitful—

Senator Bragg! Order!

It's deceitful when you do it. It's deceitful when your colleagues do it. We have made meaningful reforms—

Your own treasurer is embarrassed about it.

Senator Bragg, I called you to order directly by name and you completely ignored me. That's incredibly disrespectful.

My apologies.

I would rather you didn't apologise and instead think first and not make the interjection. Senator Canavan?

My point of order goes to relevance. The question had nothing to do with the coalition or Senator Bragg. The minister has made assertions against a fellow senator that are bordering on—

Thank you, Senator Canavan. I am going to rule—

Order! There have been interjections across this parliament, which are—

Senator Wong! Which are particularly disorderly. There is no point of order. I would ask everyone, every senator, to stop interjecting, because Senator Pocock has the right to have her question answered. Please continue, Senator Ayres.

I will stop responding to Senator Bragg's interjections when he stops making them.

Senator Canavan, you were just on your feet talking about disorderly interjections, and then you go ahead and make one yourself. Please come to order.